"I'm always a little nervous the Sunday I talk to the parish about the Christmas Program. It's a lot to ask."
Every year, in early October, Hope House Director Cheri Woolsey tries to figure out how many families Hope House can sponsor.
"It's always a step in faith. We have to sign up families before we ask to the parishioners to sponsor them, so it's kind of like committing people to something without asking them."
In 2008, Hope House sponsored over 50 families through the Christmas Program, but in 2009, with the economy stumbling along and the headlines saying 'unemployment rising', Christmas looked grim.
"I knew it was going to be a hard year, it would be a challenge to get 50 families sponsored, but as I was praying about it, I just kept hearing a little voice asking, 'How big is your faith?'"
How big is Hope House faith? 60 families? Nope. 75 families? It's bigger than that. 90 families? Bigger still. In 2009, Hope House accepted 116 families through the Christmas Program.
So when Cheri got up to speak to the parish, she knew she was asking for a lot. She was asking parishioners to provide two gifts and a stocking per child and one gift for each parent as a minimum. You can understand that she was nervous.
Of course there was nothing to worry about. Assumption Parish sponsored almost all 116 families whole, which means individual families or groups in the parish took on the responsibility of giving Christmas to whole families in need. In addition, from tags put up on the Angel Tree in the gathering space during Advent, parishioners provided over 75 homeless with presents for Christmas.
However big Hope House faith is, it's clear that the faith of this community is even bigger. God is moving in the hearts of our community.
On behalf of the many families, the many little girls and boys, the many cold people for whom Christmas was going to look like just another rainy day, Hope House would like to thank all the generous donors who showed love to one another this Christmas. ♥
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