Food, diapers, pillows....and God.

This is a magical time of year at Hope House. Smiling faces, Christmas decorations, carols playing, lots and lots of wonderful donations coming in…….busy, crazy hectic, but warm and wonderful all at once! A few things:

As I sit here in my office, I hear one client say to another “what are truffles?” Yes, this is amusing, downright funny, to hear in this shabby old house full of used clothing and housewares. But the truth is that we had our wonderful Human Food Chain yesterday and we are flush with all kinds of food—including, apparently, chocolate truffles on our food shelf! The staff, parents and students of Assumption School gather canned food each year during November and on the Monday morning before Thanksgiving, form a human chain from the church to the shed where we store food behind Hope House. It is an awesome sight and leaves a lump in my throat every year—bright shining faces, often braving the rain and wind, spend an hour passing food hand to hand for those in need. We give Thanks for them!

Godshots—we have had them from the first day of being open 16 years ago, but lately we seem to be having them very frequently. A Godshot is a direct, divine intervention and/or answer to a need or prayer we have. Two weeks ago, we needed size 5 diapers for a client who was desperately in need and we were out. Just as I said we don’t have any, a donor came in the back door with a case of them. Godshot. Last week before we opened one morning, a volunteer and I were discussing how seldom we receive pillows for a donation when we get requests for them all the time. Literally, we very rarely receive pillows to distribute. This volunteer went to morning mass and came back after with two brand new pillows, still in their plastic, that had been left in our box at the church! Godshot. This happens so often that I could fill a book (maybe I will)—so often that one day years ago, I was standing in front of the small bookcase we have children’s books in, musing that we were low on books. The volunteer standing next to me silently slid sideways away from me. When I asked what she was doing, she said “any day now He will just start throwing them down to you!” The power of Godshots.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are busy; we are collecting gifts for our clients and distributing food, decorations and clothing at a crazy pace. Because of the need for space to store all the gifts being collected until our distribution date, we will be limiting donations after Thanksgiving to new items of clothing (socks and gloves are high priority!), new toys and gift items for all ages, food and Christmas decorations. We will continue collecting used clothing and housewares after the first of the year. Thank you for your understanding!

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation”—may we be His hands on earth and the visible face of Him who loves us all!