Pretty Please!

Just when the world seems so hard and so messed up, we have a bright spot in our lives. I’d like to share a bright spot in our day here at Hope House.

 We are still only handing out hygiene, food and diapers through our front door, and will be until at least the end of July. With a mostly elderly staff, we need to wait out the current spikes, and are unable to allow clients in to shop for clothing, which has been difficult for some of them, particularly the homeless.

So this morning, when I checked our mailbox and found a handwritten note among the other items, I was pleased (I’m always glad to hear from our clients—good or bad). This particular note was from a homeless woman who is very well known to us. She was asking for a shirt she could see through the window that she was sure would match her new “Frozen” backpack. She asked “pretty please” could we save it for her. I love it! I immediately went over to the rack to find what she was talking about (a silvery blue shirt) and couldn’t see one, so I went outside to look in and see if I could identify it. Sure enough, a silvery blue shirt was peeking out among the others, so I went inside and saved it in my office for our client.

We were so happy when she showed up this morning at our door, and she was ecstatic to see that I had her shirt for her—I SO wish you could have seen the joy this brought her. She even said to me that it just made her day.

This is why Hope House is so important to our community and why I LOVE MY JOB!!!!!!!

Sometimes it feels like the world has gone crazy. I have even begun to wonder if we are in the “end times” (not really—I have more faith in humanity than that). However, between the pandemic and the awful vision of George Floyd dying our hearts are so hurting. We are in need of His grace and mercy more than ever.

It’s been heartbreaking for us to not be able to serve our clients—I ache for those who are stuck in small spaces with many people. I ache even more for those who are stuck someplace alone. Suicides are on the rise---Covid is killing in more than one way. Hunger is a very real issue, although our food bank is so on this—thank you God for those volunteers and donors!

We have been distributing hygiene, cleaning and baby items through our doors, as well as emergency food. This is OUR “phase 1”---we hope to move to our phase 2 as soon as we get all of our Plexiglas barriers in place. At that time, we will be allowing clients to come in and shop for clothing, although at a rate of only 4 people in at a time. More details will be posted when we are ready for this phase.

In the meantime, please know that we (I have an amazing cadre of volunteers, who are all prayer warriors!) are praying for all of you, for our city/county, for our state and nation and for the world.

God be with all of you!