I was reading this morning in Isaiah chapter 58 where the prophet talks about fasting, the actions and attitudes of His people and His promises for them, and a couple of verses jumped out at me. In particular, Isaiah 58:10-11, “10 …and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Praise God! He is ever faithful and continues to allow us to provide ‘in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed’. I can only hope that for the residents here at the shelter we can be that ‘light (that) will rise in the darkness’ for them as we help them find THE better way. We trust that ‘the LORD will guide (us) always’, and continue to ‘satisfy our needs in a sun-scorched land’. Praise Him as He renews us every day.
Thanksgiving has come and gone and it feels as though Christmas is nearly upon us. Things here at the shelter have been calm lately. We have remained fairly consistent averaging about three people in residence at any given time these last few months. It’s interesting, usually as one person is checking out another person is checking in. While we continue to get 10 calls or so per month we also continue to receive donations of time, funds, and materials to supply that demand. We have also been blessed with extra help these last two months as we have an intern, Valerie, working with us. Both she and Kathy, our other volunteer receptionist, have been a tremendous help to both the shelter and the food pantry. They help us keep up with the paperwork, phone calls and donations that would otherwise be overwhelming. They both are doing a great job and giving a lot of themselves to be here every day. I wonder how we survived without them. Kathy has been here a year now and her dedication is unwavering, she is here usually 30-40 hours a week. Valerie’s internship is almost over and she has recently applied for and been granted a position as a Tribal Americorps worker. We will be her host site and she will work approximately 40 hours per week, both here and in the local community, helping interact with local youth in a drug and alcohol prevention capacity until August 2012.
Please join with us in praise and prayer about this upcoming years grant applications and continued fundraising efforts. We’ve recently received a very generous gift from the Forest County Potawatomi tribal Executive council that will help carry us into the future and allow us to be able to continue to do the work here. We also applied for two other grants this fall and have another one coming up in late December that we will be applying for. We also sent out letters to area business asking for their support and are continuing to receive a wonderful response. It’s overwhelming sometimes to see how the Lord works in His people.
THANK YOU to all who have donated or volunteered this past year, no donation is too large or too small. Many of our supporters are helping us do His work five and ten dollars, one to two hours at a time. If there is a specific area that you feel led to make a donation towards, whether that’s cleaning supplies, transportation costs, or food, let me know and we’ll make sure it gets used for that purpose. Please join us in prayer and praise about the work He is doing here!
I’m terrible at keeping our website “www.newhopeshelter.net” up to date but feel free to come check us out anyway. You can also find us on Facebook.
Please feel free to contact me anytime: via email at director@newhopeshelter.net , via phone (715) 478-3669
Thanks again for your support and prayers!
In His service, Micah Dewing Shelter Director