Mark lived on the streets of Hollywood, well known by social service providers as one of the toughest homeless cases in the city. He was often found standing on a street corner, looking disheveled, staring into space. His looks scared most people away.
To be relevant in the 21st century, the church must read Scripture differently — to determine who is left out of the biblical texts and reach out to those people, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II told Seattle Presbytery on Jan. 16 in a thunderous sermon that electrified a full house at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church.
Samantha Williams’ passion for her organic pancake-mix business is not driven solely by entrepreneurial ambition. It is also fueled by her sense of Christian vocation, which began to form more than a decade ago while she served as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV).
A short walk to dinner in the nation’s capital became a life-changing experience for 8-year-old Meghan DeLuca. The New Jersey native was walking with her family in Washington, D.C., and came across several homeless people, including a few who were sleeping in boxes. Instead of ignoring them or closing her eyes to their anguish, young Meghan made a compassionate choice to do something about it. A few years later, with the help of her congregation at First Presbyterian Church of Belmar, she’s raised nearly $8,000 to help homeless individuals and families get back on their feet.
For the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, seeing large numbers of homeless people in one city was eye-opening.
The genesis of the Hands and Feet initiative came from Nelson, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), after his experience at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) in Portland. He had never seen so many homeless people in one place.
A short walk to dinner in the nation’s capital became a life-changing experience for eight-year-old Meghan Deluca. The New Jersey native was walking with her family in Washington, D.C. and came across several homeless people, including a few who were sleeping in boxes. Instead of ignoring them or closing her eyes to their anguish, young Meghan made a compassionate choice to do something about it.
Like thousands of Presbyterian congregations across the country, the church I serve in Albuquerque, La Mesa Presbyterian Church, knows the reality of food insecurity in the community surrounding the church and among our members. Recent studies indicate that 70,000 New Mexicans seek food every week and some 27 percent of children in the state suffer as a result of food insecurity. Our neighborhood is a lower-income area, so every child at the adjacent elementary school qualifies for a free breakfast and lunch daily, from the federally funded National School Lunch Program.
Michael Pate, who is homeless, recently experienced what he couldn’t imagine.
“I never thought anyone could fall in love with me,” he said. “But I feel full of something right now. That’s the closest I can come to labeling it.”
If robins are commonly recognized as harbingers of spring, then “Pastor Robyn” is widely acknowledged in Fort Worth, Texas, as a harbinger of spring’s — and Easter’s — promise of new life.
