Blessed by a Blessing!

Last Sunday, nine of us from Hope went to Embrace Richmond/Caritas to participate in their monthly House Blessing Sunday.  And it was truly that!  We, along with volunteers from 3 other churches,  were able to help 2 young single mothers furnish apartments they had just moved into from shelters.  We also spent a few hours handing out clothes at the clothes closet in Hillside Ct. and repairing cots used by Caritas at local churches for overnight shelters.  That was the work side of the afternoon.

The blessings began as we all drove a few blocks over to Hillside Ct. and Tee-Tee's apartment.  In a matter of minutes we quickly and quietly moved tables, chairs, lamps and linens into her small home...without even waking up the baby!  Wendy McCaig, director of Embrace Richmond, gathered us outside, we circled around Tee-Tee and covered her, her family and her new home with prayers and hugs of love!  In the end, the blessing was ours to see the gratitude in her smile, and to hear how God had answered her prayers by providing all of this for her through Caritas ShareHouse and Embrace Richmond.

We all were impacted in different ways that afternoon.  One of us was blessed to help a woman who had just been released from prison pick out a whole new wardrobe (not in orange!) and see her gratitude for such a simple gift.   Another received joy in simply pushing a little boy around the warehouse while his mother shopped.  Who knew that office chairs could be so entertaining?   As we gathered to pray for Tee-Tee in Hillside Ct. we were joined by several neighbors... some, like Miss Mildred, are burdened for her neighbors and want to make a difference and others were just passing by.  You can learn more about the ministries of Embrace Richmond and Caritas Works at their websites, http://embracerichmond.wordpress.com and www.caritasworks.org.

Whether we know it or not, God is at work in big and wonderful ways around Richmond.  On Sunday it was our privilege to learn more about what God is doing and to join him in that work.   I hope you can join us next time!

I'm really looking forward to this Sunday afternoon!  Why???  Because a group of us from Hope will head over the CaritasWorks Furniture Bank to spend a few hours at their monthly House Blessing.  


Last winter I took a course called UnityWorks (www.embracerichmond.wordpress.com) which is designed to teach the local church more about the needs of the inner city and how we as the Body of Christ can make a greater impact in healing the many wounds that we find there.  I learned a lot about how we can breach the unseen division between the inner city and the suburban church.  

Participating in the House Blessing will be one more chance to take a step toward meeting the needs of the inner city poor.  We'll spend some time helping in the furniture warehouse, help a family "shop" for household goods for their new home as they move from a shelter into a home of their own and then move everything there.  The afternoon will be capped off with a time of prayer and blessing for this family and their new home!  


It's not too late to join us!  If you'd like to come along, please send me an email at worldimpact@hopecentral.com as soon as possible and I'll make sure you're included.  The time is 1:30-5:30 pm and the cost is $10 a person.  Children from age 7 can come along to help too, so bring the family!  There's more information here on the blog as well.