Friends,
I answered a call recently. Roseland Community Hospital called to say a young mother with four children was in distress without any place to stay. She didn’t know where to go for help – so she went to the hospital. The hospital sent her to us.
Pastor Joe Huizenga picked them up in the van, and in the few blocks back to Roseland Christian Ministries the oldest child, a girl, was trying to connect with her Chicago Public School class for distance learning on a cell phone. We helped with food and got them settled in the shelter. And, whether their stay is a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, we’ll love them and offer whatever resources we can to help their transition to a safe and stable living situation. We thank God that she went to the hospital and the hospital called us. We believe that we’re living into our calling to love God and love neighbor.
We typically do a phone-a-thon in September to re-connect with our supporting community and chat with old friends. When we call, we hope you answer. Over the last few years we’ve raised as much as $40,000 through a couple nights of calling.
This year, rather than evening phone calls, we’re going to try a “Day of Giving.” On Tuesday, September 29, we are hoping that you’ll visit our website to make a donation or send in a check. We’re hoping that you’ll call a friend to share the good news of the good work that RCM does. We’re hoping to flood social media with images and invitations and we hope that you’ll forward those posts to your circle of influence. Our goal is the same, but we want to push our supporting community out farther and wider. We hope you’ll answer the call.
In some ways it was a normal day; there was a family in distress. But, I was struck by how it started with a simple phone call. We answered and were given the opportunity to love and serve in the name of Jesus. We try to do something similar every weekday with 75 men, women, and families with whom we share lunch, or the other moms and children in the shelter, or the little neighborhood boys who are gathering for Cadets, or the 100 families we help with groceries each week, or the friends that gather for Bible study and prayer. In all of those ways there is a simple answering of a call.
On Tuesday, September 29, we hope you hear a call from God and answer by helping support Roseland Christian Ministries. Sometimes it is as simple as saying, “yes,” and trusting God to do the rest. Please click here or send in a check, and share our story any way that you can. We need you to say, “yes.”
Do you hear the call?
Sandi Nelson
Development Director
