Dear Friends,
I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. Mike, the boys and I went to California with his family to spend Thanksgiving with this brother. It was lovely and each day was 70 degrees. It was a shock to come home to 20 degrees!
Happy Advent! I love advent. Maybe because I am a planner, and preparing for a big moment like the celebration of Jesus's birth is something that fills a need of mine. Maybe because the kid in me looks forward to Christmas morning, the gifts under the tree and not knowing if surprises for me still exist. Maybe its the joy of watching my kids preparing in their own ways - putting stuff in the donate box, cleaning their shelves for new toys to come, writing their Santa wish lists - preparing their hearts in the way kids know how.
Being a planner also means being frustrated, disappointed, and challenged when my plan doesn't pan out. Which is almost every day. "I make a plan, and God laughs" has been my catch phrase. Even still, I plan in order to be prepared for our next steps after a challenging two weeks - at the same time knowing God's plan is better and I need to remind myself to listen, trust, and follow.
Thanksgiving night we called our first official Code Purple in Newark held at Calvary Baptist Church. We are grateful for their gift of food, time and space. A big thank you to Marc for handling this and being present and then on call that evening.
The week of Thanksgiving we had two overdoses occur in housing by residents. One lived - the other died. These events crushed our housing staff - and yet they have found the power to stand and keep going. They are an amazing group of dedicated servants whom I am honored to work with every day.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns for us. I am working on short and long term employee wellness options which will hopefully become permanent aspects of our staff benefits. I will share more details as it comes together.
As you may remember, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving was #GivingTuesday.
We received over $15,000 that day! We do not know final numbers, but I believe we could be eligible for up to $12,000 of the available matching funds from the PayPal and Facebook promotion. Thank you to everyone who participated.
That same day, we received Kathy Griffin-Graham's resignation. Although sad to lose her creativity, humor and dedication, I am very happy for her. She is hosting a volunteer thank you luncheon
December 11 at the Clothing Bank from 1 - 3 and I strongly encourage you to come and thank her for her service to Friendship House.
We have a new hire at the Clothing Bank! Robin Cross (fhrcross@gmail.com) joins us as Warehouse Assistant Manager. Although new to this industry and the warehouse, she is determined to do well and be useful and has passion for our ministry. I hope you get a chance to meet her soon. We have an opening for the Job Coach position at the Clothing Bank. It is currently a part time position and I am happy to take resumes if you know anyone interested.
I have no concerns regarding our ability to maintain this ministry and continue to serve the community regardless of this transition.
Strategic Planning met this week and we have finalized the Strategic Plan. You can
download it here. If you have any issues downloading it, please email me and I will send you a copy. Thank you to the committee for all their hard work.
December 13 will be the last Executive Committee meeting of this calendar year and then we switch to a new team in January. I can not thank Sharon, DL, Dede and Meg enough for being so supportive during my own transition and for all they did (and continue to do!) for Friendship House.
Thank you. I am really excited about the incoming officers: Meg as President, Brenda as Vice President, Scott as Treasurer and Connie as Secretary. You will be hearing from them soon about committee meetings starting as early as January for some!
We will be sending our annual appeal postcard by the end of next week. This will go to everyone on our mailing list and will ask for a donation. We will do our best to weed out those who have given us a gift already. The artwork for the postcard, which was submitted by a client through collaboration with Creative Vision Factory, came out lovely and I look forward to you seeing the final product. If you want to personally send any, please speak to Roxane or I about getting postcards to address or write on.
This time of year brings forward great magic, sacredness, peace and joy. I pray you find much love and happiness during this Christmas season. Spread goodness every where you go. Rejoice in these precious moments with loved ones. Know you are doing good work being part of a ministry having great effect on the lives of others. Please pray for us, the staff of Friendship House and our clients, because this time of year can be very hard on those we serve. Thank you for being present in our lives and ready to serve alongside us. In this, we serve the Lord. In this, we will prepare for the birth of Jesus. Listen. Trust. Follow. Serve.
Happy advent!
Always yours - your friend, your sister in Christ, and your servant,
Kim
