I find myself recalling witnessing a fire being ‘fanned into flame’. The fire had all but gone out and the embers were beginning to cool but a fresh breeze brought it back to life.
After over a year of covid I was beginning to wonder if my zeal for the vision of Threshold House had waned, like a fire going out. The venture has been so bogged down due to this pandemic and early momentum lost, that the ‘embers’ seemed to be cooling.
Recently I felt constrained to “lift up my head”, to make a firm decision and set a fixed date to begin. We will be opening our doors September 6th. We will be proclaiming “the Year of the Lord’s Favour” for up to 4 residents at Threshold House. We are currently accepting applications for acceptance into our Christian Community.
The goal is to accept men who have come to find their hope in Jesus and by creating a unique network of support around each, and by living in a Christian community for 1 year, help them become people who can effectively bring hope to others. In this way our small ministry can multiple our reach and have ;an outsized’ affect on our wider community, bringing fresh hope to our streets.
After a year we will do it again, and again, flooding our community with ‘hope bringers’. We also plan to increase our housing capacity and release more ‘hope bringers’ in coming years.
In Lamentations 2:19, the ‘Weeping Prophet’ call us to cry out in the night for the children that are dying at the head of every street. In his day, the deaths were due to starvation because Jerusalem was under siege. In our day, the obituary pages are replete with deaths due to addiction. Every week our community is losing people because people are losing their battle with addiction. We believe the only way to stem that life loss is through the hope that is found in God alone.
This is a time of urgency! In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul says, “for a door for effective service has opened to me”. This is a time of great opportunity, but he continues “there are many adversaries.” This is not an easy path and if we are to make the difference which I believe we can, we must do it together.
You have opportunity to be involved. We need: prayer support, volunteers (no special skills are needed but a heart that cares for people), finances (all donations are tax deductible), and donations of bedroom furnishings.
The Lord loves a cheerful giver. What is that? Someone who gives what the Lord asks not a penny more (or you may be proud) and not a penny less (or you may feel guilty).The road has been long, but we must not falter now. Please take this appeal to prayer and ask God how you can assist. Then cheerfully follow his will.
Every blessing.
Reed
Hope & Reedemption 