Newsletter for April 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
The Saturday before Easter, A Simple House reached its one year anniversary of active ministry. On the anniversary, volunteers delivered Easter bags full of goodies, toys, and religious articles to the children of the Chesapeake neighborhood and chocolate with invitations to church for the grownups. The outreach was a complete success. Since the last newsletter we also delivered approximately 100 Christmas baskets and angeled personalized Christmas gifts for approximately 100 children.
During the first year, A Simple House has addressed the spiritual and material dimensions of poverty by delivering groceries, assisting mothers with infants, leading in-home bible studies, and helping people pray. The ministry has also been flexible enough to meet unique needs such as thwarting evictions and making sure families have heat. General outreaches have been used to start relationships and evangelize. In addition to the Easter bags, Christmas baskets, and angeling Christmas toys, first-year general outreaches included a neighborhood barbeque, coat drive and distribution, school supply drive and distribution, and an appeal to help pregnant women and new mothers. Thank you for making all of this possible.
Our witness is having the desired affect. Love is being returned as fast as we try to give it away. Two sisters spent nine hours preparing a soul-food banquet for some of our volunteers. This loving gift was large enough to stuff twenty-five people. Many other people we serve want to help out in some way, but we have not discovered enough ways to harness their energy. Besides the charitable and prayerful response, one of our friends was received into the Church on the vigil of Easter. With an impressive amount of study and prayer, this person made the decision to give herself to Christ. We celebrated the event with a big midnight party.
I am constantly astonished by the miraculous way God heals. We serve families and individuals that have survived multiple events which would have been enough to shatter an average person. It is amazing to see people who have been through heinous crimes become psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually healthier than people who have been sheltered and granted many privileges. God heals.
William Barclay pointed out, "We will never change men from the outside. New houses, new conditions, better material things only change the surface. It is the task of Christianity to make, not new things, but new men." Many programs have tried using material things, productivity, accomplishment, and education to make someone realize their dignity, meaning, happiness, or fulfillment. Unfortunately, all of these approaches have failed to achieve even one of these ends.
The only approach remaining is Love. "God," wrote Lacordaire, "has willed that no good should be done to man except by loving him, and that insensibility should be forever incapable either of giving him light, or inspiring him to virtue."
When it is not clear how to apply love to a problem, it is useful to reflect on the words of Mother Teresa: "Jesus is the unwanted to be wanted. Jesus is the beggar to give him a smile. Jesus is the drunkard to listen to Him. Jesus is the drug addict to befriend Him. Jesus is the prostitute to remove from danger and befriend Her. Jesus is the prisoner to be visited. Jesus is the old to be served. To me: Jesus is my God."
Our Lord really has nothing better to do than bless us. He cannot run out of miraculous blessings, and He can’t get tired while giving them away. On the final day, God will not say, 'I would have blessed you more, but I’m too cheap.’ Nor will he say, ‘I would have blessed you more, but my infinite self was too busy (keeping all the subatomic particles in existence).’ Nor will he say, ‘I would have blessed you more, but I really don’t like miracles.’ God will say, ‘I am so in love with you, I showered you with every blessing you could possibly hold.’ We need to ready ourselves to recognize and receive His blessings. Just as our sin brought suffering into the world, our weakness frustrates the redemption.
There is a great material and spiritual need in the inner-city. This need is a call to Christians for Christianity. We have two ideas for expanding our answer to this call. The first idea is to start a house for four or five temporary missionaries. Temporary missionaries would greatly expand the reach of A Simple House, and the missionary training would help people to start similar outreaches in other locations. The greatest obstacle to this project is finding a suitable house. We also pray that another permanent missionary will move into the small house we already have. The second idea is to start a welfare-to-work company called ‘Rerum Novarum.’ This company will be a side project of A Simple House which will remain focused on spreading the gospel through home bible study, prayer, friendship evangelization, and charitable acts. Rerum Novarum is a way to deepen our relationship with people while giving them an opportunity to ‘hope in the harvest’(1 Cor. 9:10). To be successful, it would provide meaningful work (not ‘make work’ or ‘unskilled work’) and compensate employees in proportion to the company’s profitability. This project is still in the business planning stage. More information on these ideas will be supplied in future newsletters, and both ideas will require a great deal of grace, prayer, and generosity.
With regards to the Christmas outreach, special thanks goes to: Visitation High School for preparing the baskets, helping with the distribution, and donating materials and the ten-pound hams; Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey for making and donating most of the chocolate; and Conception Abbey for making and donating many of the religious gifts and cards. In addition, many Simple House volunteers helped in the distribution.
None of this would be possible without the help of donors who respond to this newsletter. The sacrifices of generous individuals sustain this ministry. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Clark Massey with board members: Laura Cartagena, Glynnis LaGarde, Kristina Massey, Michael Ortner, Richard Realbuto, and Fr. Adam Ryan OSB. 