Newsletter for Easter 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
In the last six months, DeAndre has been shot in the head twice, and he is doing fine. DeAndre is a hundred pounds overweight, and he doesn’t move very fast. Both incidents took place while he was sitting on his front porch, and neither of the bullets penetrated his skull. The first incident involved a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting. A few months later, another stray bullet went through his front door, and in December, he was shot in the head again. This time DeAndre was the target, but the motive was unclear.
It’s improbable that someone would be shot in the head twice in six months, and it’s even more improbable that the person would come away without any serious injury. When DeAndre attended a court date about the second shooting, friends of the shooter verbally taunted him and one threatened him by making a gun with his hand. This happened in front of police officers and a US marshal. DeAndre decided not to testify, and the DC government transferred him to a different project neighborhood. Please pray that his family remains safe and that these events will lead them closer to Christ.
Five young men from our neighborhood have been in multiple GED programs without success. Over the last couple of months, we have hosted eight study days. Each day starts with over an hour of Bible study followed by lunch and academic tutoring. Our math and language arts studies often suffer when we have breakthrough conversations during the Bible study.
Studying the Bible with these young men is very enjoyable. The ideas in the Bible are fresh to them, and they confront the ideas without passing over time-worn words or phrases. All of them are on their way to intellectually affirming the truth, but they are still waiting to put it into practice.
The day after a recent study session, one of the men was attacked and robbed while standing at the bus stop with his three year old nephew. After a brief fight, he lay unconscious with his nephew standing over him. His ear had to be stitched back together, and his jaw and face were bruised and scraped up.
Unlike the incredible incidents that happened to DeAndre, there is probably a simple explanation for our friend being attacked. His assailants claimed that they were seeking revenge, and although he didn’t remember them, he admits that he may have done the same thing to one of them.
DeAndre and the men in our study group have grown up in neighborhoods that are similar to the Old Testament world of Abraham. Abraham lived in fear that he would be murdered and his wife raped. In fact, she was taken from him and released several times, and on another occasion, he had to bring his family to war in order to save his nephew’s family from abduction and slavery. Abraham’s world did not have dependable structures for enforcing justice, and crime often appeared lucrative and glorious. Throughout all of this, Abraham lived a heroic life of virtue and was a friend of God. Most of our society has been formed by Christian thought, and although we risk mild persecutions, the Christian virtues are usually rewarded not only by God but by our society. This is less true in an inner-city neighborhood. These men need to be formed into Christian heroes and friends of God who do right despite the consequences.
Christmas was a great blessing for our ministry. Your generosity allowed us to give gifts to over 100 children and distribute Christmas baskets to 175 families. Visitation High School blessed us by donating all of the food items in our Christmas baskets. In addition, we were blessed with some generous financial gifts which allowed us to do repairs at the House of the Three Teresas (the ceiling was caving in, and the floor is infested with termites), give some beds and furniture to needy families, and acquire two used mini-vans. One of the vans is being used for ministry, and the other van was given to a family of nine as their first vehicle.
In addition to our regular ministry and study sessions, we have started hosting game nights for neighborhood friends. Game nights have become the winter equivalent of our summer fishing trips and are excellent opportunities to combine ministry and fun.
I recently visited Maggie’s Place which runs homes for homeless pregnant women in Phoenix, Arizona. Maggie’s Place has crossed some organizational hurdles in the past few years, and we are following their lead on better ways to share responsibilities among our full-time volunteers.
Ryan has become our new Volunteer Director, and he is working to increase the number of full-time volunteers. He recently sent a mailing of posters and brochures to campus ministries at 200 colleges. Part-time volunteer Anne Jasinowski designed the posters and brochures for the mailing. Ryan and Jessica also visited Franciscan University at Steubenville’s volunteer fair, and A Simple House was featured at the Mary Washington University supper seminar.
In January, we welcomed Jack Dickinson from the diocese of Portland, Maine and Corey Campeaux from the diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana as part-time volunteers. They are both Catholic seminarians, and have been sent to A Simple House by Theological College as part of their formation.
For the last month, Laura has been in an Italian convent on retreat. In February, we had a ministry retreat in upstate New York where the temperature never went over sixteen degrees. Everyone benefited from the workshops and the opportunity for reflection.
Our Easter outreach is almost here, and we hope to serve 175 families. We are also looking for ways to expand our food pantry and donation bin. We currently pack and deliver about ninety bags of groceries, a thousand diapers, and a few other donated items every month. We are looking to acquire more space to help us serve more people, increase community involvement, and keep us from turning away useful donations due to a lack of space.
Thank you for praying for this ministry and for the blessings you shower
upon us.Clark Massey with full-time volunteers Laura Cartagena, Ryan Hehman,
and Jessica Hensle and board members Luis Cartagena, Kristina Massey,
Michael Ortner, Fr. Adam Ryan OSB, and Daniel Shields.