August Ministry Update
Dear Friends:
Oh, how good is our God!!! Neighbors of Hope began as Lenawee County Mission, and for the past fourteen years has been committed to reaching the homeless and hurting throughout the county. As we began to serve community needs in a more holistic way, we became Neighbors of Hope. In addition to our men’s transitional housing, we began treating addiction and feeding the hungry with our Fishes and Loaves ministry. We launched a farm and recycling center to produce resources and provide job training. Then in 2017 we began efforts to build a Women’s and Children’s transitional housing center in Tecumseh.
I am sure you are already aware of our efforts to provide safe housing and transformation to our most vulnerable neighbors, women and children, have been long and arduous. But God is faithful and I am delighted to inform you that we are ready to open the Women & Children’s Ministry Center of Neighbors of Hope! As a supporter of this ministry I would like to extend to you an invitation to come out and tour this new ministry and facility at our Open House on Saturday, August 10th from 10am to 2pm. This is an excellent opportunity to join us as we celebrate what God is doing in Lenawee County as well as our opening date of August 13th.
As if this wasn’t enough to rejoice in, now the Lord is calling us to continue expanding our mission by addressing some of the root causes of poverty and homelessness. In June we closed on a property that we will be able to operate our Men’s Ministry program out of. Since January our men have been living and participating in our program in the basement of church. We are excited about this new facility, located at 227 Riverside Ave and adjacent to the 1.7 acres of vacant land we already own. Not only will we continue to serve the homeless and addicted male population, this facility will afford us greater space to expand our programming for this ministry and better equip our guests toward self-sufficiency and transition back into our community as healthier and more stable men.
In addition to operating our Men’s Ministry in this facility, we will also be launching our first Good Neighbor Center. The Good Neighbor Centers will offer outpatient community services such as addiction counseling, life skills and financial coaching to families in crisis, as well as a new veterans’ ministry program. Our desire is to collaborate with some partner ministries and local churches to serve a wide range of needs, preventing families and individuals from becoming homeless in the first place.
Because this new property was formerly a professional building, it requires some renovations (kitchen, showers, fire suppression, etc.) to accommodate our needs. That is why we are launching our Good Neighbor Center Campaign to support the renovation and operation of the Adrian center in late 2019. We will raise $250,000 between now and the end of 2020. We encourage everyone who wants to be a good neighbor by providing compassionate services to this community to consider a one-time gift or a monthly commitment through the end of 2020. For more information on this campaign and how you can help, please contact me at steven@neighborsofhope.com
And finally, stay tuned as Neighbors of Hope will soon be unveiling launching of our latest social enterprise! Our social enterprises are a key component to our ministry in that they provide us alternative streams of revenue as well as provide educational, vocational and employment opportunities for our residents. We are super excited about this latest venture and look forward sharing this good news with you very soon!
God is good indeed!! Thank you for being a faithful neighbor to those in need. Your faith, generosity, and prayer are a joy to us.
Sincerely,
Pastor Steven Palmer
Executive Director
