A New Ministry Opportunity
Several years ago, our congregation started to feel a sense of urgency about finding better ways to use the original parsonage building on our property, which most of us call the youth house.
Lots of research was done, but none of the options available seemed like good choices. So we made a decision to wait and see what God might have in mind for that structure.
Now it seems that we may be able to use this resource in a way that none of us anticipated; in a new ministry in collaboration with an organization called Crossing Home.
You can watch this slightly condensed replay of our November 14, 2020 Coffee Talk online event, to learn more about this organization and potential collaboration with Lutheran Church of Peace.
George is an alumnus of Crossing HOME now. This video was filmed in 2017, when he was still a resident in one of our houses.
His involvement with drugs, alcohol, and crime started as a teenager at the encouragement of his father. During the almost thirty years that he used drugs and alcohol, his only moments of sobriety were when he was in prison. George’s last prison sentence was a turning point in his life.
Leading up to that arrest he said, “I remember one night I prayed and prayed and prayed for the Lord to help me figure out what to do.” Two days later, the police broke down the door of a house George had no documented connection to with a warrant for his arrest. “I don’t know how they knew where I was, but they came and got me and arrested me.”
“I pretty much think that was not my arrest, but my rescue.”
“I knew, before I left, that I’m going to retire my number.” George was determined to do everything in his power to ensure he never returned to prison. He was excited for his release because he knew where he was going and he knew it would be a safe place. He knew it was a place where he could “work on himself and grow, to not go back to prison.”
That safe place was Crossing HOME.
Having Crossing HOME in his life meant “there’s someone out there that cares for me. It means that if I fall they’re there to pick me up.”
“It means that I get a second chance in life without being alone.”
Why did it matter that he had Crossing HOME in his life? “I’m not able to walk this journey alone at this point. I know in my heart and mind that it would be much more dangerous and harder for me without the support that I have now. I know that if I had paroled to the streets or a halfway house or a homeless shelter I would not have lasted more than a couple of weeks.”
“There’s someone out there that cares for me.”
Do you see where you fit into George’s story? Can you imagine the LCP Youth House finding new life and purpose in collaboration with Crossing HOME?