Don鈥檛 tell me that kindness and mercy don鈥檛 win the day.
This past Monday, Aug. 12, I started a new journey that operates emergency shelters, a food pantry and permanent supportive housing complexes that serve the Fargo-Moorhead metro area.
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It is a large agency that employs more than 50 people and serves hundreds of guests at its housing facilities as well as more than 7,000 individuals at its food pantry each month.
And the first official act I took as the leader was to send an email to our entire team, telling them that I didn鈥檛 know if we were going to make payroll two days later. It was a sobering and disquieting experience.
That afternoon our leadership team took our plight to the community, laying out the case that our organization could collapse if we didn鈥檛 get immediate support. We were honest. The ask was big: Could the community please help us raise $200,000 to keep our doors open this month?
And 48 hours later, we not only met our initial goal, which meant that we could assure our staff they were taken care of for August, but we had surpassed it by at least a third. It鈥檚 now likely we鈥檒l have the funds we need to operate through September, giving us a fighting chance to figure out a long-term plan to keep our operation sustainable.
Did you catch that? 鈥� The community, and surrounding region, raised more than $300,000 to support Churches United, both its employees and the people we serve, in less than three days鈥� time!
Don鈥檛 tell me that we are a divided America. Don鈥檛 tell me that our ideological differences are too great to overcome.
Because when it comes right down to it, people care. They care that their neighbors have proper shelter; they care that their neighbors have food to eat; they care that there is a solid plan to move families from emergency shelters to supportive, transitional housing.
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People care, and we need to stop telling ourselves they don鈥檛.
Do we still have a lot of work ahead of us to figure out how to sustainably fund our operation? Most certainly. A challenge we will continue to face into the future. Just as all nonprofits do.
But for this one week, our team can take to heart that we have a kind and compassionate community that is supportive of our work. And for today, that is enough to fill this pastor鈥檚 heart with joy.
As for tomorrow, well, Matthew 6:34 comes to mind: 鈥淪o do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today鈥檚 trouble is enough for today.鈥� 鈥� Amen.
The Trust Project
