Christmas Wishes from LUM

December 2012

Dear Friends,

The poet Judith Lindberg writes “Christmas tiptoes into our hearts with elation. It whispers to us of hope. It opens our souls to faith. It touches us with compassion.”

Christmas makes us gentler. It helps us to think more of others and less of ourselves. It calls us to serve, and give, and try to do better.

We experience this spirit at the Lafayette Urban Ministry and strive to put it into practice, not only during the Christmas season, but throughout the entire year.

Whether it’s by supporting a family through a job loss, helping a child to do better in school, sheltering a homeless man, or keeping an elderly widow warm in the winter, the Lafayette Urban Ministry shares Good News with the poor in our community on a daily basis.

In the coming year:

• 2,000 children will be served by a Lafayette Urban Ministry youth program: 5th Quarter, LUM Camp, Achieve, our After School Program or Jubilee Christmas.
• 550 homeless men and women will be shown Christ’s hospitality as guests of the Lafayette Urban Ministry Emergency Shelter. They will be offered practical aid and case management services to help them move into a home of their own.
• 1,400 families will receive $100,000 in Good Samaritan Fund assistance to avert utility disconnects, avoid being evicted or obtain vital prescription medications.
• 7,500 requests for emergency food will be met through the St. John’s/LUM Food Pantry.
• 1,700 low-income households will have their taxes prepared for free.
• LUM will help 150 people re-establish their legal identities and will advocate a more just society on behalf of the children and families we serve.

We will touch the lives of 5,800 families with compassion, friendship, concern and acts of kindness.

I hope you will help us to accomplish this work by making a generous Christmas season gift to the Lafayette Urban Ministry.

Your gift of $50, $100, $250, $500 or $1,000 will be used right here in our own community to carry on the work of Christmas both now and throughout the coming year.

A Christmas Season gift to the Lafayette Urban Ministry is a tangible way to keep the elation, hope, faith and compassion of Christmas close for more than just one brief, shining moment. It is an expression of God’s love that will continue for an entire year.

Place give online by clicking HERE.

Merry Christmas,

Someday, Perhaps

It begins long before the first frost –
Somewhere between memory and reality.
It touches us with compassion
And whispers to us of hope.
It tiptoes into our hearts with elation
And opens our souls to faith.

Its name is Christmas and we have yet to learn
How to keep it close for more than
This one brief, shining moment.
Someday perhaps… with love.

— Judith A. Lindberg

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