Remembering Your First LUM Experience
March 1, 2013
Joseph “Joe” Micon
Dear Trusted Friend,
Do you remember the first time you heard about the Lafayette Urban Ministry?
Do you remember how you felt when you first learned of LUM’s impressive ministry to at-risk children and struggling families? Do you remember being excited by seeing so many different churches actually working together for something so important?
I do…as if it were yesterday. It was 1978; Wow… 35 years ago. I was a sociology student at Purdue. A professor suggested that LUM might be a good place for me to apply for an internship.
He knew that I was committed to finding ways to combine my faith with service to others. He shared that it wasn’t enough just to read in a textbook about service, or to hear about it in a class lecture. He encouraged me to be involved first hand.
So I gave LUM a try – and the rest is history. I was hooked.
I first served as a volunteer advocate, a LUM Camp counselor and a food pantry volunteer. I helped in the front office answering the phone and sorted through hundreds of toys for Jubilee Christmas.
After graduate school, I returned to serve on LUM’s program staff and was eventually hired as LUM’s director.
Working with others whose passion for service grew from their commitment to follow Jesus’ example captivated me. Seeing how generously board members, staff and volunteers at LUM gave of their time and talent inspired me. Working so closely with LUM’s clients helped me better understand the pain of poverty and the strength of the human spirit. LUM has helped me to expand my compassion toward others and to develop a thirst for social justice.
Perhaps the Lafayette Urban Ministry has the same effect upon you. Maybe the Lafayette Urban Ministry has become an essential part of your faith life as well – that part where faith in God and service to others meet.
Perhaps you’ve shared the same emotions as I …
- when seeing the grateful expression of a homeless man who has just been welcomed, on a cold Lafayette night, off the street and into the LUM shelter,
- when a LUM After School Program student proudly shows off the 100% grade she earned on her spelling test, and thanks a LUM volunteer tutor for helping her to study,
- when a working mom has just been informed by a volunteer LUM tax preparer that her refund will be large enough to pay her overdue rent and purchase new school clothes for her daughter.
I hope you agree that if there is anything worth our continued care and support, it has got to be the important work of the Lafayette Urban Ministry.
Last year, LUM served 5,944 households through one or another of our 15 programs.
Our 5th Quarter Summer Learning Program helped 60 children retain, through the summer, what they learned the previous year in school. LUM’s Achieve program helped 45 at-risk high school students with the support and encouragement they need to excel both academically and socially. LUM’s case management program helped 289 homeless men and women to move out of our emergency shelter into more permanent housing.
I hope you will join me in contributing financially to LUM’s programs. A gift of $50, $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 will be put to work right now to assure LUM’s doors remain open to whoever needs our help.
If you’re like me, you have seen first-hand the remarkable ministry that takes place inside these doors. You know how much stronger our community is because of what we have accomplished together. And you know how much less of a community we would be if it were not for LUM and our shared ministry here.
Please, won’t you place your gift in the enclosed envelope, or give online at www.lafayetteurbanministry.org
Gratefully,
Joe Micon
Executive Director
Lafayette Urban Ministry
P.S. Don’t forget there is a wealth of information about LUM on our website. Just go to www.lafayetteurbanministry.org for photos, stories, financial reports, program information and many other resources. You may also make your gift to LUM securely online, putting your gift to work immediately! God bless you.
Join LUM online and help us serve children and families even better.
