Love Covers… Like a heavy coat of heartfelt compassion enveloping cold hearted indifference. Love Covers… Like a loud heartbeat of conviction silencing mean-spirited gossip. Love Covers… Like a thick bandage of sincere encouragement wrapped around cutting criticism Love Covers… Like a protective awning of empathy overshadowing harsh judgment. Love Covers… Like a shower of mercy…
When my brother graduated from high school, my dad gave him a small handwritten paper with some “life lessons” he passed on. My brother tucked the paper neatly in his wallet and treasured it for years. Every now and then he would take it out and reflect on the wisdom of the words. He received…
It was while I was sitting in our weekly prayer meeting one Monday night when I first saw them. They were faces. I saw faces peering through the huge glass windows of our storefront at The 180 Center. So many faces. They were the countenances of people who were hungry and longing. Yearning for warmth…
With COVID-19 spreading, wildfires blazing out of control, fierce hurricane winds and flooding, and severe financial challenges, we may feel like we need a miracle to make it to the end of 2020! Do you believe God still does miracles? Have you ever experienced one of your own? Raised in a suburban middle class neighborhood…
Working with broken people can be challenging. Not everyone has the patience for people who seem desperate for help one day, but walk out the door a week later because they want to eat brown rice instead of white rice! When we first started working with homeless and addicted people, we had no idea the…
“Help me—help you—help him!” urged the 911 operator last week in New Haven, Connecticut. On the other line was Dave, a 2015 graduate of The 180 Center Discipleship Program. It was all surreal. Dave stopped in to chat with Jerry, a fellow tenant in the Christian living sober house. Jerry was grateful for the bed…
Back in 2003, long before we had GPS or a cell phone, we found ourselves desperately lost on a road trip at night. We were almost out of gas, and we were in a dangerous part of an unfamiliar city. My husband pulled into a nearby run down gas station. We looked around at the…
My stomach felt unsettled and my mind was fast forwarding through every possible escape route I could imagine. The hand of regret wrapped around my throat, squeezed every anticipated breath from my chest and robbed me of hope for redemption. It was a horrible, speeding, out-of-control roller coaster that I recently boarded and there was…
When Mike and I first came to Connecticut, we attended Gateway Christian Fellowship in West Haven, experiencing passionate worship and compelling preaching. With a missions background, we were eager to get involved in outreach. We discovered our call serving food at the men’s shelter in New Haven twice a month. It felt fulfilling to prepare…
In elementary school I won the spelling bee for my school district. I won on the word achieve. I will never forget that day. A local newspaper snapped a photo of me holding my trophy, smiling from ear to ear, standing next to my parents and Mr. Fairman, my favorite teacher in the world. The…
