Feed Hope Here is for our whole community

When we talk about our Feed Hope Here campaign, it’s usually about the hunger of the people in distress who come to Everett Gospel Mission. Truly, every meal friends like you give as part of this year-end campaign is an injection of hope in their hearts!

But do you know what?
Our community is hungry, too.

We are starving from lack of love for our fellow neighbor, as Jesus calls us to do. When it comes to compassion, our cupboards are empty!

I believe that if our neighbors could hear the story of every man, woman and child that comes into the Mission, as I do, their hearts would break and never be hardened to the plight of people experiencing homelessness again!

At least half of the women are victims of physical or sexual abuse. Many of the men, too. It’s shocking how many never had an opportunity to graduate from high school or even learn to read.

We’ve cared for a man with end stage Huntington’s disease who lived in a tent. For people with untreated schizophrenia. A recent trend are individuals with cognitive disabilities whose caregiver died and left them all alone. People who have had heart attacks and strokes that cost them their jobs. A woman with triplets living in her van.

If you met these people, you would sympathize with their choices, grieve for their terrible losses and try to think of any way you could help them.

Instead, what we hear over and over are people who say “the homeless” choose to be out there in the rain, shivering and begging for food and work.

Will you help me bring light and understanding to this situation?

Encourage people you know to visit our website and read the testimonies there. We update them almost every month! Let them know that God loves people experiencing homelessness every bit as much as he loves the rest of us. Not only that, but Jesus specifically asks us to look after the orphans, the widows, the fatherless and the poor. Not just for their sake, but for ours. To feed our souls . . .

With your help, this year’s Feed Hope Here campaign will not only feed hungry people with food, but feed our community with understanding and compassion. Let’s pull out all the stops and flood Snohomish County with the Christmas spirit!