Advent Shelter: Devotion #11

SHELTER: The Example of an Innkeeper – by Claire McIlveen

 

‘Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood

When blackness was a virtue, the road was full of mud

I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form

Come in, she said

I'll give ya

Shelter from the storm                               -Bob Dylan, 1974

These days, when we think of shelter, the first thing that comes to mind is literal shelter: a place of refuge from wind, rain and snow. 

A home.

Or is Dylan’s hero seeking a place of refuge from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare’s Hamlet puts it: somewhere away from the challenges, contradictions and occasional strife that can preoccupy us in our daily lives?

Sometimes shelter is warm and comforting: a mother’s hand upon an ailing child’s forehead, a lover’s embrace, the camaraderie of old friends, the neighbour’s gift of a casserole after a death in the family.

It can also be spiritual shelter in the form of a welcoming religious community or even a political philosophy where we can safely explore ideas and live in hope of a better world.

But we can’t find refuge from daily life, human warmth or spiritual enlightenment without a home.

Home is where personality is born and resilience is fostered, dreams are incubated and progress is imagined. Without home, we don’t have much, other than a gnawing anxiety about how to put a roof (or in the case of too many, a tent) over our heads and where our next meal will come from. You can’t imagine a better life if you are hanging on to the present one by non-existent fingernails.

In a society where shelter - an absolute need in Canada - is sold to the highest bidder and many just can’t bid, the outcome is catastrophic.

But as Christians, we have the example of the innkeeper to follow: we can do what we can to help.

We can push the issue of lack of affordable housing to the forefront of public discourse. We can support movements and political parties that offer genuine solutions to the problems of homelessness and push against solutions that seek to move the problem - and the homeless - out of sight and out of mind.

We can donate to movements and charities that help the homeless where they are now and to find homes.

Our church’s investigations into redeveloping the property to provide some low-income housing is an important initiative that we can support.

As we move into Advent and celebrate the innkeeper who gives Mary and Joseph a roof over their heads for the birth of Jesus, let us give thanks for all the kinds of shelter in our lives and work towards a time when everyone in the world can share in our abundance.

 

https://youtu.be/-gsDBuHwqbM?si=JP1kFCXVOKneGbQM

 

 

 

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion # 10

 

Refugees: Finding Home  -- by Amana

 

Living in a house with lots of people can be both fun and tough. There’s always noise, laughter, and stories being told, but it can also feel crowded at times. It takes patience to share space and make sure everyone feels cared for or has space for some alone time. Helping our new family members settle in Canada has been a big responsibility too, mostly for my parents (as it means doing a lot of paperwork and helping them figure out how things work here). Whereas I get to do all the fun parts, like helping them learn new things, like which fast food restaurants are the best, or going out with them and showing them where all the fun places are, and occasionally cheering them up when they start missing home. It’s hard and fun work; it’s also really rewarding because you see their hope grow as they settle into a new life, and you also get to learn about current and past life back home.

 

An example of this is my grandmother, who has taught me so much through her stories. Like the wars she’s lived through, the people she lost, and even funny stories of how my mother was being mischievous (although my mother says she was a well-behaved kid growing up). She’s been through a lot in her life—wars, being separated from family, and even losing some. Despite all those challenges, she shows so much strength and faith. She reminds me that even when life is hard, trusting God can give you peace. I’m learning from her that real shelter isn’t just about having a house; it’s about being surrounded by love, support, and hope for the future.

 

Prayer: 

Dear God, we pray for families who have had to leave their homes as refugees. Please keep them safe and give them hope. For those living in refugee camps, help them find comfort and protection. Show us how to share what we have so that others can feel Your love and care. Thank You for being a shelter for everyone who needs You. Amen.

 

 This picture is a map that Bob put up in the fellowship hall. People place a tab with their name on it and put a pin in their country of origin. The signs say "I am from..." in various languages.

The Welcome Angels flag is from the Rhenish Lutheran Church in Toronto. Our confirmation classes wrote letters to each other. Welcome Angel is a project that welcomes new immigrants and refugees, most recently Ukrainians and Chinese. 

Advent Shelter: Devotion #9

 

 

Social Justice - Providing Shelter

 

The shelter of arms

soothing the fear and sorrow

wordless sanctuary.   ---Carolyn

 

With regards to the National Housing Crisis, have you asked, “What can be done?” “What can I do?” “How can I help?”

Participating in these daily devotions on shelter contributes to addressing issues of housing and homelessness. The first step is to become informed on matters of housing and shelter.

“Actions to take are those for most social justice issues: become informed, volunteer/serve, and advocate.” --- Valerie

 

In our neighbourhood and wide community there are various non-profit organizations invested in providing shelter, working on solutions, and advocating for deeply affordable housing. Our church participates by actively supporting organizations doing the work: Adsum House, Bryony House, Alice House, Phoenix House, Holly House, Out of the Cold Shelter, Metro Turning Point, St. Leonard House, Shelter NS, and St. Vincent de Paul. Support is given by the collection of requested items, monetary donations (from pastor’s discretionary fund), pastoral visits, quilt/prayer shawl ministry gifts, social media following and reposting of organizations needs and/or advocacy posts.

Organizations listed provide shelter for women and children fleeing abusive situations, youth without save lodging, transitional housing for men and women coming out of prison, shelters for the homeless, and housing for low-income families. Most of these organizations have room for volunteers. Volunteering is a way to positively address issues of shelter.

 

Through your donations to the church, you provide a home for the pastor and her family. On your behalf she works to provide shelter and home for the community. With your help, home has been created through the re-homing of furniture and household goods particularly for newcomers – much thanks to Bob and his truck. Downsizing is difficult and helpful hands have been used to re-distribute, pack, and move congregation members. Pastor Kimber is often asked to be a character reference for lease or housing applications. And as a congregation, you have kept struggling families in their homes with resources to help carry them (fuel, rent, or electricity bills) between losing and finding jobs, or as result of other emergency situations.

 

The church advocates for affordable and low-income housing. When multi-storied construction projects are proposed in the church neighbour surveys and questionnaires are circulated for neighbourhood input. The municipality has rules that in new construction there must be so many affordable units based on the size of the building, or alternatively the construction company can pay a tax to not incorporate affordable units. Surveys are filled out stressing the importance of the incorporation of affordable units, for the health of the neighbourhood and the housing needs of the city.

 

Take time to decide the next step (become informed, volunteer, advocate) that you can take to positively address shelter.

 

 

Come, there is shelter, not much,

but a place to keep you warm and dry

It’s not home I know.

So much has been lost

I see the pain and agony in your eyes.

I can offer a smile, an arm around your shoulders

A warm blanket to enfold you

like a mother’s hug.

Thank you. It is enough. ---- Carolyn

 

 

God of compassion and hope,

open our hearts to the needs of our neighbours who are homeless, under housed, seeking refuge or denied the right to water. Open our minds to the issues that contribute to poverty, homelessness, and substandard housing. Open our eyes to opportunities for ministry, to partnerships, and to innovative approaches for addressing these challenges. Open our hands to act with compassion and for justice. Bless us with time, patience, persistence, and commitment over the long-term, so that all may have safe, affordable and adequate housing. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.                                       

-- ELCIC National Housing Day (Nov.22) prayer

Be Home

 

Ojibway writer, Richard Wagamese wrote: Home is the culmination of my hopes and dreams and desires. Home is a feeling in the centre of my chest of rightness, balance and harmony of mind, body and spirit. Home is where the channel to Creator and the Grandmothers gets opened every day and where life gains its focal point. To be away from it even for a day, is that acute awareness. It is also knowing that home is what I bring to it, and in that is the sure and quiet knowledge that home is within me and always was.

 

Our Advent theme of shelter has given me time to think about home and what home means to me. Home is a feeling in the centre of my chest… Wagamese describes home as being within and alludes to life as a journey, a going out and a coming in, from home that always was and is, here (hands on heart), within. Within, I have a home where God resides, and the wise ones are encountered. John the Baptizer, in his own way, invited and invites people to return home. His words open the door for people to step across the threshold, away from the interruptions of the day, and to find shelter in living God’s covenant. It is no mistake that John mentions Abraham and the ancestors in his argument, which reminds the people of safety and hope in God’s promises and familial ties. Dwelling in John’s words there is an admonishment that the people have wandered away from God’s promises into wilderness, desert, and inhabitable places. Preparing the way, opening the door for the coming Messiah, John urges the people to return home; home as the culmination of centuries of prophetic hopes and dreams and desires of a whole people.   

The Psalms chosen for our journey through Advent were chosen because of their focus on shelter. Psalm 107, this morning’s, is a Psalm of Thanksgiving on return from exile. It expresses home as resettlement in the land and a return to covenant living with God, God being at the centre of covenant relationship.

Home for me is built and nurtured, in and from God and covenant relationship. Psalm 107 describes my sense of home, the feeling in the centre of my chest of rightness, balance and harmony of mind, body and spirit, by inclusion of the words: steadfast, love, endures, gathered, inhabited, satisfied, saved from distress, fruitful, established, blessed, makes their families like flocks.

These words for me represent home, home as a sense of permanence and belonging.

 

I led a retreat where the participants brought their Bibles, for some that meant accessing the translation of their choosing via the Biblegateway site on their phones. During the reading of the text from Luke, the person reading received a phone call. Now the phone was on silent so none of us knew, except that the person stopped reading abruptly mid-thought. Whoever has two coats must … the incoming call interrupted the reading because the pop-up notification covered the words being read.

Interrupted.

This had me consider that John the Baptist’s call inviting people to return home, was a voice interrupting the people of his day and their habits, a people who were lost, having wandered away from home without even noticing. They were a people passing through the Temple without finding sanctuary, following laws just because one was supposed to, and subsisting in the land but land occupied by strangers. John’s voice from the wilderness interrupted lives that were filled with fake shelter; shelter that was inadequate to meet the peoples’ needs.

The inquisitiveness of the people in the wilderness illustrates the human desire for home, for a sense of permanence and belonging; the feeling in the centre of the chest of rightness, balance and harmony. John the Baptist’s direction to those who asked, “what shall I do?” is simple enough, he opens the door to the home of God’s covenant. To be home one is to care and share. John’s message: Care and share, is covenant living in a nutshell. The message is the same as all prophets and teachers: love God, love your neighbour.

More specifically commentators describe John’s directions of care and share as building home through merciful justice, radical generosity, and vocational integrity. Each addressed to specific kinds of home to be created based on the askers’ roles in society and their skills. Covenant living, living from the home of one’s being is to create home for others, to invite others home, and to prepare the way for permanence and belonging.

 

Home for me is really about heart connections. Home is people close to me, the ones I feel that I can face any circumstance of life with, the ones I can ask for help, the ones I act most like myself around.

Caring and sharing for me come from the heart of my relationship with God.

 

There is a vast array of reasons for people to be excluded from home, from a sense of permanence and belonging. Often reasons are out of a person’s control. Whatever the reasons, broken relationships, having no social equity or resources, makes one very much alone, with no backup plan or people to gather around when in need of support. John the Baptist’s words have interrupted us in this house, in this spiritual home, where for us we have found a sense of belonging and permanence, caring and sharing in community. John calls us to care and share, not just in this home, but in living God’s covenant in all of our relationships … and because we have experienced home as described in the Psalm 107: steadfast, love, endures, gathered, inhabited, satisfied, saved from distress, fruitful, established, blessed, makes their families like flocks; we can prepare the way and create home for those searching for home.

 

With hands on heart:

Within this house, God abide,

A home of steadfast love inside.

Inhabiting peace by caring,

Building home by sharing.

Ever welcoming

Permanently belonging.

Home – an indwelling of God.

Home – to be cared and shared in the world.

Advent Shelter: Devotion #8

Senior’s Housing

 

“… even to your old age I am God; even when you turn grey I will carry you.”  – Is. 46: 4

 

Photo: Shelter Word-web by Georgi

According to Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency, NSPHA offers a variety of housing options for low-income Nova Scotians including seniors, families, individuals and couples. Tenants must be able to live independently and are responsible for arranging their own supports if needed. NSPHA does not operate long-term care facilities.

NSPHA is a Crown corporation and is the largest social housing provider in NS. They operate more than 11,200 public housing units, housing over 17,800 people. 71% of those housed are seniors. The wait time to get into a Manor (there are 44 buildings in HRM) is approximately 2 years.

 

Manor buildings are home to people over the age of 58. They are accessible and close to amenities. Yearly, each person living in a manor, shares their tax-return which is used to calculate the rent the tenant will pay for the coming year. Manor living is apartment living. Your neighbours are culturally diverse seniors, sometimes set in their ways, eccentric characters, or shy widow/widowers. Manors can have outdoor space for gardens, parking spaces, allowance for a pet, smoking huts, and tenant organized activities. Turn-over comes mostly from aging, people moving to places with nursing care or due to death. For the most part, manors provide not only safe and affordable housing for seniors, but a community of neighbours navigating aging together.

                                                                                    --in conversation with Georgi

 

Over the years, Pastor Kimber has spent many pastoral care hours in long-term care facilities. The church offers shelter through this ministry, and at Northwood’s downtown Campus by providing worship services six times a year.  Nursing Homes and residential care homes are housing for people who have difficulty performing basic everyday tasks (bathing, dressing, etc.) and have nursing needs beyond homecare.  The province has a Single-Entry Access system where a person undergoes a needs assessment and then is placed on a list based on the priority of their need. Organizations and government, Department of Seniors, Long-Term Care, Department of Health, among others work together to support or find appropriate homes for each person.

For the first few months of nursing home living, pastoral visits listen to a person who grieves the loss of home. The transition into what is a final earthly shelter, is helped by family, friends, and church communities who offer support, warm visits, and comforts of home. Never underestimate the comfort of a visit, a card, a prayer shawl, a bag of peppermints, or a reading of a poem.

Long-term care residents are unique as each faces the constant change of roommates and floormates because of death. Shelter for residents is having people who are willing to matter-of-factly speak about death, hope in resurrection, and dream of what heavenly or eternal home will be like.

 

Housing for seniors, whether manors, long-term care, residential care homes, hospitals, or nursing homes, takes a community of skilled professionals, passionate care givers, and a team of support workers. Many give shelter to others through their vocations and occupations. One of our members, Isaias, works in homecare and in nursing homes settings. He offers this prayer for seniors:

 

Lord, I ask that you bless our seniors living in their home, and nursing home. Keep them safe from harm both physically and emotionally. Protect them from accidents, sickness, and injury.

Lord Jesus, I ask that you bless them with good health, safety and comfort.

In Jesus name. Amen.  -- Isaias

 

 

You can learn more at these links:

About NSPHA | Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency

A guide to moving in to long term care in Nova Scotia - Adobe cloud storage

 

 

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion #7

 

                     

                      Homeless  -- by Pete

The pic is of the tent community living across from the church (Welsford St) 

On June 17^th, 2022, I found myself in a situation I never thought I would ever be in.

On that Saturday in June, I found that after 22years of living at the same address, after 36 years of being married to the same woman, my life crashed.

 

I left my home, separating from, my then wife, I was homeless. It was with not trying to find housing in Halifax, it was out of reach, rent wise, too expensive. You needed a damage deposit, 1^st and last months rent. I did not have that. I spent that weekend in a hotel out of the rain that was coming down.

 

Lucky for me, I thought, friends opened their home to me in Kingston, NS. They came from Kingston and picked me up. I was there with friends, safe from the streets, for so I thought. That September, I was asked to leave as they wanted the room I had for their grandchildren. So, back to the city I came, with nowhere to go.

 

From the end of September to around the first of November, I was homeless and on the streets. I picked a well-lit spot behind Station 7 Fire Department on Dunbrack and Kinghtridge, where I stayed in the woods by the park for some shelter from the rain. I eventually found my way to Dunbrack and Lacewood Drive and a park bench where I stayed for about four weeks. A busy intersection, well-lit and I would be seen by police, fire, and EHS on a daily basis.

 

During my time there, I met some awesome community members, who brought me food and a comforter to keep warm. These folks talked with me, wanting to know my story. After 3 ½ weeks or so, a young woman who saw me almost every evening asked if I would like a tent. I said, “Sure!” She came back about an hour later and set up her tent for me. To say the least, I was pleased.

 

The next morning, I received a visit to my park bench from Halifax Police. They advised me I would have to move as it was not an area for a tent. So, I moved up the street to the Mainland Linear Trail, where I set up my tent in the woods, out of public view on the advice of Halifax Police.

 

The days were chilly and the nights cool and lonely. I was there for about 3 weeks, leaving there in the day and returning around early evening.

 

Then, one fine morning I received a call from Pastor Kimber. She was so helpful to me during this time, with coffee, chat and a gift card. Pastor Kimber mentioned to me about a place I could possibly move into. A day or so later, with the help of my friend and MLA, I was on my way to Kentville, NS, to my new home. There I met Jeff Hosick, a Lutheran pastor, therapist. I’ve been in Kentville since November 2022, with a roof over my head, off the streets. Thanks to these 2 awesome folks.

 

 

*NOTE – Pete and Jeff are both members at Resurrection. Because both were connected to the church and known to Pastor Kimber, through sharing their lives, struggles, and situations, she was able to connect them, meeting both their needs, a HOME was provided for both of them (boarder and homeowner).

 

Is there a possibility that you would like to share an apartment with another person? Do you have an empty room that you would like to offer to a student? Are you lonely and would like to have someone else around? Share with Pastor Kimber, you never know who else is looking to create a new sense of HOME.

 

Creator,

You created animals such that they seek refuge for the winter and hibernate until spring. They are warm and secure in their dwellings. We pray that it is so for all who find themselves homeless, tent-living, precariously housed, or couch surfing. May shelters be built, supportive housing provided, rooms opened up, and permanent spaces offered. For those who still shelter in the open air, blanket them with the warmth of kindness from others, comfort from the struggle of mental illness, and a sense of peace in the home of their hearts. Amen.

 

 

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion #6

 

Out-of-the-Cold Shelter  -- by Carolyn

 

Shelter: a building designed to give protection from bad weather, danger, or attack.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

 

Shelter is never defined as a home, but as a place of protection or place to live.

Is shelter different from having a home, a place that you can decorate and cook what you like. Listen to the music you enjoy. Cry, sing, curse, laugh.

Do you consider your home a shelter?

 

Tents are shelters, though not much of a shelter once it gets cold or rainy or snowy. A bed or cot in a large room is shelter. Cardboard boxes can be shelter - both a bed and a roof.

Shelters are set up during weather crises: hurricanes, flooding, wildfires. A place to stay and ensure you will be warm, dry and safe. And that you will be fed.

 

I have so far not needed to use a shelter, nothing has threatened my home or my safety in it, other than power outages. I wonder, though, when that might no longer be true as our climate becomes increasingly extreme.

Several years ago, I volunteered at a shelter for homeless men and women. I made beds, served food, cleaned up in the morning, helped people find clothing or shoes from donated items. And I listened to stories. So many stories from people of all ages, educational levels, ethnic backgrounds. Some were working, many were unable to. All now without a place to call home, a place to wake up in or go to sleep in that was a permanent address, with a fridge and stove, a bathroom.

 

Everyone of us was once a baby and then a child and a young adult. We all had hopes and dreams. Some of those were realized. But for some of us, something shatters those dreams. An accident, a job loss, a relationship breakup, violence, abuse, illness. Often one difficulty leads to another, like a tsunami, taking away every support and possibility of recovery. And family, for various reasons, cannot provide shelter and support. These are the people I would meet on those winter nights. I would listen to the stories: the reminisces about childhood, the early adventures and achievements. And the challenges, the tragedies, the conflicts, the disappointments. And the small successes and changes. I would hear the deep grief and pain, often covered by humour or bravado, or anger and blame.

At the end of each shift, I would return home to my warm house, maybe make a hot drink, and if I was on the evening shift, I’d soon go to bed. There was never a question of where I was going to sleep or whether I’d be warm or dry.

 

And in the hours I spent with my neighbours, I would know that Divine Love was present, holding us all as we looked into each other’s eyes, seeing and being seen. We were all held, all sheltered. We are all one, through and in God’s love. Amen.

A Voice in the Wilderness: Shelters Are Not Homes

 

Adsum House is shelter. For 40 years their focus has been housing, supporting, and advocating for women and children. A recent social media post stated in bold lettering: shelters are not homes.

For you, what is a home, as in a physical dwelling to live in? Is a tent sufficient housing? A cot in a gym? A room in a shared living environment? A camper? A tiny house? A bachelor apartment? At what point, for you, does shelter become a place you would volunteer to live in and call it home?

 

Like a prophet shouting in the wilderness, Adsum House cried out, “Shelters are not homes.”

 

The voice cries in the wilderness of our time. Biblical wilderness symbolizes a vast area where human’s find the climate and environment harsh, where there are unknowns and chaos, angels and demons. There is constant change and in that there is possibility. A few years ago (2015), The New Yorker had an article that identified the wilderness of our time as distraction. The writer, Joshua Rothman wrote, “distraction is now a universal competency. We’re all experts.” One theory to distraction’s desertification of society is that city-living and digital devices breed distraction, providing short-term gratification and reprieve from gulfs of stress, mountains of anxiety and peaks of emotional distress; in the process creating a desert of loneliness. Distraction has become a way of asserting control, in a world where things are out of our control.

 

A voice cries into this wilderness, “Shelters are not homes.” The voice, via John the Baptist, cried out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Preparing the way was described by Luke as a reversal, where the valleys are filled and mountains made low, the crooked is made straight; last year we heard Mark describe preparing the way as repentance, a turning around. In a world where the voice in the wilderness cries, shelters are not home, how do we attend to preparing the way of the Lord?

 

This past week our mayor and city councillors had a discussion around the list of possible sites for tent encampments. The mayor continued to state that no new tent encampments are needed and non will be needed. Whether one agrees or disagrees, through the mayor’s various roles and speaking opportunities over the past few years he has advocated for permanent housing solutions, permanent solutions that are a reversal, a turning around of what currently is. He is casting a vision of future days without tent encampments, because everyone is housed. We are in a wilderness, and we are distracted by finding and providing shelter, - we are distracted by finding shelter- now I don’t want anyone to die on the street, however, when our energy and resources are spent on the impermanent or temporary, band-aid actions, this distraction hinders the harder work of building adequate, permanent, and affordable homes.

 

The voice in the wilderness is addressed to a people, a society, that is mired in busyness and wandering about in distraction. Luke places John the Baptist in the context of powerful and important people – all levels of government – the Roman Empire with Emperor, Governor, and Ruler, with an added layer of Hebrew government in religious high priests and the Sanhedrin. One could get distracted in the details of this history, the personalities of the characters, and fail to hear or attend to the voice calling for a reversal of the known to a pathway for the salvation of God, God’s coming.

Distraction is easier: to cope by minimizing emotional distress with current circumstances and to busy ourselves in what seems important and so avoid that which is daunting. We get distracted in history and in politics. Take for example, what is it about Trump that gets votes and followers? – an over-the-top distraction of sensationalized politics. Distraction breaks the thread of argument, or thought, sabotaging the ability to discuss things logically or sensibly. Current distractions in politics allows a means for governments and peoples to appear and feel busy while avoiding facing difficult issues and seriously attending to, and working on actual crisis, like climate and global warming. Distractions are used as false protection from serious consequences and the fear of the incredible amount of work and sacrifice required to address big-whole-world problems.

 

Have you ever wondered if John the Baptist was a simple distraction from the political upheaval, living in an occupied territory, and the widening divide between rich and poor? Perhaps entertainment to go and see, an adventure into the wilderness to stall monotony? Or was John a voice in the wilderness that people heard and accepted as a focused concentrated passion that was the beginning of reversing what currently was? A prophet in the wilderness reminding and inviting individuals and a people to look beyond the distractions and get to the hard and sacrificial work of preparing the way for God, God’s kindom?

John was both  -  a distraction for some and voice drawing others from distraction.

Business consultant, Nir Eyal, wrote: A distraction is something we do that moves us away from what we really want. Traction is an action that moves us towards what we really want. The difference seems obvious, but distraction has a sneaky way of tricking us. A distraction is only a distraction if you know what it is distracting you from.

What are we being distracted from? This is prophet territory. Prophets call us to remember the coming of God’s kindom, the reversal of what is and the work and sacrifice it will take to prepare the way, to make room for God’s kindom.

 

To make room…

 

The New York Times article I mentioned earlier, talking about the root cause for the growth of distraction, says: “The second big theory is spiritual--- it’s that we’re distracted because our souls are troubled.”

 

The article suggests that a troubled soul comes from an inability for a person to be comfortable with themself, to be able to sit alone in a quiet room; that it is too hard to befriend oneself and sit side by side in silence; so people avoid being uncomfortable through distraction. When I talk with my friends or with you, you know when I am excited about something. Taking time to be in a room alone with yourself allows you space to discover your thoughts, where your heart is sad, how your passions are bubbling from what causes you sadness. Being with yourself is pausing to make room – to prepare the way- for the Holy Spirit to come and engage you, to absorb all of you and your resources into making room for God and God’s kindom.

Distractions aside you embrace grace, experience grace, and most importantly act on grace. Our baptismal commission is bringing about God’s kindom; making room for God’s kindom.

 

Acting on grace you make room. 

For God.

For the hard and sacrificial work of reversing what is.

You prepare the way for God’s kindom.

A voice calls in the wilderness, “Shelters are not homes.”

And you say, “Amen to that.” And freed from distraction you get to work, creating one room, creating another room, and another, until all are housed and have a place they call home.

Advent Shelter: Devotion #5

Congregant Housing   ---by Cathy Crouse

 

 

“Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.” 

Micah 4:4

 

 

The November 2 edition of The Chronicle Herald contained a stark photo of the burnt-out ruin of the Provincial Poor Asylum. “On November 6, 1882, thirty-one people out of 343 residents perished within the six-story brick edifice. …The Asylum was the primary institution for the care of the elderly, the mentally ill and the poor.”

 

Large congregate institutions have until recently been the dominant model for the provision of housing to people with special needs or inadequate income. Within Nova Scotia a landmark legal case was recently won to entrench the right of people with intellectual disabilities to be supported to live integrated lives within their communities. The case was launched against the Provincial Government by the Disability Rights Coalition and it took eight years to be resolved. As a result, all of the current institutions in the province will be closed. People who require supports will be able to make individual choices about where they live and how they will receive supports.

 

The current visibility of people who are “living rough” shows us that congregate care in homeless shelters does not solve the problem of lack of access to affordable housing. People who have now moved into recently provided pallet shelters or mini homes are telling us how essential it is to feel safe and secure. And that having a coordinated array of supports is necessary to chart a path toward permanent housing integrated within the community.

If you have an elderly adult in your family who requires care, or a young person wishing to eventually be able to live on their own, you know about the current challenges in obtaining appropriate and affordable housing. Our systems that support the development and maintenance of housing are built on investment and profit. We need to collectively build equitable housing models that provide security of tenure, safety, supports, and community. That is what will transform housing into homes.

 

 

Let us pray that everyone can have a home, where they feel safe and secure, and are supported to contribute their gifts to their community. And let us commit to supporting this goal in whatever way that we can. Amen

 

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion #4

 

Shelter: As Seen Through the Eyes of Those with an Addiction  -- by Bill

 

What might Shelter look or feel like for persons with an addiction?

Societal stigmas exist for many and are known and attached to people with an addiction. Feelings and sentiments like shame, guilt, disgrace, and being perceived as bad, weak, or unwanted, are the “lot” of many who are addicted or in recovery.

 

Basic synonyms for shelter include protect, keep safe, shield, cover, shade, keep from harm, afford protection to, provide protection for, save, safeguard.

What does, or might, the giving of shelter be in our community to those with addiction?

 

There is often push back from church communities and other communities, when it comes to providing shelter for the addicted. Push back emanates from biases, frustration, judgement, and yes, fear. We have seen, and continue to see, examples front and centre with our homeless living in tents. The hoopla created as to how and where to put “those tent people.” …and yes, more push back. What then become of our “least,” addicts sitting very low, so to speak, on the social scale?

In all of this: What are the needs of the addicted from the perspective of shelter and how might we care, and assist them, in our community?

 

Assisting those, who in many cases are abandoned, or cut off from relationships by their own doing, are seeking help because of compiled circumstances, many of which were and are out of their control. There is an ongoing and increasing need to provide shelter for those seeking help.

 

So, what might a person suffering from an addiction be looking for as it pertains to shelter once basic living needs are addressed?

The Basics-

A shelter where no stigmas are in place.

A shelter that is safe, that keeps them from harm,

A shelter which screens, protects, and is a safeguard for them.

 

The providing of ‘the Basics’ of shelter for persons with an addiction is a fruitful place for recovery in a group meeting. There is much evidence of the “power of the group” for persons with addiction.

Types include:

Group Homes (6 mons and beyond)

Recovery Houses (28-day live-in programs)

Home Groups (in communities)

 

Many addicts and those who are in continued recovery flourish in Home Groups, with the assistance of the other group members while meeting in a safe room. People can always make things complicated, but in the opinion of this writer simple works well. Shelter is providing a safe space to those who seek or are in recovery that is community based. Shelter is one person helping another person in a Group setting.

 

 

Note: Resurrection shelters various Anonymous Groups providing safe rooms for group meetings.

If you, or someone you know, is struggling with addiction please do not hesitate to seek help. Pr. Kimber can connect you with a group.

 

 

Incarnate God,

wrap in your embrace all who struggle with addiction along with their families and friends. Bless programs of support and safe rooms. Provide the feeling of home through group listening and conversation. Amen.

And as prayed in anonymous rooms, the Serenity prayer: God, grant me the Serenity, to accept the things I can not change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.