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| Tina Nancollas, who gave us the "Minute on Mission" on Sunday, Oct. 28 |
Stewardship
Talk – Oct 28, 2012
Legend has it that the late Gene Irish spearheaded Saint
David’s sponsorship of the Saint David’s Court project, which works through HUD
to offer over 20 apartments to applicants who have limited mobility. The legacy
(read “By-Laws”) leads to the very first act of every new vestry – immediately
after the Annual Meeting ends – we formally add and delete members of the St.
David’s Court Board so that it exactly mirrors the vestry and wardens. This
Board meets twice a year – and we don’t just
listen to the detailed report presented by the management company – in the last
couple years we suggested refinancing the building’s mortgage, which is going
to make a nice list of improvements possible.
What I’ve just described is something that works, and has
worked for years, to meet the physical housing needs for people who - well,
need it. But it turns out that mobility limitations can also tend to
isolate people. The majority of residents don’t drive, and often find
transportation to shop and making it to Dr.’s appointments enough of a
challenge, so traveling for social purposes isn’t much of an option.
There are some social get-togethers for the residents which
meet some of those social needs and can
help people to get to know each other and possibly form friendships, and many residents
have aides and family who see them at SDC or take them out. So what several St.
David’s members have tried to do is to
offer a connection to another part of the outside world, to people who are
there to offer time and interest in their lives. And we also generally offer a
meal along with whatever else we have planned…. we are Saint David’s after all.
Many of our monthly events
have involved a bit of cooking and planning – and they’ve been fun. We’ve tried our best
to plan ahead when we can, so residents who need lead time for plans have it - and to offer something to look forward to. But
recently, our monthly plan changed when we’d learned that one of the residents
had made a suicide attempt. The notice was short, the food was simple and so
was the plan – members of the church would come, mostly to give people a chance
to talk about their feelings to someone who was ready to listen. Many came from both the Church and the
Court – there were probably a dozen conversations going on at the same
time. Because of the relationship we had
built over the previous years, we could be there when we were needed to help
replace some of the feelings of distress with those of comfort – it was pretty
amazing.
Behind all this has been the availability of Outreach funds
to cover the cost of our monthly events and occasionally designate funds for a
special need that we’ve learned about at the Court. It makes it possible for us
to continue to strive to be Jesus’ hands in this part of His world.
Tina Nancollas
