Jesus Hands

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