We solicit your prayers of thanks and your intercessions for LOTS and our neighbors. We intend to provide you updates here on those needs for which we ask for prayer.
Update: Week of June 28
1. Join us in giving thanks for those who continue to provide funds and food during this season when the average number of people we feed and give water to hovers around 400.
2. Join us in giving thanks for the permission we received to have 4-6 volunteers per day join the staff to help with food preparation and delivery, mail services (receiving, sorting, and delivering), and with the sorting and preparing for delivery of the extra items we hand out each day (underwear on Mon, t-shirts on Tues, water on Wed, socks & hygiene items on Thur, extra snack pack on Fri).
3. Ask the Lord for continued and new provisions we still need that were not included in our 2020 Budget:
4. As the numbers of those infected with COVID-19 continue to rise, ask the Lord to give us wisdom about effective ways to teach and reinforce the habits of health for our neighbors on the streets. Pray particularly that our neighbors would choose to practice adequate social distancing while waiting for services at LOTS and other agencies, and wear a mask over both their nose and mouth, and wash their hands with soap & water and apply hand sanitizer at stations where it is available. Social distancing and mask-wearing are repeatedly violated by our LOTS neighbors, and the hand washing or sanitizing ignored even when they have access to those resources.
5. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct us in formulating new policies and procedures that reflect the best health and safety precautions for the re-opening of LOTS. These will be incorporated in a request to be submitted to Bishop Hector Monterroso for permission to resume some services that require both volunteers to help deliver and larger numbers of people to have access to our parking lot than we currently invite to be present in there. Our heart in this is to protect staff and volunteers and partners (like the Harris Health Clinic staff) and our neighbors while continuing to offer needed services that help us become a trusted and love-filled church community that engages in relationally-focused life and ministry with our neighbors.
6. Continue, please, to ask the Lord for protection and strength for our small staff. Weary servants are more susceptible to physical, emotional and spiritual attacks, and our small team has been magnificent in carrying the load, but they are not tireless.
Update: Week of June 28
1. Join us in giving thanks for those who continue to provide funds and food during this season when the average number of people we feed and give water to hovers around 400.
2. Join us in giving thanks for the permission we received to have 4-6 volunteers per day join the staff to help with food preparation and delivery, mail services (receiving, sorting, and delivering), and with the sorting and preparing for delivery of the extra items we hand out each day (underwear on Mon, t-shirts on Tues, water on Wed, socks & hygiene items on Thur, extra snack pack on Fri).
3. Ask the Lord for continued and new provisions we still need that were not included in our 2020 Budget:
- for healthy snacks for snack packs (more protein and more health bars, and fewer chips)
- for hand sanitizer (we currently need 2-2.5 gallons per week!)
- for masks (we currently need 100-125 minimum per week)
- at least one portable toilet and at least one hand-washing station with two faucets to rent, and for the funds to have the toilets emptied and cleaned 2-3 times per week
- multiple large fans to help cool the parking lot where our neighbors seeking services and the Health Clinic staff offering services remain during the hours we are open.
4. As the numbers of those infected with COVID-19 continue to rise, ask the Lord to give us wisdom about effective ways to teach and reinforce the habits of health for our neighbors on the streets. Pray particularly that our neighbors would choose to practice adequate social distancing while waiting for services at LOTS and other agencies, and wear a mask over both their nose and mouth, and wash their hands with soap & water and apply hand sanitizer at stations where it is available. Social distancing and mask-wearing are repeatedly violated by our LOTS neighbors, and the hand washing or sanitizing ignored even when they have access to those resources.
5. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct us in formulating new policies and procedures that reflect the best health and safety precautions for the re-opening of LOTS. These will be incorporated in a request to be submitted to Bishop Hector Monterroso for permission to resume some services that require both volunteers to help deliver and larger numbers of people to have access to our parking lot than we currently invite to be present in there. Our heart in this is to protect staff and volunteers and partners (like the Harris Health Clinic staff) and our neighbors while continuing to offer needed services that help us become a trusted and love-filled church community that engages in relationally-focused life and ministry with our neighbors.
6. Continue, please, to ask the Lord for protection and strength for our small staff. Weary servants are more susceptible to physical, emotional and spiritual attacks, and our small team has been magnificent in carrying the load, but they are not tireless.