Thursday, January 04, 2007

Reality of the day-to-day work here. . .

Happy New Year!

Now, it's back to reality, right?

Commitment to abiding by the resolutions is still in high gear, but the work we do continues largely unaffected by our posting of dates and seasons.

People still struggle to pay the rent, put food on the table, educate children, keep a job, secure transportation, maintain their health and discover meaning in the entire process!

Before the New Year arrived it hit us pretty hard here.

The major water line to our Community Health Services building broke under the foundation. Last Saturday morning water was pouring out of the facility like a river. Plumbers are still working to fix the problem today! Hear the sound of the cash register whirling? I estimate it will cost us $20,000 before we call it done.

Then, there have been the wonderful readers here--167 of you to be exact--who have contributed $72,000 to our little "blog campaign" that began in the fall last year. That's right.

We've painted 72 houses green!

What a blessing!

These gifts will allow us to continue moving forward with the building downtown, while also helping us continue serving the thousands of inner city residents who come to us out of their struggle to make life work.

No doubt, there will be other matters today and tomorrow.

You know, it just is what it is.

And, the old adage serves us well just here: 90% of everything is simply deciding to show up.

Here's praying we all keep showing up where it matters during 2007!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully your insurance will cover part of the repair. If not, some of us will be willing to help recover the expense.

Larry James said...

Thanks for the post and the support, Anonymous! We are checking on the insurance, but since it was under the foundation and outside the building and since there was no water damage inside, I doubt that our insurance will be a remedy, but we will see.

The total cost will approach $25,000 due to the location of the break and the major excavation required to locate it and repair it.

Always something!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for continuing to educate all of us! Too often we believe that people's circumstances are their own choosing. While that's true to some extent, it goes much deeper.