Greetings in Christ, my Holy Family! Keeping in mind that I don’t have a ton of space, I’ve got two quick things to hit you with.
First, we’ve had quite an influx of people aggressively asking for money at Church. As Jesus lovers, this presents us with a tough moral conundrum: we are called to care for the poor, but we also recognize that every time we give money, word gets out and it becomes a big problem. This last week after the 10:00 Mass, we had three people asking for money, two of them quite aggressively. I offered to make them breakfast or a sandwich, but they wanted money.
I spoke with the Grand Blanc PD and they are strongly encouraging us NOT to give them money. If you wish to offer to buy them breakfast, please feel free to do so, but please do not give them cash. (You may help them by donating to Outreach.) Also, you can remind them that our Outreach Ministry is available to all in need Monday through Friday from 10 am until 2 pm. We give in excess of $4,000 a month in aid out of that beautiful place and they will find there the means to get anything they need that will help them.
I know this is tough and thank you for your Christ-like, generous hearts, but please keep in mind that by giving money we may be enabling criminal and self-destructive behavior and we certainly are sending up a flag that more people should come and beg.
Second, a quick update. As of my typing this article, the inside of the Church is asbestos free!!! That’s big news and the amazing crew that did the work not only did a great job, but they finished early. The rest of the inside is stripped out and today (Wednesday the 25th), they are removing the sanctuary platform where the altar was. The windows, organ, altar, stations of the cross and other such items are all removed and stored safely to be put back in our new temple. The limestone around our windows has been removed in such a way as to allow us to reuse those in our Church, too, which is a nice savings for us. The next steps are the removal of the roof and walls that we will replace. Praise God!
Thank you for your faithful support of our Parish. Thank you for all of those who have completed their pledges early; the more of us that do that, the less we’ll have to borrow to pay it all off. We are absolutely moving along: keep those prayers coming!
With all my heart, I thank God for you.
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