One of the major social problems in our world, and here in Lake County, is homelessness. PADS Lake County has been operating for a number of years to provide temporary shelter for individuals and families. Faith Lutheran has helped them in recent years to provide Sunday suppers at one of the churches in Deerfield for PADS clients. Faith has also visited the PADS office with Comfort Dog Asher during training sessions.
The pandemic has interrupted these activities to support people experiencing homelessness. PADS has had to find overnight space in hotels. They then have brought food to these families using various kinds of containers. Several local charities have been doing volunteer work to provide such food.
In our Outreach Committee activities, Faith volunteers became aware of a Christian ministry operating in the Zion and Winthrop Harbor areas of Lake County called Safe Haven. They have been providing food to PADS clients. They also have acquired the use of residential buildings to use as temporary housing. Rather than providing homeless people with just overnight places, they provide apartments that people can use for several weeks or months.
The pastor for Safe Haven is Rev. Dave Barrett. Outreach committee members have talked with him and gotten to know more about their mission. Within the next month, the Outreach Committee may be announcing a new effort called “Exiting Homelessness.” This will be a collaborative effort to support families creating homes for themselves. The project would be aimed at assembling donations of all the materials and supplies needed to set up a home.
As we were engaged in these discussions, Safe Haven suffered a major emergency with one of their transitional housing units. This facility housed 10 people. The old furnace serving this building had suddenly experienced a major collapse and became totally unfunctional. Safe Haven was faced with the possibility of having to evict the residents. Pastor Barrett contacted various organizations and people who had supported the mission. He also contacted Faith. A new furnace was to cost $2100-$2500. The Outreach Committee recommended to the Faith Church Council that some significant amount should be donated to Safe Haven. A donation of $700 was approved. Upon learning of this action, Pastor Barrett was overjoyed. He said that with these funds and others, they would be able to replace the furnace. We thank the Lord that we were able to help. We have joined with Pastor Barrett to confirm that while we always want to help people with physical needs, our real goal is to bring the Good News of the Gospel to hurting people.