Dear faithful volunteers of Helping Hands Street Mission,
This is national volunteer week and I felt like I needed to express somethings to you as we head into our 12th season of ministry. First of all there are no words to describe how greatful I am for all of your time and love that you put into the mission, especially those of you who have been here since the beginning. I cant imagine the level of frustration some of you must have felt many times over these years. You got hooked up with a ministry that had no idea what that word even meant back then with a leader who wasn't in the position they were in because they were qualified to lead. You watched me fumble through my faith, my family, the mission and the people. You were privy to moments of breakdown, excitement, joy and discouragement ( sometimes all in one day). You came on board because of your love for God and His people and I think even the excitement of a small "grassroots" ministry that just went where the Lord led them. To say that you have been led by a fearless leader would be a lie most times I was terrified, knowing more than any of you that it made no sense for me to be in the position I was placed in except because of the grace of God. We had no idea where God would lead us and many times we thought it was God but clearly it was not, so we took more grace and continued on the best we could. Many things have changed over these 12 years, including me, and although I am not where I need to be thank God I am not where I used to be. The mission has changed too, some great decisions have been made and some really bad ones and my hope is that we have all learned from those.
I want to thank-you for your grace, patience and love. Many of you have been our biggest cheerleaders and encouragers and that truly has been a gift to me. I know you have all done work that might have seemed to go unnoticed and I know you have not received the recognition that you deserve for all you do. I am sorry for that. Through the years as the mission has grown I have tried my best but know that absolutely it still, for some, may not have been enough. I know its hard to "stick it out" in a space where things sometimes change from day to day or week to week as building a ministry is hard. We have a God who is in charge but has this crazy way of letting people step out in faith, make mistakes, fall, fumble and get back up again so He can turn us around to the place He wanted us to go in the first place. He could make it all run smoothly but then we all would certainly be left out of the equation. I know I would be for sure.
In 2003 I just wanted to tell people how much Jesus loved them and I was qualified to do that. All the rest of this "Executive Director" stuff is not something my "graduated high school" portfolio was qualified for. I want to thank-you for "sticking with it" even when perhaps your faith in me wasn't always there. Thank-you for being a people whose faith in God was so much bigger. Thank-you for continuing to do the work you felt God calling you to do in spite of not receiving proper acknowledgment from me. Thank-you for loving our friends at the mission more than your idea of a perfect leader. Thank-you for your endless time away from your families to serve in many situations that were not "ideal" or fun to be in. Thank-you for letting us know when things were great more than the times they were not. Thanks for telling people great things about the mission even and especially when things weren't so good. Thanks for encouraging others to come along for the ride even though the ride was bumpy sometimes. Thanks for being people of integrity and coming to me with your frustrations, even the ones about me. Thanks for choosing to be "builders" of the kingdom not "destroyers".
It takes a special kind of person to join a team of a small"grassroots" mission because it is inevitable that change will come and mistakes will be made. Policies will be written and re-written. Disappointments will happen. People will leave. More mistakes will be made..........made to make room for our awesome God to step in and right our wrongs and help us try to make sense of this Beautiful mess of the kingdom of God.
Thanks to all our "newbies" who have recently come along in our journey, I am always excited to see who God is bringing onto the team for this new season-how exciting!
Thank-you for the leap of faith you have all decided to take with us! It still wont be perfect but if you hang on I promise it will be worth it.
Blessings and love, Your not so fearless and far from perfect, founder and Executive Director
Helen
