We would like to thank you for your Christmas donation of time, talent and treasure. Every year when we send out our Christmas appeal, we say a prayer that it will touch you so you will generously respond. And you did!

This year we were very concerned about inflation, workers being laid off, and of course, COVID, all of which affect people’s capacity for giving. This impacts us in a number of ways, mostly that we will not have enough money to purchase the number of gifts we need. But thanks to your generosity, we were able to fulfill every request of the 704 families who asked for help this Christmas. That works out to almost 1,700 children. And we were able to give each child four to five gifts, which means we passed out over 8,500 gifts. May the Good Lord bless your generosity one hundredfold.

On another note, we need to make you aware that Kathy and I are struggling to keep this ministry going…a ministry that has doubled its size over the past three years. We are suffering from “Old” which seriously affects our ability to keep up with this growing ministry and requires that we cut back our day-to-day involvement. Simply said, we need people to supplement our efforts. If we are unsuccessful attracting help, then many of our programs are in very serious jeopardy.

Currently, we are looking for an administrative assistant to manage the administration and a pickup and delivery person to work with our Little Store team. The job descriptions for each of these positions are currently posted on our website at Careers – Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope. These are the critical positions, but we have many other positions that have historically been filled by volunteers, and are currently vacant and need to be filled.
We are asking your help in the search for candidates for these positions. That person could be you, your husband or wife, son or daughter, a good friend or someone you know. Maybe you’re in the business of helping companies recruit employees. If there is any way you can help, please let us know. Adding day to day operational help is a very critical need for us right now. 

And thank you once again for joining us in walking with the “least, the last and the left out,” during this Christmas season. 

We hope that you and yours had a very Merry Christmas and a Blessing filled New Year!!

Kathy and Walter