What does it look like to show up for someone?
June 30, 2020
God’s tenacious solidarity with us. That’s what Walter Brueggemann, theologian and author, calls the undergirding sense of God’s presence with us in these days of pandemic, divisiveness, and amidst the pain and ugliness of continued racism.
And it is this very sense of tenacious solidarity that I see every day lived out by Neighboring Volunteers walking with families facing homelessness. The solidarity of a Neighboring Volunteer showing up for a Bridge of Hope mom early Sunday morning at Lowe’s, to help her look at door replacements after someone broke her door on Saturday night. The solidarity of two Neighboring Volunteers not giving up during a discouraging housing hunt with a mom and finally finding the perfect (affordable!) place. The solidarity of a Neighboring Volunteer’s persistence in finding a volunteer to tutor a 10-year-old boy in math when online schooling was not working for him and his mom.
God’s tenacious solidarity with us is emulated beautifully by Neighboring Volunteers in Bridge of Hope as they continue to show up for and walk with moms and children who have faced the loneliness and pain of having no place to live.
It is beautiful to see the children of God who have housing, walking with the children of God who do not have housing. Neighboring is a beautiful journey.
Let’s all lean into neighboring with tenacious solidarity in these days!
Edith Yoder
Chief Executive Officer
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