Almost a year ago now Sabbath House set out to execute her new vision.  The charge was threefold:

1.  Establish a ministry serving the unborn at risk and their mothers.

2.  Establish a ministry serving international students.

3.  Support the ecumenical ministries already serving local poor.

The end of 2010 finds the first two goals met.  The third is less quantifiable, but we’re glad to have an almost daily presence at the Hope Center where we lead a tutoring program.  And, in spite of our goal being to support other local ministries, we’ve been blessed to be on the receiving end of ministry support!  We were given a financial contribution from Project Hope (Celebrate Recovery) and a car for Lavender House from the local catholic group, St. Vincent dePaul.  It’s been a blessing to get to know our local brothers and sisters who work hard serving Moscow’s residents in need.

Additionally, we serve a number of folks who don’t necessarily fall into any of our vision categories.  We were able to accomplish the Police Department’s emergency shoveling requests  again this year, and thanks to many able volunteers, we got through this last snow fall without a hitch.  We take requests from the Department of Health and Welfare to serve various individuals in need.  I personally interview walk-ins at Anselm, and I also serve our own body in various ways and with many volunteers.

The opportunity to lead this ministry has been a great blessing to me and my family.  Although, I often wonder if my only use for this work is to stand around and receive things from God.  I can’t make anything go apart from his intervening providence, so I’m thankful that he keeps throwing opportunities and resources my way.

Thanks for your prayers, support, and countless volunteer hours.

The goal for 2011: go deeper, go higher, die more and better.

With a zeroed out budget, accurate expense projections for the Lavender House duplex renovation, and considering the $25,000 we have in a cd as cash, I expect our cash balance to hold steady at $30,000 by March.  I really hope that we’ve added value to the duplex through our renovations, but if not, it’s value will be around $170,000.  We own it outright, and we’re open to selling it, if such a sale would further our goals for the year.

Right now we have projected a monthly income of about $5300 (and again, we plan on spending all of it).  This includes income from the duplex, which will be necessary income until we have additional support.  Our expenses are difficult to project since we don’t know how many ladies will be interested in Lavender House or what their respective needs will be.  We’re budgeting about $800 a month for client expenses, and I’m afraid that could be easily overwhelmed given the expenses incurred at birth and in the first few months following birth.  But, it’s all we can afford.

I’m praying for an average monthly income of $10,000.  This would allow us to achieve our target of serving five young women and their babies by the end of the third quarter (October 1st).  It would also give us the ability to pay the staff more or hire additional help, and it would leave us with a few hundred dollars in revenue each month for other programs that currently don’t have financial support, like ISO and the tutoring center.