By As our Bruderhof volunteer Marion Zumpe heads to New York this late May weekend, we’d like to share a recent reflection she wrote about her time with Lydia’s House: Growing up on an intentional community, I always believed that God had called me to that way of life. Although I still feel that to be true, stepping outside the community to work at Lydia’s House has helped me grow in my faith. I have put faces and names to the people Jesus referred to as the least of these. I have learned that some of them are the strongest people
A Visit to the Hof
By Mary Ellen Mitchell When we were 24 (in 2005), Meridith and I took a trip up the east coast to visit intentional Christian communities and imagine what our futures might be. Our last stop was the Bruderhof, which Meridith described as “kind of Amish, kind of Catholic worker.” We stayed with a family, worked in the laundry, and saw their peace barn. Years passed, Lydia’s House was born, and we looked to lots of places to get help and inspiration for this work. In 2019 Bethany Kurtz came to us, as she was leaving the Bruderhof, having discerned that
Our New Atrium Space
Our new Atrium space is finished and open for children to interact and learn about God! The past month our friends Dan Aerni, Dane Miller, Dennis Bishop and Steve Whitlatch have been hard at work preparing our new classroom space for our Wednesday night Atrium religious education program. We put in a new wall in order to have two separate classrooms to divide up our age groups, repainted, and set up all of the different interactive stations. Putting in the drywall and getting it painted. About two weeks ago, all of the construction was completed and
HOUSE NOTES
By Mary Ellen Mitchell Can it be said enough that it’s been a strange year? At Lydia’s House we have nothing to bench mark this against, but we keep on keeping on. Through later summer and into fall we continued to operate our shelter in socially distanced “suites” with kitchenettes and private bathrooms. Meals were largely discontinued while we considered options and scoured the latest updates on the CDC website for where Covid spread was occurring and how to stop it. There were times we felt really low about the lack of community and engagement, and we kept returning to
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras, translated as: “Fat Tuesday”, is a celebration to enjoy all rich, fatty foods before the lent fasting season. So on Sunday February 23, Lydia’s House family and friends gathered together for this historic celebration. Food and drinks covered the tables, pizza, fresh veggies, and even green frosted brownies, a real feast. Everyone just milled around reconnecting with those they hadn’t seen in a while or those they had. Or danced to Will Smith’s “Getting Jiggy Wit’ It”. Others got in line at the photo booth to get their pictures taken. Still others raced around the room after children.
