Newsletter: March 2024
Dear Friends of Joseph House:
Last month, February 14th to be exact, was the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Joseph House Crisis Center.
These milestones have a way of sneaking up on us, and this one was no different. We marked the occasion by serving a special cake in our Soup Kitchen that day. Given that it was Ash Wednesday, we had a little celebration the night before at dinner. It was Mardi Gras, though a more fitting holiday would have been Thanksgiving. Our dinner was simply a celebration of gratitude for all the support the Crisis Center has received.
It continues after 40 years because, first of all, God wills it, second, it is needed, and third, because of the efforts of a long list of people, including you, our dear friends, who offer your prayers and donations.
The remarkable thing about the Crisis Center is how it draws people together. It has never been just a project of the Little Sisters: from the very beginning it has been a collaboration involving local businesses, organizations, churches, and people from all walks of life. It focuses the care and concern of the community to help our neighbors in need.
To everyone, past and present, we give our heartfelt thanks.
In appearance, the Crisis Center is humble and unassuming. It exhibits an everyday, lived-in functionality — maybe because that’s the usual cover for how God’s grace operates.
It is ours and yours, and most importantly, it is the poor’s.
Our founder, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Gintling, was blunt in expressing her expectations for the Crisis Center: she required that it “be a place that doesn’t say to them [the needy] they are just trash.” In other words, the physical surroundings need to reflect our primary purpose, which is to uphold and affirm the dignity of all people and to welcome everyone with love and respect. Though it may be a humble structure, the Crisis Center is warm and cheerful inside and kept in good repair. To that end, we recently installed new floors and lighting, thanks to your support.
Your support also allows the Crisis Center to offer a variety of services, services that feed the hungry, care for the homeless, and provide the basic necessities for those in need. We usually just call it “the Center,” and it really is the center of our ministry to those in need. It is a place of solidarity and communion, where divisions fall away and no one is marginalized. Here are a few recent guests:
Despite her frailty, Florence, age 60, cleans houses for a living. She has no car and minimal expenses, but her rent has gone up and she is struggling to pay it. There was some confusion about how much she owed; Florence thought she might even have a credit, but it turns out she was far behind in her payments and an eviction was forthcoming. We contacted her landlord and mailed a check for $400. When we saw her, Florence only had $2.00 to her name, so we gave her $25 to help her buy a few essentials at the store. A friend was driving her so we also supplied a voucher for 12 gallons of gas.
Lizzie has five children under the age of 12. They have been homeless for a while. Lizzie said she has a fiancé working part-time in Baltimore, although once they get married they plan to stay in Salisbury. She found a very small apartment to rent in a private home for only $100 per month. The catch is the kitchen is shared with three other tenants. This can be a less than ideal situation, but hopefully it is only temporary. It’s a step toward stability, and little steps are better than none at all. We paid $400 to cover the deposit plus rent for three months.
Seymour, 52, and his wife are both dealing with serious health issues: he has lung cancer and she has kidney failure. Seymour qualified for $934 monthly in Supplemental Security Income (SSI), but he was denied additional temporary cash benefits from the state. His wife’s application is still under review. With a monthly rent of $1000, their situation is critical. We paid $400 toward their past-due electric bill so the power would not be turned off.
Arthur, 62, is a self-employed housepainter. A painful knee injury is keeping him from working. He lives alone in an old house divided into four apartments, close to the river and the commercial docks. With zero income he was headed toward homelessness. We mailed $400 to his landlord.
Erma, 51, has two children and works at a hospital. She takes home about $1,500 per month, but the rent is $1,100 and then there are utility bills, transportation costs, and a loan payment. She is always behind in something. Erma had shoulder surgery recently, and that meant missing enough work that she couldn’t pay the rent. She has recovered and is doing her best to get caught up, but her landlord still sent her an eviction notice. We paid him $400 to give Erma some more time.
Penny, 73, stopped receiving food stamps because she did not understand how to fill out the renewal paperwork. Faced with the choice of either buying food or paying her rent, she bought food, but then she was in danger of losing her apartment in a senior housing complex. A family member helped Penny get her food stamps reinstated. The unpaid rent was too much for her, so we contributed $350.
Aubrey, 36, must take her disabled teen-age son to a special clinic in Baltimore twice a week for dialysis. The travel expenses, which sometimes include overnight stays, led to her being short on the rent. To stop the eviction proceedings, we paid $400 toward the amount due.
Forty years is a sign of dedication. And what sustains it is love. What we find so gratifying is to see people come forward at different times, as either volunteers or benefactors or both, and make their contribution to the Crisis Center, to add the special touch that their love brings to its mission. So many have left their mark — it is a joy to behold. On our website you can see photos that trace this legacy of service (see A First-Class Miracle).
Thank you once again for all that you do to keep our ministry going. Spring is rapidly approaching and so is Easter. It is a hopeful time of year, a season of new life, and we pray that it brings you many blessings.
Your Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary
Please send us your prayer requests so we can pray for your needs: Contact Form
Support from people like you is needed for the Crisis Center and our other ministries: Donate
“In Saint Joseph, we discover a daily discreet and hidden presence, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who go unnoticed, who seem hidden in the shadows, quietly doing their part, often play an incomparable role in the lives of others and even in history. The greatness of Saint Joseph is mostly hidden; he was a kind and loving spouse to Mary and father to Jesus.
“Saint Joseph stood at the crossroads of the Old and New Testaments. The psalms were Joseph’s prayer book, memorized and taught to Jesus so he, too, would be soaked in the tender love and constancy of God. Like God, Joseph approached everything with a spirit of kindness, compassion, and great tenderness. Let us turn to Saint Joseph that he may intercede for us as we pray for a kind and open heart, and a tenderness of soul.”
—Dr. Jill Bates