May 2016 Newsletter

The Spring season has been a time of renewal for the Samaritan House ministry. Nine new volunteers were trained, and many more are pending. Please continue your recruitment efforts, as we need at least ten additional volunteers in order to sustain a schedule for future guests. A second orientation and training session for new volunteers (and those who would like a refresher) has been scheduled for Thursday, June 9th at 6:00pm at the Samaritan House. Please “RSVP” to this email so we can plan accordingly, and extend this invitation to anyone who has an interest in our ministry. Applications will be available at the training.
 
The Samaritan House Steering Committee extends a warm welcome to Julie Stager, our newest member. Julie comes to us with many gifts and talents to share with our guests and their families, as well as our committee.
 
All volunteers who served our April guest are invited to an "Afternoon Tea" next Sunday, May 15th, from 3:30-5:00pm.
 
As always, sincere thanks to all of you who serve our guests and their families with care and compassion, and to all of our mothers – “Happy Mother’s Day”!

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From "Simple Truths" by Kent Nerburn

When we come to the end of our journey, and the issues that so concerned us recede from us like the day before the coming night, it will be the small touches -- the child we have helped, the garden we have planted, the meal we have prepared when we were too weary to do so -- that will become our legacy to the universe.

If we have played our part well, offering love where it was needed, strength where it was lacking; if we have tended the earth and its creatures with a sense of humble stewardship, we will have done enough. We may pass quietly, and rest gently in the knowledge that we have left the world a little warmer, a little kinder, a little richer in love.
 
Though our moment was brief and our part small, somewhere in the fullness of time, our acts will bear fruit, ant the earth will raise up a bit of goodness in our memory.
 
It is a small legacy, perhaps, but a legacy nonetheless. Somewhere, between a baby's cry and the distant brightness of a star, the mystery was alive in us for a moment. It was our privilege to feel its presence, and to have the chance to pass it on."

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​Tis like the birthday of the world, when earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes, the air is all perfume:
There's crimson buds, and white and blue, the very rainbow showers
Have turned to blossoms where they fell, and sown the earth with flowers.
—Thomas Hood