 A Newark homeowner contacted us seeking help with some home repairs. She and her husband had run a prosperous business, but he died, and she had to assume all of the duties of the business herself. Her situation was complicated further when she was diagnosed with a debilitating disease. Whatever financial resources she had left were wiped out by medical expenses. And you can probably guess what happened next: unable to work, she had to shutter the business. Here is a woman who worked hard to hang on after the devastating loss of her husband. She worked hard, but in the providence of God, her situation was harder. It was our joy to be able to repair her furnace and chimney, and it was her joy, too—she wept at the completion of the work, overwhelmed with gratitude. May God grant her mercy in her circumstances, and lasting hope in Christ Jesus.   Last week, we shared some photos to social media from a project in Wilmington. The homeowners are a couple who have lived at their address for over thirty years, and are recently facing health challenges. The husband had a heart attack some years ago, and still faces ongoing issues with pain in his arms and hands. His wife was diagnosed with cancer shortly after we began work on their home. After New Castle County building inspectors sent violation notices for several issues, the couple reached out to Good Neighbors to help address them. They met our criteria, and we set about working on the home. So far, we've worked on rebuilding their back porch, fixing damaged plaster, and putting up new siding. Please join us in praying for this couple. Pray for healing for her cancer, and pain management for the lingering effects of his heart attack. Pray that the Lord would provide for their financial and physical needs. Above all, pray that our work—done in Jesus name—would point their eyes to Jesus, the only true and lasting provision for the healthy and the hurting, the prosperous and the poor.   Love, Inc is a mercy ministry in New Castle County. This past summer, a local homeowner reached out to Love, Inc because her roof was in terrible shape, and the leaks were making their way into her kitchen, utility room, and bathrooms. Mold was starting to form, and with herself and two daughters to care for, she had no way to pay for the repairs on her own. But without any attention, the roof would likely have caved in and put this family in a far more dire situation. Love, Inc evaluated her case and referred her to us. After an interview, we determined that the homeowner qualified for repairs and we set about doing them. Over the course of several months, Good Neighbors staff and volunteers—including a group from our Youth Camp—set about converting this family's house from a source of anxiety into a warmer, drier, safer, healthier home. In addition to the roofing work, we painted, replaced gutters, replaced a window, and replaced the damaged drywall on the interior ceilings. We received a letter from the homeowner, thanking us for the kind disposition of our volunteers, and praising God for his provision. This warms our hearts, and we hope it warms yours, too. We repair homes as an expression of our love for Jesus, that we might restore lasting hope to the people we serve. Thanks be to God that this dear woman knows the source of her help and hope.  Dear Friends,
It is with joy and humility that I announce a Longwood Foundation grant of $80,000 to Good Neighbors Home Repair in support of our initiative to Restore Hope by Repairing Homes in northern New Castle County. The Longwood Foundation grant is designated to fund the repair of 20+ homes in 2018 and the infrastructure to continue increasing our impact and build long-term sustainability. For over 25 years Good Neighbors has built strong relations with 20 area foundations who provide almost 50% of our annual budget. The Longwood Foundation, however, is known as having the most rigorous process of evaluation and examination. Through the six-month process we were called to examine every facet of our work:
This is a one-time grant to begin our 5 year goal in NCC: to match the 100+ homes we do each year in Southern Chester County. The foundation was clear that we should continue to build a sustainable program. With this increase in repair funds, we will need even more volunteers and supporters in order to double our impact. Today I received a note from a single mother of 7: "Before you came to my house to address my plumbing issues I had completely exhausted all the money I had trying to remedy the problem myself. I could barely meet my utility bills when the leak got worse and, consequently, caused a mold problem which severely affected my children's health. I am certain that God sent you in the nick of time to help us." As we thank the Lord, the Foundation and our faithful friends, there are still many low-income families in desperate need of warmer, safer, drier and healthier homes. With your continued support and the Longwood Foundation funds, many more of these families will receive help from Good Neighbors. Harold Naylor, Jr. Executive Director We have a guest author on the blog this week, Rev. Tom Harr from Faith Presbyterian in Wilmington. Thanks, Tom! Mark 7:14-23: Mark 7:14–23 The issue being debated in Mark 7 is what makes someone unclean in God’s eyes; what makes someone unacceptable to God. The Pharisees are blaming external things – you are unacceptable because of what you touch, where you go, what you eat. But Jesus says the problem is much more personal and what he says is startling. He says the problem is not outside us. It is us.
Now you may feel offended. “How dare you!” you say. Because this isn’t how people usually talk about wrongdoing. We are used to hearing people in public life calling the wrong things they have done a “mistake”—something that came upon them. But Jesus says that is nonsense. Sin is not something that we come across “out there” in which we are unintentionally caught. It is something that flows out of our heart. It comes out of us and we have to own up and take responsibility for it. However, as you participate in and support the work of Good Neighbors, beware of a very dangerous tendency. This is what I mean: Without thinking, it’s often very easy to assume that there is a direct line to be drawn from a someone’s personal sin and their needy circumstances. In other words, we assume (even without thinking) that the person we are helping wouldn’t need our help if only that had made wiser decisions (for example, like us). But while a person’s unwise (even sinful) decisions can certainly lead to circumstances of need, that’s not the point Jesus is making. Jesus’ debate here is with the Pharisees and teachers of the law (Mark 7:1) who often used the sin of “those people” to justify avoiding them, lest they be polluted themselves. But Jesus is saying to them that’s not how you get polluted. Sin affects us from the inside—including, as he lists in v.22, the sin of pride. So when we encounter those in need, even when their suffering stems in part from their sin, a Good Neighbor moves toward them for two reasons. First, we move toward them because there is nothing infectious about need. Our own sin comes from inside of us and we have plenty of it. And second, we move toward them in their need because Jesus moved toward us in ours. In his sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus died the death of a criminal—an unclean outcast. And ironically it wasn’t what was on the inside that corrupted him. For him, it did come from the outside. It came from us. Praise God today for making us clean in Christ. Mark 6:34-44: The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. (ESV) It’s easy to read accounts like this one and be hard on the apostles. They essentially interrupt Jesus’s ministry and tell him to get rid of the people he’s teaching. Then they try to make it about the welfare of the people--it’s late, they need to eat, tell them to go so they can take care of themselves. But it backfires on them! What does Jesus say? “You give them something to eat.” Of course, it doesn’t end there, but the full story doesn’t begin here in verse 34, either, even though we get a hint. Back in verses 7-13, Jesus sends out the twelve, charging them to do mighty works in his name and preach the gospel. In our passage today, this is what they have returned from doing. As verses 12 and 13 tell us, they spent their time proclaiming “that people should repent,” and “cast[ing] out demons and annoint[ing] with oil many who were sick and heal[ing] them.” In short, they’ve been doing the work of ministry that Jesus called them to and they’re tired. And we know that they’re tired, because the first thing Jesus instructs them to do when they return is to withdraw and rest (31). Maybe it isn’t so easy to come down hard on the apostles at this point, because it’s getting easier to see ourselves reflected back from the story. We are often worn out from the work of ministry. Whether we are serving our churches in some capacity, or fixing homes, or any combination of different things in different spheres, serving the Lord can be physically and spiritually draining. When we’ve finished with a work, we may feel entitled to pass on the next thing that the Lord puts before us—as though he is ignorant of our situation, and as though it is for us to assess whether it is in our capacity to answer his call.  But our Lord is not ignorant! The same Jesus who calls them to feed these five thousand people called them to withdraw and rest at the beginning of the passage. But the same Jesus who called them to withdraw and rest also has compassion on this great crowd with no shepherd. Jesus knows that the need is great, and though he knows his servants are physically and spiritually spent, he calls them out of their rest to minister to these people. But here’s the thing you shouldn’t miss: the Jesus who calls them out of their rest empowers them to do the work he has for them. Just as he, in verse 7, gave the apostles authority over unclean spirits so that they could cast them out, Jesus now provides the means to pull off this miraculous feeding of five thousand men.
The Lord graciously gives his people rest. He made us, he knows us, and he understands that we, as finite creatures, need time to withdraw and restore our strength. But the Lord also calls us, in his time, to minister to a lost world. Often, that call interrupts our plans for a much-needed rest. Often, that call comes right after we’ve finished serving him in other ways. But brothers and sisters, in these moments, be encouraged: the same Lord who calls us out of our weakness to serve him gives us the strength and power we need to answer his call. This past July, students from our area converged on Avondale Presbyterian Church for our annual Youth Camp. With their help, we were able to work on five homes, including the camp’s first projects in Delaware.  A group made up of students from Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Newark and Hockessin United Methodist Church spent the week at this New Castle home. The owner lives on her own and works, but her wages were insufficient to cover the cost of some necessary repairs.  Thanks to the work of the students, we were able to replace her roof in just a few days, and then move on to some other projects. The EP team had experience with windows, so they were able to do a few of those. We also put in some new drywall in a portion of the indoor ceiling, installed a new handle on a storm door, and even found time to put another new roof on—this time on the shed in the back yard.  What a blessing it was to be able to help this homeowner. Please pray that the Lord would provide for her needs, and that the students who worked on her home would give glory to God for what he used them to do.
Mark 5:24-34: And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (ESV) “Your faith has made you well.” Just as in Mark 2, we have an account of someone going through great difficulty to get to Jesus, but the difficulty here is less obvious. What’s so hard about walking through a crowd and touching a robe? We find the answer in Leviticus 15:19 and 15:25: When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening...and if a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. (ESV) This poor woman is like a leper: her condition makes her ceremonially unclean, unable to draw near to the Lord in temple worship (25); and with that, nobody would want to be near her, because to touch her would be to become unclean (19). She is effectively cut off from her people, and she has been for twelve years.
Why would she come to Jesus? She has spent all that she has and still the disease persists, and has in fact gotten worse. Why would she believe another promise of healing? And even if she would believe, what could she hope to get in exchange for her unclean, empty hands? Do you see yourself in the story yet? In Isaiah 64:6, the prophet laments: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (NIV). Paul tells us in Galatians that “by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16, ESV), so how can we hope to draw near? With one touch to Jesus's garment, this woman is healed. Instead of Jesus being made unclean by her touch, his power heals her and her twelve years of suffering are over. But it’s not because he has on a magic robe. It isn’t because his physical body has some talismanic element to it. She is healed because “[her] faith has made [her] well.” Why would she come to Jesus? Why would she believe that he could heal her? Why would she come with unclean, empty hands? Because she recognizes what the Pharisees missed back in Mark 2: that the power to heal chronic diseases with a word or a touch is not some common thing. In fact, the power to heal belongs exclusively to a much greater power—the greatest power—the power of God alone. She recognizes that in Jesus all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. She believes what he can do, because she knows who he is. Her faith has made her well, and the text implies spiritual, as well as physical wellness—that she understands that her need runs deeper than the disease, to her very heart. As we read the gospel accounts, we see Jesus healing many, feeding many, loving many. But every act of mercy testifies to a deeper spiritual reality, and points to Jesus himself as our only hope in this life and the next. At Good Neighbors, we fix homes in his name. We shower mercy on our neighbors in need, in the hope that they will see their deeper need. We want Jesus to fix not only their earthly homes, but to be their savior. We want them to trust in him alone and his work on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins, for them to bring nothing but their unclean, empty hands, and hold them out to Jesus. We want their faith to make them well.  A few weeks ago, we shared about volunteers from RUF at UD working on a roof for a single father in Wilmington. Well, this past Saturday, some volunteers from Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church were on site to help bring that roof closer to completion.  The homeowner is a single father of two sons, but one of those sons was tragically killed in an accident. Dad himself is a disabled truck driver unable to afford the cost of a new roof (which, as many of you know, does not come cheap). Will you join us in praying that the Lord would draw near to this man, whose life has been filled with adversity? Pray that he would meet him with the comfort of Christ, and that the rest afforded by this new roof would point him toward lasting rest in the Lord.  We are filled with gratitude for these dear saints from Emmanuel helping us share the love of Christ with this family. Their hearts and hands have helped finish a project that this homeowner desperately needed done, to the glory of God.
 A few weeks ago, we were on-site with a mother of four in Kennett. Her house needed a lot of work, so we were back again recently to replace a window. This is the latest of fourteen that we’ve replaced here! The frame still needs to be painted, but it’s already doing a better job than the old one.  The homeowner is a widow, and one of her four children—an adult daughter with lots of medical problems—still lives at home. Surely, these are emotional and financial strains. We’re so glad that this dear woman contacted us and is allowing us to help. Her house is a lot warmer and safer now, and that’s one less thing to worry about—praise God!
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