Blog

2020

July 8, 2020 By Cathy

“We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.”

R. Abernathy

Your businesses and households look different as a result of the coronavirus crisis. We continue lifting you and your families in prayer as you navigate the challenges and opportunities before you.

Program ministries at Open Door look different as well during C19. We covet your prayers to remain in good health to be on the front lines of this ministry. We need your support more now than ever before.

The ministries of Open Door that you care about are continuing in response to our community changes and needs. We are on the curbsides of our community for Mathews Promise Academy students. Wellness checks. Afternoon sack meals. Activity sheets. Books. Prayers. Phone calls for homework assistance. Face to face encouragements of “we miss you” and “we are still here for you”. These messages are vital to the children.

Commodity deliveries to and running errands for isolated senior adults (Golden Agers) who have little to no family. Circles in Columbus meetings over the phone and, where necessary, porch deliveries of program materials and food boxes for those enrolled in FANN, the food co-op. And the women in Virginia D. Jackson Home for Women in transition continuing to live here, remains staffed 24/7. The women along with us are cleaning and sanitizing more than ever to avoid having to use a designated quarantine area, which is prepared if needed.

The Showering Program for the Homeless is open allowing a maximum of 10 people, staff included, in the facility at a time. And we are continuing to pay rent for women and children we’ve placed in housing and providing case management by phone.

Yes, we are washing our hands, while following Jesus’ example of “washing feet”.

Thank you for your frontline support for us to be on the frontlines of service. We can receive your gifts online at www.odch.org or by mail at 2405 Second Avenue, Columbus, Ga 31901.

Please know that you remain in our prayers.

Believing with you in God’s faithfulness,

July 8, 2020 By Cathy

“We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.”

R. Abernathy

Your businesses and households look different as a result of the coronavirus crisis. We continue lifting you and your families in prayer as you navigate the challenges and opportunities before you.

Yes, we are washing our hands, while following Jesus’ example of “washing feet”.

Thank you for your frontline support for us to be on the frontlines of service. We can receive your gifts online at www.odch.org or by mail at 2405 Second Avenue, Columbus, Ga 31901.

Please know that you remain in our prayers.

Believing with you in God’s faithfulness,

https://opendoorcommunityhouse.org/13033-2/

Circles in Columbus – Help is Here!

March 4, 2020 By Cathy

Circles & Culinary Arts start up 2020

February 21, 2020 By tracsoft

A message from Kim

August 5, 2019 By Cathy

“Christmas in July”

It’s a phrase many of us associate with summer sales on all kinds of items from mattresses to clothing to cars. But what does this phrase really mean?

Did you know that in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas looks a bit different than it does for us in the United States. While it is still celebrated on December 25, it is summertime in December in the Southern Hemisphere, so instead of gathering with family and friends on a cold night by the fire with hot chocolate, they may have cookouts on the beach and play Frisbee.

Australians thought something was needed to brighten up the winter months and “Christmas in July” was born. It is usually celebrated on July 25th and is a popular celebration in some areas there.

Australians celebrate this Yulefest with a traditional Christmas dinner, log fire, and gathering of family and friends to mark the occasion. Houses and gardens are adorned with traditional and festive Christmas decorations to enjoy.

Perhaps, then, we all can think of “Christmas in July” as a time to prepare to share the love and joy of Christ with neighbors now and during our traditional Christmas celebrations in December.

How can we celebrate Christmas

in the best way possible in December?

At Open Door, we are preparing to celebrate in the best way possible by creating a Christmas Store in which neighbors can shop for new toys and other items between garage sale and wholesale prices and enjoy a warm, inviting Christmas atmosphere in which to do it. What better way to share the love and joy of Christ than by creating an atmosphere of love and joy for Christ’s birthday celebration!

Since 1992, Open Door has been giving away free toys to hundreds of families across the Chattahoochee Valley. For the past eight years, we have been working to put into practice a model of ministry that creates deeper relationships with families to create real and vital community instead of a “handout,” or giver-receiver only relationship.

Each person, whether it be a parent, grandparent, or sibling, may purchase an item in the Christmas Store knowing that their contribution goes directly back into the Mathews Promise Academy ministry, providing even more opportunities like S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) projects and the music instruction program for their children in our afterschool care.

The families that we serve are excited about the change. One parent stated she was excited to be able to share in her child’s joy knowing that she helped make it happen, and that it also contributes to the same afterschool program her child attends.

Imagine–going to shop for your child and you smell warm cookies baking, hear joyous Christmas music playing, meet warm smiles and welcoming hands, see a free gift-wrapping station…a real place of respite for parents stressed by life’s pressures.

This is the Christmas Store at Open Door.

It will be a place where parents can shop for children, grandparents for grandchildren, and children for other members in their family. Neighbors can shop once, twice, or twenty times. It is a place where peace and joy is found and the love of Christ is shared.

And as always, free age-appropriate Bibles are available for all children.

So what can you do right now? How can you celebrate “Christmas in July”?

We are seeking volunteers to help in December with toy inventory, pricing, and keeping the store stocked. We are preparing an AmazonSmile Wish List that Sunday School Classes and families can access and purchase items for the Christmas Store and have them sent directly to Open Door. For all the families who will be coming to the Christmas Store, you can pray that Christ’s love will be made known.

What a great way to celebrate Christmas!

Peace and joy,

Kim

A Message from Kim

May 23, 2019 By odchadmin

May 2019

II Corinthians 8: 1-15 reminds us what it means to care for one another in a material sense. We often think that those who have resources give, and those who have less receive. Yet this passage reminds us that there should be a reciprocal relationship between the parties instead of one giving and one always receiving.

13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[b]

The Apostle Paul was concerned about organizing a collection for the Church of Jerusalem. The church was poor and it was Paul’s desire that all the Gentile churches help that church which was “their mother in the faith,’” states William Barclay.

In the early church, there was a definite reciprocity to giving and receiving that may be lost on modern readers of Scripture. They agreed to care for one another as material needs arose. Paul tells the readers in other churches of the generosity of the Macedonian churches, “They were poor and in trouble but they gave all they had, far more than anyone could have expected,” states Barclay.

For each of us today reading this Scripture while residing in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, it might be hard to understand how we are to live this out.

Perhaps it will be helpful to think about it in these terms:
• Both people – the giver and the receiver – have equal value and worth in the eyes of God. This is also one of the core value statements of Open Door.
• Those in need are often the most ready to give.
• According to Barclay, “Paul’s challenge to the Christian is, ‘With that tremendous example [Jesus Christ] of generosity before you, how can you hold back?’”

Every day at Open Door, we see neighbors helping neighbors find resources and new connections; working together to create new solutions to often longstanding problems; and praying for one another to keep holding on through the tough times.

These are neighbors who may lack material wealth yet are rich with life experiences, stories, love, and concern for others. They have value and worth.

The social norm of reciprocity reminds us that when the materially poor give from what they have, their gifts are of equal value and worth as those who give from their greater portion.

This is the challenge for each of us. To love, to give, to learn, to listen, to appreciate, and to honor the contributions, materially and otherwise, of all.