Life in Community at the Hope House

When my wife and I bought the property that is now the Hope House Community, I didn't know what God wanted us to do with it. The default plan was rental property, but we had bought it because we were seeking God's will in our lives and buying was, well, the next right thing. From the beginning I had a dream, or a vision if you will, of what it could be. This is a bit of a confession since I routinely state to my friends that I am not a big vision man. The dream was to have a Center of Community Living and Monastic Spirituality. I must admit that in my vision I didn't know that God would have homeless men living in community there.

Even though my friends are accustomed to my mentioning monks and monasteries on a routine basis, none have heard me refer to the Hope House as a center of Monastic Spirituality. This is in large part due to the fact that I find the terms "Community Living" and "Monastic Spirituality" redundant or at best overlapping. And let's face it, many of our homeless guys (and volunteers) are unfamiliar with monks and nuns, so using the term Monastic could have been more of a barrier than a building block. But as our three formerly homeless men begin the struggle of living in community with each other (the honeymoon is over) and live under house guidelines and expectations, I am reminded of who I am as I try to lead them into deeper spiritual wellness and sobriety. A simple monk. Certainly just an oblate, and an oblate novice at that, but key to my spiritual wellness is living life as a simple little man using simple ways to move closer daily to my Jesus. Pray for us as we continue on the messy journey of living in community at the Hope House.

Hope House

After 4 + years of visiting the homeless camps in our city, the good Lord has led us into a new endeavor, the development of the Hope House Community. The Hope House is a permanent housing situation for formerly homeless men who would benefit from a supportive living environment. For many of these men, accountability to their support system is a big factor in maintaining sober living and spiritual success but independent living often removes them from this support. So the guys at Hope House continue to live in community with us and us with them. In addition to this, the residents of Hope House (currently 3) participate in the homeless tent camp ministry. On Sunday mornings the volunteers go around to the shelters or camps and bring in our homeless brothers for food and fellowship. We seem to have around 8-10 guys currently but some times it is only 4 and I have seen as many as 14-16. The men of Hope House develop their own spiritual program and live in community with each other. We use the Rule of Benedict (derived from the Holy Scripture) and Holy Scripture itself as the guide for our community living. We also lean heavily on my training as a social worker and addiction counselor. Pray for us as we embark upon our experiment in love and seek Christ in each other.