All are welcome to join these groups and participate however you feel led. Contact Pastor Jody for more information!
Many PBS stations aired the Fresco documentary, “Theirs is the Kingdom”, on Easter Sunday. If you missed it, check your local PBS station for future broadcast dates or to stream it at https://www.pbs.org/video/theirs-is-the-kingdom-sc5lyv/
Have you seen the new sculpture in the Haywood Gardens? For a statement from the artist Rob Rikoon, click here.
COMPANION CORNER:
Our Garden and Groundskeeper is seeking a small group or individuals to assist with handiwork and maintenance projects, if interested contact Katlyn at 828.575.2477 ext. 106. Or, come see Robert yourself on Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 9am-12pm!
Sunday Welcome Table Servers – 7:30am-11:00am – Please know that if you have not been a server before you are more than welcome, we will get you trained when you arrive!
Sunday Welcome Table Servers – 7:30am-11:00am – Please know that if you have not been a server before you are more than welcome, we will get you trained when you arrive!
Dish Room Companions – Sundays 6:00am – 10:30am and 10:30am-12:00pm, Wednesdays 12:00pm-2:00pm.
Downtown Welcome Table Cleaning Companions – Sundays 10:30am- 12:00pm, Wednesdays 12:30pm- 2:00pm – After the Welcome Table is over and as we are wrapping things up we always need extra help wiping down tables, sweeping, mopping and finishing up dishes in the dishroom.
Respite Companions – Contact Katlyn for more details about days, times, etc.
A Reflection from Laura Kirby:
One of my most joyful memories in my 12+ years of involvement with Haywood Street was helping to set up our Clothing Closet. In December of 2009 we loaded up a trailer full of clothes from the Church of the Advocate (the “Red Door” church) and hauled them over to the Haywood Street campus. They were downsizing and we were just getting ready to open our closet.
For several weeks I worked alongside Friends from the streets, members of the Red Door community who were unhoused but invested as leaders within that ministry. I experienced the joy that is connected to those times when the lines between the haves and the have-nots become blurred and we join together as friends and companions working together towards a common purpose. “Us and them” disappears and becomes “we.”
We began calling volunteers Companions in recognition of these kinds of meaningful relationships. In our Companion Ministry there is an emphasis on the mutuality of giving and receiving. We encourage Companions who are serving tables to sit down and eat; and we invite folks coming for lunch to help serve. We believe that when we enter into relationships of mutuality with friends and neighbors in poverty — where giving and receiving both occur — we reinforce the understanding that we all need each other.
A related concept is that every person matters. Reminding folks that they matter is something we take seriously. Flowers on every table, East Fork Pottery dishware, a larger than life work of art lifting up the faces and stories of our community. In 2014 our clothing closet was renamed “God’s Outfitters” and the intent was a boutique shopping experience.
We are grateful to be unwinding adaptations prompted by the pandemic. As we work to return to our pre-pandemic self, we are looking at everything through the dual lenses of mission fit and capacity. Does what we are doing further our hope to be a place where the mutuality of giving and receiving can occur so that deep relationships can develop? Do we have the capacity to do it well, whatever it is?
We have made the difficult decision to close our Clothing Closet. Please know that we did not come to that decision lightly. We know that our Friends need clothes. We also know that other organizations in Asheville can and do provide clothes. We are sharing information with Friends about where and how to access clothes in other places, and with donors about where and how to donate clothes.
Our core programs help meet critical community needs, but just as important is that they provide a platform for relationships and provide visible reminders of God’s abundant love and grace for all.
The Closet has been a place where many special relationships have been formed. The Closet has been a place of miracles where someone might come in asking for a size 13 boots and then immediately someone else would walk in to donate size 13 boots. The closet has been a place where a lot of companions got their start with being involved at Haywood Street, including me. I’ll grieve with the other Closet companions the loss of this ministry but look forward with hope to new opportunities and new developments within our existing ministries and programs.
