St. Laurence Chapel
St. Nicholas has supported St. Laurence Chapel’s ministry to the homeless for over a quarter of a century, providing food, clothing, and toiletries. Accordingly, we routinely referred homeless individuals who stopped at the church to St. Laurence. Over time we came to learn that the homeless have a higher incidence of medical problems with their feet than the average person, because they are on their feet so much of the time. We realized that we needed to do more than suggest they travel miles to access the resources we had donated for their benefit. After much prayer, we discerned a need to get outside the walls of the sanctuary and beyond the boundaries of fixed sites to go where the needy, the homeless, and the working poor are – meeting them where they are to offer the love of Christ in the form of a hot, spirit-lifting meal.
In 2016, we seized the opportunity to buy a food trailer in order to launch a mobile feeding ministry. Being a small, financially struggling church, we could easily calculate how much the ministry would cost; but we did not have a clue how we would finance or staff the ministry. We’re grateful to so many people who have made it possible for us to serve over 21,000 hot meals to the homeless and working poor since September 2016.
