Yes! I will Love My Neighbor

In the early days of Micah, the downtown churches faithfully sought support from their congregations each year to buy tents and sleeping bags for the many people sleeping outside in very cold weather. At the time, it was one of the most profound ways we knew to call upon our community to love thy neighbor.

Those original acts of justice, kindness and humility, we now know, were been conduits for relationship. Those relationships continue to teach us what our neighbors need and how we can call upon the community to love them better. God has been leading the churches of Fredericksburg to build a “house” of sorts, where all are truly welcome, for a very long time. While the pieces of that “house”—apartments, respite care, basic needs assistance, income development, street church—are currently scattered throughout the community, the reimagining of our ministries during the pandemic has called us to consider how Micah might be more than a place where neighbors find a home elsewhere in our community. Perhaps, it’s time to BE a home for our neighbors.

It is with this hope in the hearts of the Micah churches that we now call our community to consider not just the necessary—the tents the sleeping bags and so forth—but the extraordinary needs of the very least among us. We plan, with God’s help, to build a community, a Jeremiah Community, of 500-square foot homes with on-site supports intended to care for those living there in the ways God intended for all of creation, even those in exile. Amenities, such as a community center, a garden and an art workshop, will allow our neighbors to explore their gifts and find purpose and meaning in their lives. And welcoming our neighbors home to a place they can finally settle, also includes welcoming you to be a meaningful part of their lives.

In the meantime, we hope you will pray with us about this vision, ask God to reveal the right land and the right people to come alongside.

One way you can help, right now, is giving generously to the many scattered parts of the “house” our churches have been building for our neighbors these last 15 years. Please consider loving your neighbor with the resources God has blessed you.

Here are some ways you can make a difference:

$15 provides a night of winter shelter for one person

$25 buys a tent or sleeping bag

$30 keeps someone in housing for day

$45 keeps someone in a socially distanced shelter bed for a night

$100 buys a night of respite care for a person recovering from a hospital visit

$200 a day sparks the spiritual walk of new disciples

$350 a day provides basic needs of people living on the street

$900 covers the average rental deposit

$1500 bridges a someone to work

$5,000 a month supports the missional and spiritual community that is forming among our neighbors