Welcome to Hospitality INC

On a snowy day in February several pastors gathered for a meeting. One of them told a story about a homeless ministry that was formed because a homeless person had frozen to death in that community. This led to a discussion about the homeless situation in our own community. We asked ourselves the questions: "Were there really homeless people in our town?" If there were, "What did they look like?" and "Where did they hang out?"

As we started to ask around, we discovered that there were many people who had been thinking about this same thing. A network of people started to gather and soon a regular group formed. This group later invited a ministry, Safe Harbor, to come and share their vision with us. Safe Harbor is a rotating homeless shelter in Traverse City. They have a network of hosting churches that open their doors to the homeless one week at a time. Their goal is simply to supply a safe place to sleep that is warm; they also supply dinner and continental breakfast. They seemed to be doing what we wanted to see happen in our own area.

We were able to glean many good ideas through our friendship with the existing ministry, Safe Harbor. We discovered that Safe Harbor's organization was led mostly by lay people from the different churches. These churches had one thing in common: a desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus in serving the homeless. Working together they are able to accomplish a task that is too great for any one church.

Tim and Tammy Martin from Ludington have been going to Denver, Colorado, to serve in a homeless shelter for many years. Their passion for this type of ministry is evident and they agreed to step up to become the leaders of this new ministry called Hospitality INC (In the Name of Christ). We are a distinct Christian nonprofit organization that wants to live the gospel of Jesus Christ by serving the homeless in our community.

We are still in the discovery stages and we anticipate we will be learning as we progress. One thing is certain--no one is going to get warm by us just talking about being a good Samaritan--it actually requires us to walk across the road, to stop our activities for a while and become the neighbor that Jesus calls us to be. Therefore we are working diligently to get things set so we can open our doors by the time the cold weather descends.

Thank you,

Pastor Henrik Lidman