Christmas Card 2015 - Washington Street Mission · Christmas 2015 Seeing Men and Women, Boys and Girls, All People, in Christmas Light. ... we serve cookies and punch, sing Christmas

Board of Directors

Tom Ryder President

Laura Catherwood Vice-President

Raven A. Pulliam Secretary

Robert John Kane Treasurer

Larry Aldag

Jim Fay

June Harmon

Berta Kay

Thomas O. Kay

Larry Matejka

Paul Paoni

Rick Schramm

Board Members Emeritus

David E. Beatty

Philip Hanna

Larry Lipka

Robert Paoni

Marianne Stowers

Robert C. Walbaum

Stan Welch

Mission Staff

Kenneth E. Mitchell Executive Director

Mary Lynn Mitchell Associate Director

Danny Yocum Men's Ministries Director

Jim Medley Coffee Hall Coordinator

408 North Fourth Street Springfield, Illinois 6702

Christmas 2015

Seeing Men and Women, Boys and Girls, All People, in Christmas

Light

We see many different people each day at Washington Street Mission, some of them in very difficult circumstances. We try to see each one in the light of the love God demonstrated at Christmas. In a surprisingly personal and humble book entitled A Pretty Good Person: What it Takes to Live with Courage, Gratitude and Integrity long-time seminary professor Lewis Smedes (1921-2002) wrote: “We put labels on people the way designers sew labels on their clothes. And then we let the labels tell us what the people are and what they are worth. . . . We need imagination to see the reality of people beneath the cluster of annoying circumstances. We need imagination to see through the labels we put on people. . . . There is one power that gives us imagination to recognize the moment of grace when it comes. It is the power of love . . . the sort of love that can put our most legitimate desires on the back burner to care for another person’s needs . . . love with imagination.” This is the kind of love God demonstrates for us at Christmas. God loved the world so much, each and every individual so generously, that he sent his one and only son to live and die for us, to give us eternal life, to raise us out of a life of death to a new life in his grace. May Christmas this year open our eyes to the way God loves people -- lavishly, sacrificially, individually, extravagantly, deeply -- the kind of love that would motivate deity himself to send his son for us. May we see people in this Christmas light.

May We All Learn To See All People

in the Light of God’s Love this Christmas Taking photos in front of our Christmas tree is a tradition

during the annual neighborhood Christmas party at Washington Street Mission. Held on a Sunday afternoon we serve cookies and punch, sing Christmas carols and enjoy a presentation by the Shriners band. These photos of some regular guests at the Mission were taken at the annual party in 2013.