About

The Warren County Interfaith Hospitality Network, an affiliate of the national organization Family Promise, was organized to address the immediate needs of families in our communities who have lost their homes. With no shelters except one for victims of domestic violence, and with the neighboring IHNs in Sussex and Hunterdon Counties often seeing half their guests originating from Warren County, the need for shelter and services in this largely rural area has been described as “stark,” and with good reason.

Through a network of Host and Support Congregations, civic and business organizations, and individual volunteers, WC-IHN provides safe, home-like emergency shelter, meals, and other support to help families regain their independence. WC-IHN also provides essential services and programs for locating and securing housing, employment, and job training, and helps families to rebuild their savings, repair their credit, restore their unity, and renew their hope. Most importantly, the program achieves this in a way that keeps parents and kids together in their communities and schools while preserving the family’s safety, dignity, and well being.

Folks wonder if it’s really possible to make a difference in the world, and I am here to offer a resounding “yes.” As a pastor whose manse is being used as the day center, and whose church was privileged to be the first host church providing overnight shelter, I have had the blessing of seeing first hand how lives are already being changed in amazing ways.

But the families are not the only ones who gain from this program, and sometimes it’s hard to tell just who is giving, and who is receiving. By the end of that first week, members who had served as volunteers came into church eager to share how their own lives had been changed, each one visibly moved by their experience.

In a time of worry about the future, I am glad to be able to share these stories of hope.

Joicy

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The Rev. Joicy Becker-Richards is pastor of Oxford Second Presbyterian Church in Oxford, NJ.