Often, during worship services or walking the streets, we encounter remarkable life stories that reveal the witness of God working in the lives of our community. At a recent worship service at the shelter, we prayed with Nilsa for an apartment and to help her correct her failings. All the gathered suggested they too needed God’s grace, mercy, and guidance to help them. We stopped the service to read a passage from the Book of Jeremiah. We discussed how the Potter can change the clay when it does not take the desired shape, as it is still soft and malleable. We talked about how the Lord is like the Potter working to make each one of us beautiful and useful. If the Lord’s work is injured, we are not cast aside but healed to prosper into our beautiful selves. God acts like a Potter, changing a believer’s life trajectory.

Nilsa was absent for what seemed a protracted time. Nobody seemed to know where she was or what happened to her. She was no longer staying at the shelter. We missed her presence and continued praying for her safety and protection. One Saturday, as we passed out food and drink in Central Square in front of the Senior Center, Nilsa came bounding out the door, chanting, “I am so happy to see all of you! I missed you all so much!” She explained that she had lost faith in God and left the shelter. While sleeping on the street, she was robbed and assaulted. While in the hospital recovering, she could not give the staff an address to complete her intake form, and she had no other documentation. One morning, when she woke, her bed was surrounded by staff. She was introduced to a housing specialist who offered her a Cambridge apartment in Central Square. She couldn’t believe it. With the help of the specialist, she moved into the furnished apartment three days later. God, the Potter, blessed Nilsa, reestablishing her faith in the life before her. At the next gathering at the shelter, we recounted Nilsa’s story of a reaffirmed faith in God. It was a story we all needed to bear witness to, not only to hear the words of God written by Jeremiah but also to hear the living testimony of God’s faithful work in Nilsa’s life.

We continue to gather for worship at Porter Square on Sunday mornings, providing donuts, coffee, sandwiches, and socks. Our steadfast Saturday and Sunday afternoon outreach provides sandwiches, water, snacks, and other sundry items such as socks and toiletries. We will also offer hats, gloves, and scarves in the coming cold weather. We continue to hand out water and snacks before gathering on Thursday in the Cambridge City shelter for an evening worship service. We cannot support these ministry events without the help of the many volunteers who make sandwiches, cookies, and muffins and provide water, juice, and snacks. These gifts and support are truly appreciated by the unhoused, homeless, and street-involved community as we help to bring goodwill to their lives.