Where Fellowship Thrives

Elisabeth, UCC-Belmont, slices the roast.

As we did in March and May, volunteers from four congregations gathered to lend a hand to three Peninsula families in need of food and shelter.

Home and Hope, now in its eleventh year, is a group of 31 churches and synagogues who have banded together to help displaced families, who are housed for two-week periods at churches with sleeping accommodations. Guests spend the day at work, school, or Home and Hope's office-and-day-care facility in Burlingame. A van provides transportation for those who don't have cars or who are unable to take the bus.

I always try to volunteer on the same night that Diane brings a dish. Tonight she had slow-roasted a pork tenderloin, and its fragrance was wonderful as I entered the kitchen. I dropped off the dessert and left reluctantly. Normally I would stay for dinner, but this time I was recovering from a virus and didn't want to risk passing it on (though the doctor said yesterday I was no longer infectious).

At dinner the point of view is that of people sharing a meal together, not of one group serving food to another group. Fellowship, as we used to call it, is a term that has fallen into disuse. At Home and Hope fellowship still thrives. © 2012 Stephen Yuen