A Galilee Moment, Part 2: Awe, Uncertainty, and a Whole Lot of Work

The Reverend Deacon Rebecca Yarbrough

February 2014. An auspicious month…the first time some of us would get to enter what would become Galilee Ministries! We had to get permission from the tenants—a Latino Pentecostal congregation, and that had to be negotiated through the Diocese. But around 6:30 on one cold February evening, eight or nine of us walked through it with Bishop Anne. 

The first thing that we saw was the huge kitchen! We were wowed by the possibilities it might provide for feeding the neighbors and friends of whatever God planned to have happen there. We walked from there into the parish hall, a huge space with a very large and very burgundy-colored cross painted on the wall behind the stage (yes, there was a stage there). We were wowed by the space, and by the rooms off to the side. 

Parish Hall on First Sight

Kitchen on first sight

Overrun Garden

We went from there down the hallway, and the wow sort of went away. There was a crammed clothing closet that the church offered, and a food pantry (they weren’t connected with what was then Loaves & Fishes, now Nourish Up), and it was very obvious that the place needed some TLC.  There was more space than those of us who hadn’t been there before could imagine…but we could begin to think of a lot of good stuff happening there. We just didn’t know what it would be.

We all knew from that first visit that what we had agreed to take on was going to be a great adventure. At that point, we just had no idea just how great it was going to be. And we were also getting an idea of how much work it would be! More on that to come…