Tabor’s Circle of Hope is a perfect depiction of Hope. 

Hope is not what has happened: a result, the culmination of a mission or plans accomplished. It is an expectation or desire of what is “to be” and actually more of a “what if?” The belief that what if it might, how it could be, and can it?

When we hope, sometimes we go all in. And sometimes when it’s less clear, hard to figure out, or even unlikely, we nurture the possibilities. And we pray. Prayer and hope are constant partners. Even when things are moving along, we ask for prayers and rest on the hope for things to come. 

This past year, we joined together to start a homeless housing partnership with Family Promise and christened its name Circle of Hope.

• Phase One was providing an apartment for a family for about six months as they progressed through the FP program back to housing security. 
• Phase 2 of the plan was adding more families, possibly up to 4 in shorter term temporary housing. Both phases were supported by remodeling our upstairs spaces into modular housing units. 
• Phase 3, we held out there in the future and didn’t talk about it too much. It is the biggest idea - something that could take a few years to fruition. The idea is to build up into our airspace, reimagine what we have in and around our property with the goal of providing affordable or temporary housing with more units than our second floor space could hold. 

As most of you know, the ability to remodel our second floor was rendered not feasible due to city requirements for a fire suppression system installation in a 1960’s building with asbestos throughout.

So now we’re circling back around to the hope of moving on to the biggest of hopes in finding ways to redesign or repurpose our building and property in its amazing location to create a much-needed hunger and homelessness ministry for our community. 

Phase 3 is still alive. I’ve even had a couple of you come to me with some very concrete and viable ideas. It has a much longer runway, with much larger considerations and significant change … And now with 2026 and new pastoral leadership in our sights, we’re back to the circle of hope. And one we will still hope for.

It’s less clear, harder to figure out, maybe even unlikely. But we will hope, we will nurture the possibilities and we will pray.