Dear friends of Hope House,

Here are some of the highlights of 2024.  We are SO thankful for each of you who have shared in Hope House’s activities, helped enable them, or cheered us on!

Last year started out with good media coverage of our center’s help to New Mainers. A great Spring Market season then culminated in our Family Support Center’s biggest backyard BBQ yet!  Held on the 4th of July, it was followed by prizes and a walk together to watch the Great Falls Fireworks show.  Special thanks to our friends from the Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston who manned the BBQ’s and enabled the activities.

In the fall, HH Directors Bruce and Jan took a few months off to give in-home hospice care to Bruce’s 96yr.old mother with uterine cancer, until she went home to heaven. 

Late fall brought preparations towards a Free Coat & Toy Fair, made possible by helpers both local and from Boston. “Share Your Christmas” features Coats for Kids news coverage of Hope House, as well as a song video of the holiday event on Dec 7th that drew out 140 neighborhood families in need of coats and winter help.  It was fun to get to see growing babies brought to the fair, who our staff had not seen since we and their mothers saw the ultrasound images of them in our center’s clinic! 

In mid-Dec., Bruce slipped on icy steps at home, and x-rays showed 2 fractured ribs that are painful but slowly healing. Jan also sustained injuries in her shoulder that are still healing, from her care of Mom.  Your prayers are appreciated.

The center’s Host Home, as well as the Mechanic Falls Host Home, are both presently hosting some great people who lost their apartments in December.  Prayers are appreciated for the sweet family of 5, as well as for the skilled young woman, who have been displaced and are awaiting God’s provision for them in the New Year.

Your friends at Hope House pray that you also know God’s help to meet all your needs as you face this next year. Let us know how we might be of help. Our Family Support Center at 91 College St. in Lewiston will have weekly market days again in the spring, but winter hours for our Free Women’s Health Clinic or Free FamilyThrift Store services can be arranged by appointment to meet urgent needs. Call or text us at 207-577-1165, or email us at hopehouse17@gmail.com.  If goods are needed, we will help if supplies are in stock. Our website lists other local help agencies that may be of assistance as well.

Blessings in 2025!

Bruce & Jan Willson and the Hope House family