Email: Joshua Peck

Dear Family and Friends,

While I hear that back home y’all are indeed getting the extra six weeks of winter that Punxsutawney Phil projected,  I am happy to report that we here in Atlanta are not. The 65-degree temperatures and blooming flowers would seem to suggest that Georgia’s (pronounced “Jo-ja”) own weather-predictin’ groundhog, General Beauregard Lee, who earlier this month disagreed with the scalawag Phil and made the right call for the South.

Things here at Central Presbyterian Church are going as well as can be expected. In the Outreach Center we’re busy as ever as the economic downturn has put more families at risk of homelessness. Every day the line of folks who are still holding on to their housing that come to use the food pantry seems to increase. At the same time, the homeless guests that we work with doing longer-term case management face even more challenging circumstances. Atlanta has lost some 85,000 jobs.  However, even in the face of decreased corporate giving we have found, happily, that individual giving has increased. Thanks to the commitment of this amazing congregation, we’re still able to provide emergency services and hospitality to our ever-increasing number of guests. Central really is an amazing place to work and worship. Every week I’m gladder than the last to have ended up here!

Though it’s at times more challenging work, I’ve been getting the opportunity to do more of the long-term counseling with some of our guests. A couple of weeks ago I ended up spending the entire day with one of my favorite guests at the end of what had turned out to be a very rough week for him, one filled with setbacks. But by the end of the day, after some much-needed rest and nourishment, he began, once again, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I began to understand what is meant by a “ministry of presence.”

I hope that this letter has found you and yours doing well and enjoying a blessed beginning to the New Year. I look forward to being back in the ‘Burgh sometime this summer and hope to run into as many of y’all as possible. If you’re ever in Atlanta for a concert or a conference, or just for and extended layover, please be sure to give me a call and see if we can’t cross paths.

Yours in Christ,

Josh