A Holiday Letter from the LUM Executive Director

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a blessed 2023 and I wholeheartedly wish you joy this holiday season.

I imagine that for Mary and Joseph the first Christmas ever was both stressful and blessed. There had to be some stress with all the travel, the less-than-stellar accommodations, and the many unknowns of being first-time parents. But the blessing was glorious: 

“A Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

At Lafayette Urban Ministry, we enter the Christmas season in a year that has been both stressful and blessed. We have experienced the stress of the ever-increasing needs of people in our community and the ever-increasing expenses to meet those needs. We have been blessed by all the people whose lives, through the support of amazing people like you, we have been able to uplift.

Through your generosity, each week LUM is providing more than 500 meals through its various food programs, offering safe and secure overnight shelter 254 times to people who are unhoused, processing 11 cases and consultations for local immigrant neighbors, disbursing $2,700 in emergency financial assistance, nurturing and tutoring local children from low-income families 234 times, and so much more — each week.

While on the surface, all this is nowhere near as glorious as parenting the Light of the World, the reality is that each time we serve our neighbor in need, we are in truth serving Christ himself. That first Christmas baby grew up to be a man who taught, 

“What you do for the least of these sisters or brothers of mine, you do for Me” (Matthew 25:40).

This Christmas I want to say thank you for the glorious blessings we experience here at LUM, despite many stressors. I am ever-aware that LUM would not be able to uplift lives at all if it were not for the generosity of people such as you. THANK YOU.

As we come to the close of 2023, I ask you to please consider making a holiday gift to LUM of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more. While donations have been down this year, with a year-end outpouring of strategic kindness, together we can continue to serve Christ by serving those in need.

Thank you for your visionary compassion and for being a blessing to others. In spite of any stressors you may face, may God grace you with all the most significant blessings of life: joy, justice, peace, prosperity, faith and love.

Peace be with you!

Wes Tillett
Executive Director
Lafayette Urban Ministry
Lafayette, Indiana