The Open Door Mission has been on a long journey since its inception
in the late 1980’s, with the original goal of providing emergency shelter in Glens Falls, New York, for struggling people.
Since the political climate would not support a shelter at that time, we began offering the community a free meal served from
the back of an RV in September 1991, the precursor of our current soup kitchen. Over the past nearly twenty years, the ministry of The Open Door has expanded to
incorporate many other services, including food distribution, assistance in opening other soup kitchens and food pantries
in outlying areas, general spiritual counseling and referrals to specific service agencies, free haircuts, and many other
efforts. Our ultimate goal is to serve the Lord by giving His people a venue for showing the disadvantaged in
this world the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The past year has been a bit of a roller coaster for The Open Door. Sensing
that it was time to further expand our services by addressing the need for which the organization was founded, we searched
and located a property which could accommodate all of our existing outreaches as well as support a structured housing/shelter
component, an Aspiring Workers Program, a free medical clinic, and on site offices for area service agencies. However,
due to considerable maneuvering behind the scenes, our application for Planning Board approval was not only met with opposition,
but a well-orchestrated effort by a few affluent and well-positioned individuals and organizations negated all of the previous
public relations which we had so carefully performed. In what was considered by many legal professionals to be
operating outside of their purview, the Planning Board denied our application unanimously, citing its “inappropriateness
for the neighborhood” as its rationale. (In fact, several lawyers offered their services pro
bono to represent us in any appeal we might need to make – one of whom now represents us in legal matters.)
We
were then faced with an eviction notice, requiring us to vacate our facility of 17 years by the end of September 2010, a mere
three weeks to locate a new facility. Although there were offers from local churches to grant us temporary facilities
in which to prepare and serve food, none of these churches could provide us the needed storage for food and supplies or office
space to continue our feeding program. We requested, and were granted, an extension until October 30th,
but desperately prayed for the provision of a new facility.
The Lord put it on the heart of a property owner to offer us his then vacant building
for $30,000 less than market value, and offered to give us a six month lease with minimal expenses. This was
nothing short of miraculous, as was also the provision of skilled and unskilled labor by a few paid workers and many volunteers
to rehabilitate the location from a former take-out pizzeria into a fully functioning soup kitchen. The presentation
at the next Planning Board meeting provided by our lawyer served to circumvent other planned manipulative maneuvers, and the
Planning Board voted unanimously to approve our request for a change of use (to the great distress of some of the neighbors,
who had assumed that if they protested as had the previous neighborhood, that the Planning Board would deny us that facility
as well). Since the city government would not issue a building permit until after the Planning Board meeting,
we were three weeks behind on renovations, and had to make and hand-out bag lunches from one of the local churches for a couple
of weeks until we could obtain the necessary Department of Health and city certificates of occupancy and operation.
Thanks
be to God! We have been serving our regular schedule at our new site for almost a year, and have begun to reach
out to our new neighborhood in the love of Jesus. We are so grateful for God’s mercy in bringing us to
a place where we can continue to minister to the needs of these people who are so precious to Him. We are also
grateful to the Body of Christ, who came together to make the renovation happen in record time, taking greater ownership of
the Lord’s command to care for the poor and oppressed among us. And, we are so appreciative of the prayer
support of thousands of people who have been standing and interceding for this ministry. God is faithful!
