4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: August 3, 2022
Am I Enough? Absolutely not. And absolutely yes. It’s a paradox: a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. You are nowhere near enough. You are...
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5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: July 20, 2022
Has America misdiagnosed the problem of homelessness? In her article “Does Poverty Cause Homelessness?” Marchauna Rodgers argues that we have. She...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: June 15, 2022
Conversations about “the poor and homeless” can quickly go off track. Our vocabulary and our frames of reference can lead us to the wrong assumptions...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: May 27, 2022
In 2006, toward the beginning of the Spokane region’s focused efforts on addressing homelessness, 1,592 individuals were counted in the annual...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 27, 2022
Sin. What is it and why would a homeless shelter insist on talking about it? Sin is the divergence from the rules and order designed by God....
6 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 3, 2022
Pain: physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury. No healthy person enjoys pain. Its whole purpose is to signal that something is...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 3, 2022
Underneath homelessness, we often find addiction and, underneath addiction, trauma. Trauma invades, wounds, hides and resurfaces, wreaking havoc...
6 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: December 16, 2021
In an essay entitled “Family Breakdown: Restoring a Damaged Masterpiece,” UGM Chaplain Sonny Westbrook describes what happens when God’s design for...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: December 3, 2021
Opioids. Meth. Marijuana. Cocaine. Cartels. Addiction. Synthetics. Big money. Big pharma. Overdoses.
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: November 4, 2021
You may have heard us say we’re not just a soup kitchen, and while that is certainly true, it is also true that so much of what we do begins with a...
6 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: October 28, 2021
Author’s Note: From my earliest days at UGM, I have wanted to follow someone all the way through the LIFE Recovery Program, interviewing him or her...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: October 7, 2021
A false narrative is being promoted that pits two groups against each other on the subject of homelessness in Spokane.
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: July 29, 2021
Gospel. Change. Jobs. These are our three distinctives. While the Inland Northwest is home to multiple organizations committed to serving people...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: July 12, 2021
Homeless shelters exist to give people a meal and a bed so no one ends up sleeping on the street, right?
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: June 17, 2021
James Bureau’s childhood did not prepare him for life. Or, it might be more accurate to say, James’ childhood prepared him perfectly for the life he...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 29, 2021
“I’m getting older, and I didn’t want to be that old lady that’s out on the street, looking to get high.” Before coming to UGM, Kerri was staying at...
2 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 11, 2021
Jesus changed everything. More specifically, Jesus' life, death and resurrection changed everything.
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 1, 2021
As we mentioned in last week’s post, acknowledging the existence of sin implies a particular worldview – one in which God created the world and has...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 25, 2021
Sin. Talk about a conversation stopper. I’m not sure anyone is anxious to talk about sin, even Christians, but in society at large, it’s almost...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 18, 2021
“God is not ordinary.” – Heather Harpham “I measure God by everything I am not. I begin with that.” – Flannery O’Connor “’For My thoughts are not...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 4, 2021
In the fall of 2020, while the news media was focused on the pandemic and the presidential election, a significant report was quietly released by the...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: December 19, 2020
O Come Let Us Adore Him Christmas is about adoring Jesus. It’s about the angels’ invitation to “come and see.” It’s about the shepherds leaving their...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: November 18, 2020
Dean Brewer came to the UGM Men’s Shelter ten years ago this month with little more than the clothes on his back. He had been homeless for a year,...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: October 8, 2020
“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” – Galatians 6:2.
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: June 10, 2020
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. –...
