Fair Haven News

As a medical professional at the IU Simon Cancer Center, I still remember the feeling of walking into the hospital room of a patient I’d never met before. Although I’d worked at the hospital for 14 years and had met hundreds of cancer patients, I would often feel my heart skip a beat – not out of fear, but out of a sense of reverence. Because I knew that the precious person I was about to meet was likely in the midst of a battle of life and death. I knew it was a time when they were vulnerable. Perhaps they’d been moving right along, just like me, and then suddenly – an injury, an accident, a diagnosis – and nothing was the same.

This is the sacred window in which Fair Haven touches people’s lives. It’s a time when people are facing an illness that may be scary and unpredictable. It’s a time when they’ve had to leave the comfort of home and travel to an unfamiliar place for a consultation, a treatment, or a surgery. It’s a time when they may be forced to ask themselves questions that they have never faced. It’s often a time when people are crying out to God, even if they never have before.

We’ve all known people diagnosed with a serious illness or going through a tragic situation. Does talking with them ever give you a helpless feeling? Does your heart break because you just want to do something to help?

That is the significance of 50,000 nights of refuge.

Each night represents the difference that you are making in someone’s life. It represents someone feeling cared for and loved instead of lost and alone. It represents a night when they were given the shelter they desperately needed. It represents God being there for them – and for all of us – in the most difficult times of our lives.

As ambassadors for Christ, we are called to make an invisible God real to those around us. Christ demonstrated His love for the world through His sacrificial death on the cross. This is the amazing love that we share through the gift of a refuge in the storm. Earlier this week, I spoke with a mom whose son is on life support in the ICU. He had been brought to Indianapolis by ambulance from Evansville, and she told me that she wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. When I called to tell her that she would have a room at Fair Haven, she was overwhelmed with gratitude and relief. “Earlier today I was asking God, ‘Where are you?’” she shared. With a crack in her voice she said, “Now I realize that He’s right here with me.” For so many like her, the refuge you are providing is more than a roof over someone’s head. It is a tangible expression of God’s presence and of His tender loving care in the midst of the storm they’re facing.

As we celebrate 50,000 nights of refuge with this beautiful mosaic of pictures of so many of our beloved guests, it makes me think of the photos yet to come. The precious people that God will one day bring through our doors in need of a refuge from the storm that is ahead. Your support will be a lifeline, truly a Godsend for them. Together we’ll shine His light into their broken lives. We’ll be a testament of God’s goodness in every situation. We’ll share the gift of a haven of hope for another 50,000 nights and beyond.

Sharing His love,

Founder & Executive Director