It’s time to BUILD!

For the last 6 years, my husband and I have been serving the community in my hometown city, Lebanon, by hosting community and family events, feeding, praying, advocating, and assisting those in need. We did this with our own resources and later by requesting help from the community and social media. In 2022, we officially started our Non-Profit Ministry called Love in the Streets (known as LITS) with the start of 6 dedicated sets of hands and feet, and today we are strong with over 50 members of men, women, and children, and we are growing rapidly!

We started out in the streets, spreading the love and hope of Jesus to those who are too often unseen or forgotten and serving anyone God placed in our direction. From there, we grew, and God opened up doors for us in several locations. Currently, we are at the corner of 9th and Church Street at the Covenant UMC, where we meet on Thursdays and Sundays.

The vision for LITS was always to serve our community in such a way that breaks religious barriers and focuses on what we believe is God's purpose for His Church, which is to be a healing place for the broken, lost, disadvantaged, and hopeless. We do so by creating a HUB in the city that unites the community and offers a “one-stop shop” for all of it, and we have found that place! Most of all, we LOVE! We have found that love is truly the most effective way to bring about change and demonstrate Jesus on these streets. Our city is broken, and we are called to make bold and radical moves to be the light in people’s dark places.

On the corner of 7th and Weidman Street sits a now vacant church formerly known as Iglesia Templo Fe. With almost 17,000 square feet, we have begun the process of purchasing this historic church that is loaded with history and has literally been used since the late 1800s as a place of unity in the city of Lebanon. We plan to pick up on that legacy as the pastors of Iglesia Templo Fe did and BUILD!

The Vision:

On the top level, we plan to break down and rebuild about 24 rooms to house our homeless community with 2 shower rooms.

Going down from the top floor is a stunning ballroom-style sanctuary that we plan to transform into a venue to host community events and conferences available for community outreaches.

Underneath that level, we have a community room with a kitchen to accommodate a youth community room for after-school programs, which is convenient since it is located directly across from the middle school stadium. In that area, we also have several classrooms to be used for Bible study and Sunday school. Our plan is to provide mentoring, homework assistance, and light hot meals after school and open in the summer as a safe place for our city youth and family, offering bilingual services for both.

On the other side of that is our worship area, and in the basement is one of our favorite parts of the church, which has another kitchen and will hold our food and clothing pantry and another very large area to serve hot foods to our community.

In addition to all of this, there are 5 bathrooms and several office areas that will be used for GED and parenting classes.

We broke these projects down into 3 phases and have a goal of January to open the door to phase one! But we are asking for the help of our community, local businesses, and the Body of Christ to secure this spot and partner with our vision!

Any donation amount helps! Please follow our story as we continue to share and post videos of our vision from inside the church, host an upcoming community event, and give you a personal tour and meet members of LITS as they share their personal testimonies!

Checks can be made payable to Love in the Streets and mailed to 789 Pine Street, Steelton, PA 17113.