St. Paul's Episcopal Church - Lazarus Ministry

"Lazarus Ministry is an open door to Christ. When trying to do something good for someone else you do something good for yourself; sometimes you may not realize that goodness at the time. That goodness is the graceful blessing of the Holy Spirit." - Arthur Miller, Sr., Lazarus volunteer and former client

St. Paul’s Lazarus Ministry provides emergency financial assistance and counseling to fellow Alexandrians every Tuesday morning. We help with rent, utility bills, medical bills, clothing, and food. The bills we see are often overdue and many times our clients are facing imminent eviction or cut-off of electricity. Helping with rent and staving off evictions were what we focused on in 41% of last year’s cases — not a surprising statistic since our clients live well below the median income level.

In 2016 we helped 422 people, 27% of whom were new to Lazarus Ministry. The vast majority of our clients are female heads of household: mothers, grandmothers, and at times older sisters. And we are seeing increasing numbers of Hispanic clients, primarily from Honduras and El Salvador, and Middle Eastern clients who are refugees being moved into our area, including Afghanis who were embedded with our Special Forces and Syrians escaping a war-torn country.

Almost everyone who comes in on Tuesday morning is there because they have had some sort of personal trauma – the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a serious accident or severe illness. Our wonderful Lazarus volunteers are there to help that person try to reverse an emotional, physical, and financial downward spiral.

A typical example is an Alexandrian who came in for help last year. The client had reached full-time employment and could comfortably cover rent, living expenses, and even medical insurance. But a horrible auto accident resulted in the client being out of work for a couple of months and on the verge of eviction. Although the client was back to working full-time, that loss of income could not be recovered. Lazarus Ministry worked with the landlord and brought in other Emergency Service Providers to stop the eviction and ensure financial self-sufficiency once again.

Lazarus Ministry’s mission statement tells us we “provide Christian hospitality to lessen the physical and psychological suffering of our neighbors in the City of Alexandria by helping them overcome financial hardship.” This is just a glorified way of saying that Lazarus Ministry is where we love our neighbors as ourselves.