Proud to be bringing hope and healing to Silver City.
Meet our team.
Read on about our people — what they do at the mission, their favorite things in life, and their most treasured verses out of holy scripture.
We are a motley crew of dreamers and doers who love God and who embrace our mission of helping the people He sends us. Drop in, say hi to one of our staff, and share in a meal. Consider us your family: here with us, you will always be home.
Staff
Vincent Laupola | Manager
As the face of the mission in our community, I do a lot of everything — overseeing food distribution and our soup kitchen, greeting the people who come in our doors, connecting with our donors and supporters, and staying on top of our paperwork and financials. You may even occasionally see me behind the kitchen counter serving food or doing dishes. I view my job as a practice of servanthood, and when I’m not here I love being with my family and hiking or enjoying time in nature. ✞
“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land.” — Deuteronomy 15:11
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” — Deuteronomy 31:8
“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16
Daniel Flores | Thrift Store Assistant
My work in the thrift store — sorting donations, distributing food, running the register, and talking to our clients — you could say I approach all of it in the spirit of personal ministry. I enter every day as an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He the only one who saves.
“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.” — Philippians 4:5
Whenever God gives me a task that feels heavy, such as evangelizing, I don’t have to be anxious about doing it alone because I am cooperating with God’s action in me. That’s a certified promise from God. He is literally at hand. He equips you for the very task He calls you to do. If you stretch out your hand as far as possible, Jesus is never farther than that. Your burdens are within arm’s length to give to Him. You may not physically feel Him, but the promise remains: the Lord is always with us. ✞
Dorian Varada | Kitchen Manager
As an artist I enjoy bringing my creativity to the dishes I make for our guests at the mission. Because I know what it's like to be homeless and alone in the world, I approach this work as feeding bodies as well as souls by treating each individual who comes to us with as much kindness as I can give them. I see the face of a child of God in every person we serve.
"So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." — 1 John 4:16
I am a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Along with my music, I enjoy hiking, visiting hot springs, and dreaming up new recipes to make for our people. ✞
Hannah Lee Jones | Fundraising & Development
I am a poet and writer and I work with our board and staff to bring in the resources to keep our ship running, our staff paid, and our clients fed and cared for. This work is close to my heart: my father is a minister to the homeless on the streets of San Francisco, and I’ve run projects funding college education for youth in western Kenya. Four years of nomadic travel taught me the gift of being poor in spirit. Now I’m blessed to volunteer with the mission’s peer counseling program funded by United Way, supporting our guests on the path to addiction recovery.
“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about the dying of our Lord Jesus, that the life of our Christ may be manifested in our bodies.” — II Corinthians 4:8-10
My greatest reward in this work is the wisdom in the stories of our clients. Many of them have lived through hell on earth and are still here with God’s grace, walking each other home. ✞
