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. ✞
Cassandra Allen | Thrift Store Manager
I came to the mission seven years ago as a client. At the time, my life was a roller coaster of addiction and a fight for survival. Christ led me home to this community whose radical love and support have changed my life. Today, I live on site in the Sierra House and have been managing our thrift store for two years, and I am devoted deeply to this work because I love God and can see Him in the faces of those who come to us for the same help I was able to receive years ago as a young woman who was struggling. My life is devoted to our people and my four children (three daughters and a son) and my little grandson. I work with the hope that everyone can see and taste and know the power of Christ's saving grace.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:22-23 ✞
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. ✞
