CARES Shelter
Last night I was a welcomer of the CARES homeless in our gym for the second time. The first time, admittedly, I wasn’t sure what I was to do. I didn’t want to encroach on people’s space, so I mostly waited until I was asked for help.
Last night was different. I was ready to get to know people. To interact. To ask if anyone needed prayer. To see if I could serve them in any way- hold babies while the mothers made their beds, carry mats for those with difficulty walking, help people find space for their mats since it was a pretty full night due to cold drizzle.
I noticed lots of the same faces from two weeks ago when I volunteered. I also noticed that the people of CARES were a sort of family. They knew each other by name. There was a camaraderie. The children had many “aunts and uncles” so to speak, and they felt at ease where they were.
The most significant moment of the night came when a young man stepped off the elevator into the entry area by the gym. He was in his low 20’s, fresh faced and unsure of where to go. The entire first stack of mats had already been taken and the second stack was behind the shelves and not visible. Unlike everyone else who was bustling around making their beds, going to the bathroom, etc. . . he stopped walking and stood there looking into the gym, as if he was taking in the scene of where he would sleep. It was obvious that he didn’t know what he should be doing or how to get started.
I began to approach him and asked if he needed some help. Before I could get the words out a small girl, maybe age 7 or 8, came straight up to him and asked, “Are you new?” He nodded. And she said, “The mats are back here. And the boys usually sleep on this side. And the girls on that side. And back there are the bathrooms. And over there is the water.” She followed all of this by a few other introductory instructions and finally lead him to the mats which she was also getting for her family.
He smiled, and got his mats.
I followed her introduction to see that he had a pillow and blanket. Meanwhile, he told me where he had come from and how he heard about CARES.
When I asked if he needed any prayers, he said yes- for that little girl. And he was able to ask for prayers for her by name. How? Because she had introduced herself by name to him as she opened the arms of the CARES family.
The sweetness and simplicity of her welcome and the effect it had on him and on their body of people at CARES acted as a great lesson and inspiration for me. If we, as a body of believers, greet and welcome each new person as authentically and openly as that 7 year old girl, simply asking “Are you new?” followed by a nice tour of the church, what will happen to our body of believers?