Last Thursday our church helped to provide shelter and food for the homeless in the surrounding area through the WATTS ministry. I appreciate all those who volunteered their time.
My part was to spend the night. Basically I was to be a warm body, an extra layer of security. My abilities are limited, but a warm body, that I can do. I sleep poorly at home in my own bed, much less on a cot with heat pipes banging and spotlights on all night.
Sleep never happened. I watched each hour pass. The night seemed long. Finally 6:00 came and it was time for everyone to wake up, eat breakfast, grab a bag of sandwiches, then board an old school bus to travel back to Winchester to be dropped off at C-CAP.
I was asked to ride back on the bus. Again, all I needed to do was to be an extra body, an additional layer of security.
My head was throbbing. I was tired. I wanted to be home, take a shower and go to bed. Riding back that cold morning there was an eerie quiet, a depressing feel. There were 35 homeless, a bus driver, and myself in the front seat.
There were people with plastic bags of stuff, wearing layers of old clothes with bodies that needed to be bathed. Many looked older than their actual age. Their bodies were beat up by life.
As I watched each hobble off the bus, one by one, I wondered what brought each to this world of homelessness. Was it mental illness, drug addiction, a criminal record by choice, or a combination of each of these?
Now at our destination for drop-off at the C-CAP building, it was 15 degrees with an impending blizzard to start later that day. About half went inside where it was warm and sat on rows of benches. A TV provided continuous coverage of the coming blizzard. About half stayed outside to smoke. If I lived in their world I might take up smoking. People shuffled around or sat in silence.
I stood waiting for my ride to take me back to Berryville, my home, my bed, my world. Finally after a long, short wait of about 15 minutes, my ride arrived. An amazing, new 2016 red pickup pulled up.
In the moment it took me to step off the pavement up into that pickup, I left one world for a different one. Leather heated seats, surround sound, big and wide, the smell of new, a smooth ride, this pickup was amazing. The driver was educated, a professional and wealthy. Now there was a conversation. I enjoyed the talk.
It felt good to be home, to see my wife, to be in my bed. My OCD kicked in, I tried to work it all out in my mind. Thirty-five to 50 homeless in an area of 125,000 people. A low percentage. That’s encouraging.
You ask how was I changed by this experience. I don’t know. Maybe not at all. Life is complex. People are complicated. This I do know for certain: hundreds of people gave and will give of their time, money and food so that 35 people are warm, fed and safe during the 17 coldest weeks of the year.
By DAN STANLEY, pastor at Berryville Baptist Church.
