Why Don't the Churches.....?

Charging phone and 3 days of water

This is a question that Ned asked last summer, and one that I heard again this week.

I was coming up the hill to the parking lot, after a visit to my friends living on the beach. A woman leaned out of the window of her SUV, called to me, and said, "I don't want to be nosey, but..."

I answered the questions I could answer, and she asked me if I worked for an agency. I said no, I'm just a friend. But I work for the Baptist church near the post office.

Which is when she asked the question. Which I've mostly already answered in this post.

I told her that over the winter, our friends have been coming to the building two or three times a week to warm up, charge phones, and refill their water jugs. (Also, the Presbyterian church has a weekly "take-out" lunch for anyone who is interested. Also, lots of church members are volunteers and donors with other organizations. Also, churches host two of the three foodbanks in town.)

It's been a really hard winter. Lots of very cold nights, lots of wind, lots of snow. Enola says she can build a fire in anything but a strong wind.

One morning in January she and Ned woke up trapped in their tent under the weight of snow that had snapped a tent pole and brought the roof down. Literally. Their heads were at the far end from the zipper and they were pinned below the waist. She was able to dig out her cellphone and call 911. First Responders came to the rescue, and that's a whole other story. One of several that I've written out and that I may, someday, publish. 

The longer term forecast for the spring is not looking great through March and April. The other day Enola's winter coat blew its zipper and winter isn't over yet. I took her an extra I had at home: a big one with lots of room for layers.

The last month or so, I've been swinging by the beach parking lot on Sunday mornings to pick them up on my way to church, to save them the two km walk uphill. While a tenant congregation is holding their service upstairs, we let ourselves in the basement door. They make themselves at home. Make a pot of coffee. Listen to the radio (Ned asked permission to change the radio station from "that church music" and now it's set to classic rock.) They'll play cards and eat the breakfast Enola has brought in her backpack and kill the rest of the morning. If they need to buy something at the bodega downtown, one of them will walk up the couple of blocks while the other stays put to make sure they don't get locked out of the downstairs by mistake while our service is happening upstairs. They've been invited to join us, but they haven't chosen to do so. When my service is over, they have the kitchen clean and everything in order. I drive them back to the beach. See you Tuesday.

The pastor and others in the congregation have been wonderfully accepting of this not-terribly-stereotypically-evangelical approach. I've read a lot (!) of anger online toward faith-based charities that insist on holding lunch until after the sermon. The kind of thing in this picture, which I grabbed from the twitter feed of Kevin M. Nye. If you scroll down through the responses, they include phrases like "predatory behaviour," "time-share pitch," "christianity is inherently evil," and "f*** religion." Nobody does angry like twitter. But there is a valid viewpoint here. "The Church" has been guilty of some stuff, and we need to walk these paths humbly.

This is as far as we've come in figuring out, as a congregation, what we can do to support those who are living without housing. Being friends, being as available as we can. Sharing what we've got.