Christmas at the mission
I can't remember...have i told you guys I work at a shelter?
JK
I feel like sometimes its all I have to talk about as a single person I tend to be a bit of a workaholic without my that identifies me beyond my job.
Working at a shelter around Christmas is a very unique experience. You see, it is a season when people wake up to generosity and in our community its a time when people tend to take notice of my place of employment.
We have several small shelters in our community by by and large the Mission where I work is the biggest. In fact, some recent stats indicate that we house about 84% of the homeless and transient population in our county. This means at Christmas when people are starting to think of showing generosity and goodwill to their fellow man, we tend to be a natural recipient.
This will be my fourth Christmas at the mission. Each year the Lord has allowed me to see different aspects of homelessness at Christmas.
Because I don't have a family, I worked my first two Christmas days so that my co-workers with children could be with their family on Christmas morning. Those days I got to watch movies, give treats, decorate cookies, color pictures, read the Christmas story and see the light and excitement in the eyes of little children as they opened their Christmas gifts. I also saw the sorrow of people who wished they could be anywhere else that day, but had no where to be. A fellow co-worker once told me, Christmas is when you see who is REALLY homeless. You find out who the people are that have absolutely no where else to be. On those Christmases I got to see people come to our humble dining room and decorate it with festive things. The clients didn't have to shuffle through a line because on that day, people poured in to volunteer by waiting the tables always making sure everyone had all they wanted of ham, sweet potatoes, greens, pies and all sorts of other Christmas treats. My first Christmas I was overcome as I sat looking around the room, listening to a volunteer playing the keyboard he had brought in. I felt like I was in the final scene of a Hallmark movie and that I was witnessing peace on earth goodwill to men with my own eyes.
They other experience that I have had was working a third shift on Christmas Eve last year. I worked in the area where our most transient clients sleep. We fill a dorm with mats on the floor and when that gets fill they spill down the halls. Because many of those clients are transient and will leave during the day, I decided the easiest way to give them their Christmas gifts was to distribute them as they slept. So, as I did my nightly rounds, I tiptoed around like Santa Clause leaving a present for every lady next to their mat. The rest of the evening I spent with a young lady who was struggling to sleep. She had a lot of emotional issues and was having a hard night. I played Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer on my computer while she helped me fold all the towels and I did my overnight paperwork. In the morning as the mission came to life, I played and sang Christmas music and the air was light in the building. It was a sweet and beautiful way to welcome Christmas.
This year, because my position has changed, I am in a very different side of things. I wont probably have to work Christmas Day. There is a little twinge in me that will miss it. I have however, gotten to see a whole new side of things.
My current office is located in our front administration area. This is the hub for all the mail and donations. for the last month or so, I have watched streams of donations come through the door. Some come with the mail in piles and piles of envelopes filled with checks by kind and generous people. Others come through the door brought by people of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds. Toys, clothes, toiletry items, blankets, books, games, hats and mittens, sock and underwear have come streaming through the door. Somedays, I cant even seem to walk through the office because of all the plunder that is waiting to be taken to where it goes.
Another aspect that I got to participate in this year, was to help make up the bags of presents for a few of the families. These bags are full of new clothes, boots, coats, pajamas, games, toys, books, all kinds for things for children who would otherwise receive no presents.
JK
I feel like sometimes its all I have to talk about as a single person I tend to be a bit of a workaholic without my that identifies me beyond my job.
Working at a shelter around Christmas is a very unique experience. You see, it is a season when people wake up to generosity and in our community its a time when people tend to take notice of my place of employment.
We have several small shelters in our community by by and large the Mission where I work is the biggest. In fact, some recent stats indicate that we house about 84% of the homeless and transient population in our county. This means at Christmas when people are starting to think of showing generosity and goodwill to their fellow man, we tend to be a natural recipient.
This will be my fourth Christmas at the mission. Each year the Lord has allowed me to see different aspects of homelessness at Christmas.
Because I don't have a family, I worked my first two Christmas days so that my co-workers with children could be with their family on Christmas morning. Those days I got to watch movies, give treats, decorate cookies, color pictures, read the Christmas story and see the light and excitement in the eyes of little children as they opened their Christmas gifts. I also saw the sorrow of people who wished they could be anywhere else that day, but had no where to be. A fellow co-worker once told me, Christmas is when you see who is REALLY homeless. You find out who the people are that have absolutely no where else to be. On those Christmases I got to see people come to our humble dining room and decorate it with festive things. The clients didn't have to shuffle through a line because on that day, people poured in to volunteer by waiting the tables always making sure everyone had all they wanted of ham, sweet potatoes, greens, pies and all sorts of other Christmas treats. My first Christmas I was overcome as I sat looking around the room, listening to a volunteer playing the keyboard he had brought in. I felt like I was in the final scene of a Hallmark movie and that I was witnessing peace on earth goodwill to men with my own eyes.
They other experience that I have had was working a third shift on Christmas Eve last year. I worked in the area where our most transient clients sleep. We fill a dorm with mats on the floor and when that gets fill they spill down the halls. Because many of those clients are transient and will leave during the day, I decided the easiest way to give them their Christmas gifts was to distribute them as they slept. So, as I did my nightly rounds, I tiptoed around like Santa Clause leaving a present for every lady next to their mat. The rest of the evening I spent with a young lady who was struggling to sleep. She had a lot of emotional issues and was having a hard night. I played Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer on my computer while she helped me fold all the towels and I did my overnight paperwork. In the morning as the mission came to life, I played and sang Christmas music and the air was light in the building. It was a sweet and beautiful way to welcome Christmas.
This year, because my position has changed, I am in a very different side of things. I wont probably have to work Christmas Day. There is a little twinge in me that will miss it. I have however, gotten to see a whole new side of things.
My current office is located in our front administration area. This is the hub for all the mail and donations. for the last month or so, I have watched streams of donations come through the door. Some come with the mail in piles and piles of envelopes filled with checks by kind and generous people. Others come through the door brought by people of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds. Toys, clothes, toiletry items, blankets, books, games, hats and mittens, sock and underwear have come streaming through the door. Somedays, I cant even seem to walk through the office because of all the plunder that is waiting to be taken to where it goes.
Another aspect that I got to participate in this year, was to help make up the bags of presents for a few of the families. These bags are full of new clothes, boots, coats, pajamas, games, toys, books, all kinds for things for children who would otherwise receive no presents.
That picture doesn't even paint the whole picture. There are about 150 of those bags, ready to got to the parents so that they can wrap them up and give them to their children on Christmas.
I am not sure what the rest of my Mission Christmas will look like at this point, but I feel blessed that each year the Lord teaches me something different.
Each year I see generosity displayed in different and unique ways. It is such an amazing blessing.
As I sit here typing there is a song that is running through my head. It's about how people up their hearts at Christmas to care for their fellow man. Its so true they do. There is a line that says, "But wouldn't it be something, if we'd all learn to love like its Christmas, more than once a year."
Why limit generosity?
Don't get me wrong, I am SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL for what is being done for my clients in this season. It's like in the Christmas Carol when the charity workers hit Scrooge up for a donation. They say something about how in this festive season of the year, need is more keenly felt. It's true. People do recognize what they don't have at Christmastime in a very real way.
The needs however, are always there.
Needs for things far beyond toys and gifts. Basic needs like shampoo and underwear. Deep real needs like prayer, support, encouragement and a change in their heart and world view.
This Christmas as you bake cookies for your neighbors, send a check to your favorite charity or donate to a food drive, i want to tell you two things.
First, thank you.
You may never seen the deep benefit that your generosity has but the Lord does. He has given me grace to see a tiny window of it and believe me, it matters.
Second, let it spill into your everyday.
Don't wait for a holiday or a special reason to overflow with love for people. Everyday is an opportunity to, as my boss says, be the hands and face and feet of Christ to a broken world.
You see, most of the world can be generous at Christmas. It takes someone one really full of the love of Christ to flow with generosity on like and average Tuesday morning.
Lets be that person.
That person, changes the world.
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