Friday, April 18, 2008

On Housing the Homeless 2

Well... here it is 1:30 am on Saturday and the week of housing the homeless at church is nearly over. After breakfast, our guests will pack up their belongings and head on to another church in Detroit for another week. The program is a rotating model where the guests travel from church to church each week. The week has taught me a lot about how to coordinate a program like this, how to pace myself, how to encourage volunteers, how to be patient... all in all, it was a wonderful experience, a great week. One of the highlights of this week for me happened this evening when we took a small church "tour" of the sanctuary, chapel and church parlor. Throughout the week the guests had been asking to see the rest of the church, and so the Sr. pastor graciously agreed to talk about some of the features of the sanctuary and other rooms. All of the guests were amazed at every tiny detail of the sanctuary. They asked thought provoking questions about the symbols, and the differences between different faiths. One man, when we walked into the beautifully decorated parlor exclaimed "Wooooo---eee! This room is downright BEAUTIFUL!" I was touched by his enthusiasm, and it reminded me of the beauty of the church I work in, and how being around it all the time might cause me to take it for granted. 


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