Warm Winter Nights

Dear Friends in Christ

I want to thank everyone who helped in some way or another to make hosting the Warm Winter Nights Shelter such a success. For the most part everything went seamlessly and was without problems. Over the course of a week we provided sixteen people with a warm and safe place to sleep. We cooked eight days worth of dinners, provided the fixings for packed lunches, and made sure there was food for eight days of breakfasts. We served snacks and made sure there was something to quench people's thirst. We washed dishes and cleaned bathrooms and swept floors. Our guests left this morning, and the parish hall has been returned to its former state (glory seems like the wrong word!).

The food has been donated on, the laundry has been done, and most things have been returned to their rightful place. The people we got to know over the course of the last week are settling into a new place as I write this and getting to know other people with warm and generous hearts. Life as we know and love it at St. Anna's is back to normal, but I imagine that it will be a while before we all return to normal. I imagine that everyone who helped in some way this week has been forever changed by this encounter. I know I have. For eight days we got to live out our faith in real and concrete terms; to do what Jesus commands us to do. To feed his sheep and tend his lambs; to make a difference in our community.

It feels especially poignant to undertake this ministry during Advent, the time when we are waiting for Jesus to arrive. We will very soon hear again the story of Jesus’ birth. Of how he and his family were not made welcome. No one was willing to make room for them, and he was born in a stable. We follow a savior who knows what it is like to be unwanted and ejected, to have nowhere to lay his head. We must never forget that even in our wealthy nation there are still people who have nowhere to live and for whom no one is prepared to make room. While Warm Winter Nights is an excellent program that helps many people and keeps families off the streets, the fact that there is even a need for it in one of the wealthiest countries in the world is a disgrace. We must never forget that and never stop trying to change that.

Special thanks to Carol who worked so hard and so selflessly to make sure everyone had what they needed to make this a success and whose organization made it easy for the rest of us. This is what it means to be a community of faith. I am so proud of St. Anna's and so grateful to be your vicar. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

I am so grateful for everyone who made the last week possible, and I appreciate each and every one of you.

Blessings,

Rev. Jane+