last night, our community had the privilege of serving dinner and getting to know a group of homeless people at the emergency homeless shelter organized by the city of little rock (you may have read about it in our previous post). we had a great time and it was good to help out a group of people who aren’t just “homeless people”, but fellow citizens of our city. we experienced a lot of grateful people who were happy to eat a homemade bowl of soup and escape the bitter cold for the night.
there are quite a few observations i could make, but, ultimately, none would be fully adequate to describe the great time we had. all in all, i think my overwhelming observation is how many people i saw myself in. i don’t mean people just resembled me or had similar characteristics, but it’s more to say that the stigma of dirty, drug-addicted, crazed people on the streets simply isn’t true. literally 99% of the people at the shelter were just regular people like you and me. connected to that observation is also the thought that, with a couple different decisions in my life, i could easily be the one finding a cot on the gym floor instead of the people i was serving. undoubtedly, i could see myself in the people we served.
ultimately, what i’m getting at is the invitation for you to share in the experience i just described. whereas we—formally, as a church—served dinner last night, there are still a huge need for volunteers. one of our people, libby delay, is the volunteer coordinator for the shelter and she has expressed the need for many more volunteers, with jobs ranging from clean-up to security to just people who are there to have conversations and be a friend. here’s a schedule with shifts:
friday
midnight-8am: need 8 volunteers
8am-4pm: need 8 volunteers
4pm-midnight: need 8 volunteerssaturday
midnight-8am: need 8 volunteers
8am-4pm: need 7 volunteers
4pm-midnight: need 8 volunteerssunday
midnight-8am: need 8 volunteers
8am-4pm: need 8 volunteers
4pm-midnight: need 8 volunteersmonday
midnight-8am: need 8 volunteers
8am-4pm: need 8 volunteers
so, if you feel compelled to lend a helping hand, give libby a call at 501.773.9093.
finally, i wanted to take a minute to specifically mention a few people who were instrumental in pulling together last night’s dinner. first, a big thanks to my wife, christen byrd. she took the reigns early and organized quite a bit up front. also, as always, john hardin, our community leader, stepped up and was a big piece of why this came together smoothly. despite the fact that she wasn’t working in an “official eikon capacity”, libby delay has done an amazing job and put in a lot of sacrificial hours. bradley phillips, traci berry, cara beth buie and kimberly roth helped us serve food. we also had several people take their time and energy to cook pots of soup including kat hills, amanda morgan, kyran pittman, denise brockinton, bekah caraway, keely kaffenberger and cathy dean. i’m sure i missed some people, so my apologies if i missed you!
thanks to everyone for a great night of connecting with some people here in little rock that we might not otherwise.