There is a program called Out of the the Cold that operates in many urban centres around North America. Churches open their doors to the homeless community during the cold winter months so they have somewhere warm to stay. The program usually wraps up the end of march, middle of April but because of the unusually cold spring this year, the program here has been extended. Unfortunately two of the churches that normally run the program during the week are not able to keep up their involvement for the last two weeks of April. So, even though my church is far away from downtown, we are opening our doors for the Out of the Cold program tuesdays and fridays until the end of the month. So tonight, I went to help out. I got there in time to serve the meal, then I helped with clean up, made sandwiches for people who arrived too late for dinner and then manned the door to register people who arrived.
What made this evening interesting to me was not just interacting with the people who came for the program, but the fact that things at the church went on pretty much as normal. There was a cooking class going on in the kitchen so we shared the space with them which we were cleaning up after the meal. There was a worship band practice going on in the sanctuary upstairs and the youth had an event in the gym. Can you just picture the parent's reactions as they picked up their kids and saw 6 scruffy men standing around outside smoking?! Pam told me about a conversation she had with our friend Joe and they said that the smell of cigarette smoke in the church foyer added character. I agree:)
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