10 Days of Gratitude; day 4, Warm Cots at Stevens Point’s Warming Shelter
Tonight as I left my warm home, scraped the ice and snow off of my car and headed out into the cold blustery night to take on my shift at the warming shelter I was so grateful that we finally got this needed resource opened up.
I know a lot of folks who spend their days and nights on the streets and it is good to know that they will have a warm bed until spring.
Last year Tiffani Krueger, our local angel to the homeless and others in need, and her fellow saints at the Evergreen Initiative worked hard to get this resource opened up at our Franciscans Downtown location, but due to tremendous pressure from a few neighboring businesses and govt officials it was not to happen.
Fortunately no one froze to death, though we did lose 5 due to various health issues this year, tough to be sick, worse when you don’t have a real home to go to.
So this year she again worked hard and found some wonderful hosts at the Episcopal Church who offered us their community room and other facilities to keep our homeless warm starting November 1st.
It is a very nice facility, good location, plenty of room, and even has internet so that the volunteers can work on their business stuff while being available for our sleeping guests.
This has been a tough year for homeless; the numbers are up, the main shelter that the Salvation Army runs has been full for a while, last I heard it was at about double their normal capacity.
Our facility is designed for those who do not fit in the Salvation Army shelter due to overcrowding or other reasons such as sobriety or just not getting along.
Tonight all the cots were full even though a few familiar faces were missing, I hope that they are safe and warm enough wherever they are camped out tonight.
So this morning I am grateful that God has placed me here to do my part to show His love for a few of His people on a cold blustery Wisconsin night.
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