Room in the Inn

The other Tuesday night, I visited with about five homeless men in our Parish Hall. One was playing Chinese checkers. Another was reading an adventure novel. A couple of others had been outside smoking, and came in just as the conversation started. The novel reader looked about sixty, but as he told his story I realized he was younger than I am, in his forties. Life on the street will do that to you. he'd worked various jobs, starting with some white collar work, but descending gradually into catch-as-can construction work. He told his story matter-of-factly, without going into detail, but it wasn't hard to guess that drug and alcohol abuse played a role. Sometimes our homeless guests are straightforward about the dark side of their lives; other times they talk around it, perhaps hoping that we'll believe that life just did them a bad turn.

Every Tuesday night--in the months of December, January, and February in the winter; and July and August in the summer--St. Stephen hosts fifteen homeless men in our Parish Hall. The program is called "Room in the Inn," and it started about two years ago. Right now at least eight churches are participating. Our guests--for that's what we call them--are screened through the Day Resource Center to make sure we don't get people with a history of violence, serious anti-social behavior, or with needs non-professionals couldn't manage.

Our volunteers run the gamut. Corbie and Ray are a former ministry couple who have spearheaded the initiative. They are in their seventies. They have a quiet, kindly, but immoveable commitment to this ministry. Bill and Wendy are almost their doppelgangers, a middle-aged couple with no "traditional" church ties. Bill is a roadie; he's travelled with some big name bands. Wendy is an engineer and isn't afraid of asking hard questions. But both love the church, both love Corbie and Ray, and both love this ministry.

Then you've got Tommy, Craig and Peggy, Robbie, and Melissa, and probably more I can't think of. Tommy is a rock of the church, the person you can most depend on to use his gifts for organization and compassion on behalf of the people most in need. Craig and Peggy are big-hearted, salt-of-the-earth folks who'd do anything for anybody. Robbie is a firefighter whose wife Beth is our Director of Christian Ed. And Melissa is a public school librarian who has only recently joined the church.

We start off with a big dinner. It has amazed me who signs up to prepare the dinner: couples old and young, committees, special groups within the church, individuals who throw together teams committed just to that one meal. We never have a problem finding cooks. Robbie the firefighter is a popular cook. Apparently his forte of preparing meals for a firehouse full of big hungry men translates well into the "Room in the Inn" setting. He recently served up the best meat loaf I've ever had--and there was plenty to go around.

The guests run the gamut, too. About a year ago I was introduced to a couple of clients whom I'll call "Jose" and "John." They were both recent Christians, trying hard to keep the faith and stay on the straight and narrow despite the fact that even at the shelters, they are still surrounded by all the temptations of the street. The guests are assigned different churches each week, so all of us Room in the Inn volunteers know them. Jose is one of our favorites. He's gotten a job and does volunteer work as well. He has gotten VA benefits and is in the running for housing. He still comes around now and then just to thank us. He tells us that simply coming to Room in the Inn made a huge difference for him, because we treated him with respect, and he could imagine a life for himself beyond the streets.

Yesterday evening the youth hosted a "thank you" dinner for everyone who helped sponsor their mission trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. I know, I know, Myrtle Beach--for me as a South Carolina boy it conjures up beach music memories ("Myrtle Beach dayzzzz/ lots of fun in the hazzze") and all the teen angst of falling in love with some girl I would never see again. So you're thinking, "some youth mission trip!"
Except it really was. Our youth went to the Race Path neighborhood, an African-American community with some real needs. They worked really, really hard, ripping off an old roof and putting on a new one for a dear, 97-year old lady; building a new, wheel-chair accessible porch from scratch; and providing childcare in a crowded day care center. On the way to Myrtle, they visited the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, site of one of the worst atrocities of the Southern Civil Rights Era--a racist church bombing that killed four little girls--Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. They viewed statues commemorating Dr. King and the boldness of the non-violent citizens who stood up to police dogs and firehoses.
There's a poignancy to this for me. The Civil Rights movement had a big influence on my faith, and played an important role in my call to ministry. I've been pastor to churches that tried to integrate their youth programs with only moderate success. But here at St. Stephen, a mostly white, upper-middle class church, we have quite possibly the most integrated youth group I have ever seen anywhere. African-American, mixed race, hispanic, and white; of various social and economic backgrounds--they're all here, and the relationship is entirely organic--nobody tried to create it, it just happened. Nearly 50 years later, the upcoming generation of Christians seems to be living the prophetic hope that Dr. King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial--that our children would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And based on their mission trip, if we are to judge our youth by the content of their character, St. Stephen is blessed indeed.