We work hard to show God’s love to the folks we work with.
Above all our first concern, is to always treat the folks we help as human beings. We show them respect, care and hold them in high regard. We treat them like our parents, our siblings or . . . our children. In essence, the way we’d want our family treated. Because of this, you don’t hear about a lot we do. There’s a LOT we don’t talk about in the name of showing respect. A lot we don’t show on social media. We respect the privacy of those we help. If we do share something, it’s with full permission from the person involved.
I do tell stories occasionally and post pictures where you don’t see faces. But there’s so much more.
Another kind of love is the care and concern Debra (our Executive Director) and Rob (our Shelter Manager) show for our homeless neighbors. They spent Friday and Saturday night last week, going out and looking for those who had nowhere to go. They searched under bridges, behind buildings and in parking lots.
They searched behind a local convenience store where we’d received a report that a young man was sleeping with just a blanket with snow on the way. (The tip line works!)
Debra and Rob listened to this young man, as he cried over what his life had become and they freely offered hope and love. And gently and respectfully found him a place. A place to be warm, safe, and fed. And they offered non-judgemental help to him to get his life back on track. To move forward and never look back.
That’s the love that we are called to share with all. TRUE love.
The other kind of love I want to talk about is food! When I was growing up, family was all about food. Cooking together. Eating together. (Even the cleaning up afterwards). It’s how we showed love to each other.
Our partners show SO MUCH love with the food they prepare for our guests.
It’s fascinated me since I started working at WARM. I took pictures of food (LOTS OF PICTURES) before I even realized why.
Here are some of the photos I’ve taken . . . not all by any means. (PLEASE NOTE: The photos are from before the pandemic!) I see love in each picture. Food made from scratch, full of nutritious vegetables. (Okay, so cookies aren’t super-nutritious, but LOOK at those meticulously decorated cookies. That’s LOVE.)
Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! ~Leslie