Life at a Crisis Shelter is rarely boring. This section will highlight some of the events that take place each week at the Crisis Shelter. This is where the I am being forged into being a hero that God can use.
Monday December 19: Quiet night. A heater in room 5 went down due to a wheel chair running into a power cord. A temporary fix of a space heater kept the ladies warm through the night until maintenance could come in the morning to fix the heater.
Tuesday December 20: In the words of Diane Hutton: “I wanted to tell you the girl scout troop that came to sing Christmas carols blessed the ladies so much. The girls went to each door and enthusiastically sang a song and handed out candy canes and a reindeer they made. Some of the ladies were in tears.
Being so touched by that they took that with them when a large group of them went to chapel at the mission. On the way home they wanted to drive by the house with all the lights around the corner (we usually pass it on our way from mission). Coming upon the house the ladies asked me to stop so they could see the pretty lights. Then they asked if they could get out and do caroling. I said, “No to getting out,” but suggested if they wanted to sing they could open the windows and sing. Well they did and we had a full shuttle so people heard us. The people in the house with the pretty lights saw the shuttle out front and quickly mom, dad, and two kids put on their coats and came out on the porch. This made the ladies night! Other neighbors too came out to see. It was really cool and the ladies all felt blessed.
The next day.... A lady comes by the shelter with two kids. She tells us she lives in the house around the corner with all the lights. She said her family was so blessed when we stopped to sing Christmas carols to them! The neighbors also thought it was a wonderful idea. Later her husband said they are homeless women and they gave us such a gift, that was wonderful! So they baked dozens and dozens of cookies and individually packaged them up and brought candy and donations to set out and try to thank the ladies for that special gift. Needless to say the ladies and Jackie and I all teared up.
Wednesday December 21: AOH Christmas party went great.
Thursday December 22: A couple of battles between moms. We made the call to separate the moms. One of our moms is having severe panic attacks typically at night. It seems to be very spiritual. Staff and good workers have been sharing Scripture with her, praying with and for her and listening to her.
Friday December 23: Lots of tension and anger from several of the ladies.
Weekend: Again I am amazed at the generosity of the people of Spokane. All of the ladies received great Christmas gifts. The coming of Christmas seems to have sparked tension for many of the ladies. Much grace was given by staff as there were many verbal conflicts over minor issues. We allowed the Overflow guests to hang out on Christmas morning, drink hot chocolate and watch movies in the morning.
Monday December 26: Much tension across the board. Tonight even the overflow guests were fighting with each other.
Tuesday December 27: Received a couple of ladies from AOH. One of our ladies checked into jail to fulfill a warrant. She was excited to get this out of the way.
Wednesday December 28:
Thursday December 29: One of our guests was getting fairly hostile with her room mates so she was moved to overflow for the night. She actually slept alright there as did her regularly assigned room. The next morning after a good night sleep and a semi-productive conversation she was moved back to her regular room and it went well despite her obvious mental illness.
Friday December 30: Lots of catching up for me as I come off of vacation. The staff did a super job of keeping the shelter running in my absence. We received our new BA machine. A nice sporty red model with extra sensors for the future.
Weekend: Many of the ladies attended a motivational message at All Nations. They came back very encouraged.
General comments: The maintenance team has done a fantastic job of getting the work done on getting our new hot water tanks installed. I only wish that others could have witnessed the ingenuity that it took to get those tanks to the basement safely. Amazing!
