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Safe Haven is one of our most important ministries. On Thursdays, we open our Fellowship Hall to our neighborhood poor and homeless. Volunteers serve breakfast and a hot lunch, and county social workers and nurses offer much needed resources and assistance.
We are currently seeking a part-time coordinator for our Safe Haven day shelter. Click here for more information.
The following is a reflection written by our senior minister, Rev. Kathleen Kline Chesson.
We found David curled outside the side entrance doorway, asleep and inebriated… waiting for one of us to arrive. Lee and I, pastors at First Christian, Falls Church, VA woke him and pulled him to standing. It was wintry cold, his torn down coat smeared with dirt and grease from places he had slept. He smelled of grain alcohol, which permeated his raw and swollen skin. It was January, 2005.
David has come in for Safe Haven warmth. He is a regular, joining 80-100 others who gather every Thursday at our day shelter for the homeless. Our guests live in small patches of woods, cars, bushes…many finding room in the nearby Bailey’s overnight shelter. Wealth and poverty live side by side in this suburban/ urban community, but the desperation of the poor seems so hidden from the bustle of the thriving businesses nearby.
Bill and Jack have been here since 8 am opening up. There are air mattresses for those who have worked all night and an ample breakfast of eggs, cereal, muffins, bagels, coffee and orange juice. Home cooked, hot and abundant lunches… Jane has prepared a huge lunch this day, both vegetarian and meat filled casseroles, overflowing steaming spaghetti, with directions for us kitchen helpers, bread, salad, home baked desserts. This year Ruth designed a library on the stage, stacked with free books, magazines, comfy chairs.
Jack and Bill, John, Karen and Phil are here every Safe Haven day. Priscilla and Evelynda have come in to serve today. Zach has come in to wash dishes. It was Ginny and Anna and Ruth last week. Cliff comes in with home baked cookies still on the baking tray made by Shirley.
David seems to be feeling better now… he spends part of the morning sitting upstairs in Karen’s office as she works and offers her amazing blend of compassion and kindness all while answering the phone, creating the newsletter and keeping a smile. He shares with us a bit of his past – a navy seal he was, a long time ago, he says…before a stint in Panama when someone offered him some cheap heroin. But he had some amazing years. He was part of the seal team that recovered one of the Apollo mission pods from the midst of the sea. He had assignments in Cambodia, the Panama Canal. He stared with red eyes “I want to change my life…” His thick coat torn, fingers raw and red, lips bloodied, the smell of grain alcohol permeating the office
It was eight years ago when 83 year old First Christian member Bill LaLiberte was moved by the sorrows and story of a homeless, mentally ill man who slept under the altar of our outdoor chapel. Speaking with the County, our CWF, Outreach Council and other local churches, he single handedly took on the development of a community day shelter during the winter months for the homeless and hungry in our community. We opened for lunch one day a week.
Today we serve between 80 and 100 every Tuesday and Thursday in the winter months, and every Thursday all year around. Supplies, food, and workers are most entirely volunteered by First Christian faithful, though recently as we have grown, other local congregations and community members have become involved. We have just gone to all year round and with the support of Fairfax County, who provide the expertise of two nurses to offer medical and psychiatric care, including free medications and referrals. Vanessa, from the county, is here every Safe Haven day – doing extensive histories and offering other services.
Over 50 members of First Christian sign up to cook, clean, set up, serve and converse throughout the year. It is a huge feat and one that keeps growing as the cost of housing and the lack of work sends so many our way. Day laborers, mentally ill, working poor…black, white, Hispanic, African, former musicians and professors… a network of need that knows know boundaries, except economic.
This year, we added a Thanksgiving Feast in which the traditional American fare was overflowing, along with the 25 or so First Christian members and friends who joined in the cooking and eating as well as the many who provided food for the special day. On January 1 this year, the Primera Iglesia Christiana, a Hispanic Christian congregation will cook and celebrate with our Safe Haven guests.
Our hearts continue to break, however, as the number of homeless seems only to be increasing. Perhaps it is because of what happened on December 13 of 2006, that our commitment to this ministry has become even more deeply enduring. Our David Feliz, was found murdered in a laundry room of a nearby apartment complex, violence rarely seen among the homeless, who consider themselves a family bonded by need. The shockwaves moved rapidly… tears and fears surrounded those unable to find affordable housing who sleep anywhere they can find. The working poor, those whose illnesses prevented a sustainable lifestyle, those turned away from the too full Bailey’s Shelter two miles to our east. The surrounding community gathered on December 21, 2006…a national day of mourning for the anonymous homeless who die every year. The First Christian sanctuary was filled with David’s wayfaring friends, church secretaries, pastors and priests ~ The sorrows of this community was felt as David’s homeless friends stood to share their stories of him. No, he was never a navy seal. No, he had never rescued the astronauts from the midst of the ocean swells. But David nevertheless was not anonymous – loved and tended by those ordinary people whose hearts are moved by the words of Jesus, “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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