...volunteers who kept our shelters clean and ready for use...
Unseasonably warm weather has given us an opportunity to close our doors and get caught up on some much-needed shelter cleaning. While this cleaning is important, the closed doors are hard on our homeless. Recently, on my way to prep for laundry, I met a woman attempting to camp out on our front steps. Her story was like so many. She said, “When you’re not open, I have no other place to go.” On another occasion, I was greeted by a female client while I was visiting McDonalds for coffee. She came up to me, barely able to talk. She asked if the shelter would be open that night, and I said it wouldn’t because temperatures were not going to be cold enough. "I have no place to go," she said. She then explained that, unlike some of the others who were able to move when the rain destroyed their camps, she was unable to relocate. The only thing she could do was walk the streets and wait for the waters to recede enough for her to return to camp. The long hours she had to stay awake while waiting caused her to become worn down and to get sick.
I share these stories with you because I want you to know that the work we do is real. Your help is real, and the lives you touch as a partner are real also. These issues will continue to be a reality to many of our clients who are homeless. We will not let up on our efforts to build a permanent shelter that will help them on a continual basis. Our shelter project takes another giant step as our Board of Directors has targeted 2018 as the year to secure property that will be used to build our 20,000 sq ft facility. This building will be used to provide both emergency shelters and recovery programs as well.
Last month, Murfreesboro Rescue Mission had no shortage of volunteers who kept our shelters clean and ready for use. Whether it was laundry, scrubbing showers, mopping floors or vacuuming, volunteers were there to lend a much-needed hand. During the coldest nights of the year, and there have been plenty so far, supporters of MRM keep the shelters going.
Please don’t be fooled by this unusual spell of warm weather we are having. Old Man Winter has taken a break, but the cold weather is not over just yet. I’m sure we’ll be back in action before too long. Rest but be ready. We still need you. It’s so good to see that the biblical example of the Good Samaritan is alive and well in the Murfreesboro community.
Thank you,
Ed Grimes
Executive Director
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