Can you imagine waking up Christmas morning in a frozen tent

No one should have to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Night outside, and thanks to your very generous support, SEVENTY-TWO of homeless men, women, children, and two dogs participated in our Room in the Inn program this year! Thank you!!! 

Sixty of our guests woke up Christmas morning in beds instead of outside in sleeping bags or worse. The other twelve were mostly new to us and began their two-night stays on Christmas Day after joining us at Saturday Servings or being referred. All of them enjoyed the comforts of a motel room for two nights, although we began sheltered thirty-eight of them five days earlier due to weather, and had fifty-eight neighbors already in rooms the night before the program began Friday. Those early arrivals were paid for by our Emergency Shelter program…Thanks for supporting it too!

I am confident we would have had many more guests for Room in the Inn were it not for the law requiring a photo ID to check into a motel room. Dozens more. As Maureen reached out throughout the week to those we knew would be outside, she spoke with quite a few who lacked IDs and we couldn’t get a room for. I spent most of the week canvassing camps, corners, and shopping centers in our serving area, looking for those needing shelter during the week’s cold weather and for potential Room in the Inn guests. Those I found were connected to Maureen to do intakes, book rooms, and get hoodie sizes for the gift bags. Thanks Maureen! It was heartbreaking to see so many we could only offer a sleeping bag to because they have lost IDs. We reached out to other outreaches in hopes of helping their friends too, but only a handful joined us due to the ID requirement. Praise God for opening doors at three motels for six of those without IDs to have rooms, including three I’ve known since our beginning! Thank you Father for our Christmas miracle!

A very special thank you goes to Anna, Faye C., Betty Jo, Maureen, and Sydney for assembling one hundred gift bags for our guests! On top of everything else they do for this ministry, they took this on…thank you! They used large canvas messenger bags to hold four pairs of socks from Bombas, a Mo Hope hoodie, numerous microwaveable meals, hygiene items, and a fast food gift card. The bags were then labeled with guest names and grouped by nine motels to make it easier for delivery. The remaining bags will be used for guests receiving emergency motel stays in the coming weeks.

Every neighbor we know who lives outside and has a photo ID, and even a few without IDs, all enjoyed a Room in the Inn this year! Thank you for helping make these Moments of Hope possible!

~ Bob