This letter is from Marc, his memories of this past weekend. I hope it inspires you.
I can’t just sit back and say nothing, I mean, I’m completely overwhelmed. This Christmas weekend is one that will forever be in my mind and on my heart. Who do I tell, I need to talk about this. So, I’m going to try to put it into words. I should start by saying that I live with a lot of guilt and shame, I say this to help one understand where I’m coming from. And so, like my step study instructor/CR leadership person, Tug Boat captain would say, I see and feel through a recovery lens. So what I witnessed this weekend is a big deal for me. I struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for so long and I’ve been blessed with a Christ centered program called Celebrate Recovery. Which brought me the recovery that I wasn’t able to get anywhere or anyway else. And that’s where this story of this weekend starts. Meg has introduced me and Kathy to a Church that has, in a short period of time taught me so much. It started with a visit to a fun night at the beach, then a visit to a service and then an invitation to a missional community (my family) called Tugboats.
We met the Thursday before Christmas to follow thru with our plan of wrapping gift boxes for the unsheltered in our community. We also baked cookies to include as a treat. Because we had the following day off of work, Kathy and I were blessed with the opportunity to go out with Meg and Kathryn, to seek out and find unsheltered people to deliver our gifts to. Let me remind you that before I attended The Anchor, I would go out of my way to avoid the homeless and now I am on a mission to seek out and find them. We saw that Meg, in her element, lock eyes with these people, very sincerely asking if they are warm enough, if they are with any other people…I got back in the car and started to cry. It was a wonderful moment. After a few more stops, one of our final encounters, we came across a young couple, seeing the look on their face, of relief that we were there to offer some kind of help, the grateful look on her face when Meg asked if she needed any underwear. “Yes ma’am, please”. Such a simple thing!! I teared up again.
So, then Saturday night, Christmas Eve, we attended the service at Hell’s Kitchen. We had our Christmas Eve worship service I a bar/restaurant. It was a great service and an experience that I will never forget.
The following morning, another great worship service at the synagogue and what stuck out for me was a young man named Parker who shared a message of hope. He was only about 12 years old but when pastor Philip asked if anyone had anything to add, Parker stepped up and pretty much told us all to never give up hope. What a message, I don’t think it gets any better than that.
This service was followed up with a visit to a local nursing home. Not a place I have ever spent a moment thinking about. As we went inside, I expected to find a group of old people assembled in a big room, waiting for us to come and sing some carols to them, but it became so much more than that. When pastor shared with us how it was going to go down, that we would spread out into the facility and find people to bring to the room, Kathy, Jack and I went out together and our first find was a wonderful lady named Marilyn. The look of delight on her face that we were there to take her to an event was great. And so we brought Margaret into the dining room and I sat with her while Jack and Kathy went back for others. It was at that point that she started singing “Jingle Bells” all on her own, so delighted and happy and smiling. Soon after, Kathy rolled in Bonnie and I moved over so Bonnie could sit next to Marilyn. Bonnie, on the other hand, was not so thrilled to be there and didn’t really want to make conversation.
And so, all the others were brought in and we sang our carols and the moment Bonnie and Marilyn were clasping hands and singing together, I couldn’t help but cry. Thinking that these are the people I never gave any thought to, I had no concern for. When it was over, and time to move them back to the rooms, I was pushing another lady out and pastor had stopped us to say Merry Christmas. She had expressed a concern to him and he asked if he could pray for her about that. So, I sat there and listened in on his prayer and my thought was “Is it that easy? That easy to help someone with a simple prayer? I am going to try it someday. “
And so we finished the rest of the day at the pastor’s home with some of the best people I know. Sharing a meal and playing with the kids. We were invited to dinner at 1202 Chestnut- they were hosting a Christmas dinner for the community of unsheltered and destitute. So we headed over to Switchin Gears at 5:30. As we approached the building it didn’t look too busy, but when I pulled up I was blown away by the amount of people having a Christmas meal together. We parked and went in and there I witnessed a whole community of unsheltered and hungry grateful people sharing a hot meal together. For a brief moment I thought to myself, that I have spent more time, energy and money, making sure the birds and squirrels in my backyard had food to eat, than I did a homeless person. And watching my Anchor family members (Randy, Dustin, Klair and Marya) pulling off this event (of course, with the help of many others) I sat back in the corner and watched in awe of Randy, clearly in his element, keeping an eye on all the details, making everyone feel welcome, keeping things moving and showing such care and compassion towards these people. As I was getting ready to leave, I was out on the sidewalk speaking to Jack and asking him how he’s doing and how he feels now that he has a warm place to stay, and Argo came and wanted to let Jack know that he was giving away the blanket that they just got for Christmas from the Tugboats. He then realized that I was part of Tugboats and asked if I minded that he give it to someone else, because he knew someone that really needed it. My response was that he should do whatever he thought was best because we could get them more blankets. At that moment, the gentleman next to me in the wheelchair asked who needed a blanket, because he was ready to pull one off of his own lap to give to someone else. At that time, the young lady came out of the building and so Argo handed her the blanket. That is another moment I will never forget. Before I left, I walked in and flagged Randy down and thanked him, with tears in my eyes, for turning me on to this eye-opening moment, something I’ve never experienced. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am very grateful for everyone who shared in the events of this weekend, that you are all part of moments that I will never forget. The Anchor church is truly, for me, a second chance church that has blessed me in so many ways and I am so grateful to be a part of it.