Growl! More on the ARC

[wondersofwine]

My church has participated in Cumberland Interfaith Hospitality Network in which 10-12 churches rotate hosting homeless families for a week at a time (comes around 4 or 5 times a year). This includes providing all meals and sleeping cots and linens in Sunday school classrooms or the church library. During the daytime the school-age children go to school and the parents go to work or on job interviews or stay with their preschool children at a day center connected with a Presbyterian church. Usually the families are in CIHN hands for only a month or two before saving enough money to make a deposit on an apartment. Sometimes two families go together to rent a house. I have cooked a number of dinners for our CIHN guests and value the experience. (The number of people is limited to 14 at a time). One success story is a lady with a son and daughter (pre-teen and teen) whose husband burned down their home when she attempted to leave him. She found a factory job and rented a home with another single mom and the family is doing well. We also have given gifts (usually one needed item of clothing such as a warm jacket or a sweatsuit and one game or toy) to children with one parent in prison and given the gifts in the name of the prisoner. One year I made a delivery to three children in that situation and seeing their eyes light up when they spotted the wrapped packages really made my day.