BES dinner Sunday night

Thank you so much for letting Ed and I represent the small group when we delivered food to the Burlington Emergency Shelter on Sunday night.  We were so blessed when we stayed and joined the residents and volunteers at BES for dinner.  We met Tina who recently joined JCC; she has volunteered to supervise BES one day a week and it was inspiring to see her there dedicating herself to this mission. 

We walked around BES and met one resident upstairs who is a Vietnam war veteran; he describe the process that he has been going through to learn about the all aspects of home ownership. He is getting guidance to pay down his debt and then an institution will partner with him so that he can purchase a home in the area.

The residents were welcoming and friendly.  They loved the soup, lasagna, sandwiches, and cookies.  One friendly resident who is a 30-year old woman helped heat up the food and said the prayer before dinner.  She openly shared her testimony of returning as a follower of Christ; her smiling face was infectious since it was hard not to smile back. Each resident has assigned jobs, so dinnertime and subsequent cleanup went like clockwork. 

I met a man from Angola who speaks Portuguese and French, but has only been studying English for 3 months.  Somehow we managed to communicate while we ate dinner next to each other.  He was a pastor in Angola and fled to our country.  I plan to pray daily for him to be reunited with his wife and 2 daughters who are 2 and 6 years old.  He misses them greatly. 

The residents at BES are required to attend church, participate in Bible study and follow a structured routine of duties and education; they can clearly see their path is leading them to independent living outside of BES without shame.

One volunteer, mentioned that they don't often get the donors to join them for dinner, but they always appreciate having some of the donors (e.g. 2 to 3 people) join them.  We were so blessed to meet the residents and learn first-hand how Burlington Emergency Shelter is helping these homeless people.  I was so impressed how many of the residents that we talked to obviously had a sense of ownership in the shelter; so much so, that it was hard to distinguish the volunteers from the residents. 

Thank you, thank you.  I want to get more involved in the Burlington Emergency Shelter.  I will start by praying for my new friend from Angola.

Your brother in Christ Jesus, Carl