Wasted Space
So our church has an old gym. It has the usual things you would expect an old gym to have: basketball hoops, an old, cracked, smoothed concrete floor, old bathrooms with showers. It also has some things you wouldn't expect it to have: a stage with loft, and a cafeteria style window that open up to a kitchen. It's sort of out of the way, this gym. Tucked at the end of a hallway it's not used for much more than a play area for the kids when it rains these days.
But I see more.
I see that kitchen being used to feed people in need. I see those old, folded up picnic style tables in the avocado green and mustard yellow holding people as they study for a GED course. I see rows of cots for people to sleep upon when the weather reaches critically cold levels.
But there is one problem.
My church has a school. The school is awesome. Low student to teacher ratio, teachers that really care about the students, involved parents. But telling people that homeless people are not only around, but invited, to come to the church? I can already hear the worry.
What if there is a child molester in the group? What if they hide on the property? What they steal, cheat, vandalize? What about drugs?
And these are valid concerns. The majority of homeless suffer from mental disease and/or drug abuse. But I can't help but think that to open it up just a few nights a year, surely that could be done? The doors to the main school can easily be locked. The outside doors of the school/church are just always locked, period, as a matter of safety protocol anyway. There would only be 1 way in or out, that is through the doors to the outside that open at the back of the gym. Getting the local PD in on it could help, too. I don't know that they would have someone that could stay on property, probably not, but knowing that they should swing by frequently, help do a closing sweep, and to prioritize calls from the church would hopefully ease people's minds.
If not a temporary refuge of last resort, then perhaps at least a meal 'n GED group.
I doubt it will happen, but every time I'm in that gym, I see it.
But I see more.
I see that kitchen being used to feed people in need. I see those old, folded up picnic style tables in the avocado green and mustard yellow holding people as they study for a GED course. I see rows of cots for people to sleep upon when the weather reaches critically cold levels.
But there is one problem.
My church has a school. The school is awesome. Low student to teacher ratio, teachers that really care about the students, involved parents. But telling people that homeless people are not only around, but invited, to come to the church? I can already hear the worry.
What if there is a child molester in the group? What if they hide on the property? What they steal, cheat, vandalize? What about drugs?
And these are valid concerns. The majority of homeless suffer from mental disease and/or drug abuse. But I can't help but think that to open it up just a few nights a year, surely that could be done? The doors to the main school can easily be locked. The outside doors of the school/church are just always locked, period, as a matter of safety protocol anyway. There would only be 1 way in or out, that is through the doors to the outside that open at the back of the gym. Getting the local PD in on it could help, too. I don't know that they would have someone that could stay on property, probably not, but knowing that they should swing by frequently, help do a closing sweep, and to prioritize calls from the church would hopefully ease people's minds.
If not a temporary refuge of last resort, then perhaps at least a meal 'n GED group.
I doubt it will happen, but every time I'm in that gym, I see it.