Recently at Interfaith Coalition's annual meeting, Nick Mele spoke regarding his experience volunteering at the Severe Weather Shelter this winter. Faith is the location for the men's shelter when cold weather turns to life-threatening conditions. These are his thoughts in writing....

What is staffing the emergency shelter like?  First, it's meeting with old friends-I've been staffing the shelter for a few years and have been serving food through CAST since 2001.  I am glad whenever someone I know walks in the door and out of the snow and freezing cold.  It is also a kind of party, although not without it's difficult times.  The difficulties vary:  a police officer brings in someone too intoxicated to realize he risks frostbite; an Iraq war veteran tells of his trouble finding a job; we need to make more coffee or feed a late arrival.  These are not big problems, especially when stood against the hardships our shelter guests endure-hungry, cold, ill, ignored and despised by most of the people they encounter. 

Most street people are embarrassingly grateful for the very basic shelter we offer, some are withdrawn and more than a few are engaging conversationalists.  While sitting up at the emergency shelters, I have picked up good tips on where to set crab traps, reviews of movies, and accurate weather reports from people with a direct interest in the chance of rain.  Our talks are not all business, however; we also discuss the Seattle Mariners' dismal prospects, music trivia, and even politics sometimes.

And so the hours of the night pass, and as our guests begin to wake up, they need coffee, bus passes, shower passes.  They need most of all to know that they will have a place to stay if the weather stays so cold.  That's what it's like in the shelter, ensuring outcasts have a warm, secure place to sleep, a respectful ear for their stories, and a good cup of coffee as wanted.

"Why do you do it?"  For years, I answered that question obliquely, saying I felt called to serve these folks.  I can be more specific-working in the District of Columbia in the mid-1980s, after the Reagan Administration released thousands of mentally ill people from a large local hospital, my short walk between my office and the subway station took me past several men living on the street who were not only mentally ill but combat veterans. Certainly this is true, but there is more to it than a sense of community or a debt owed to veterans.  The more contact I have with street people, the more I like them as individuals.

In return for my time and slight exertions, I am privileged to be in relationship with some very marginalized people.  Several years ago, my then pastor best described why I volunteer to serve homeless people.  He urged us to look for   Christ in the faces of the sick, the homeless, the addicted, and the outcasts of our community.  As soon as he spoke those words, I realized that is why I volunteer:  I meet Jesus several times a night when I volunteer at the emergency shelter.

--Nick Mele, Severe Weather Shelter volunteer