It Takes Just Two Hours
Kevin Wing | Lockport CARES
The mission of Lockport CARES is simple: “Serving people in need with shelter and compassion through the Love of Jesus.” With two fully restored neighborhood homes in the heart of the City of Lockport, New York, we offer short term housing and care at no charge for those suffering from an emergency homeless situation. Our guests are adult women, men, and even families with children. Guests stay up to two weeks in our day-to-day shelter and can remain with us a bit longer at our extended stay home next door when permanent housing is not secured at the end of their stay. CARES is the only emergency homeless facility in Eastern Niagara County.
Every year Lockport CARES serves its mission by asking our dedicated team of staff and volunteers to live out the love of Jesus in ways that our guests can see and feel. We serve more than 200 guests per year by providing shelter, warm meals, and real-life expressions of God’s love. The words of our Board President, Rev. Alan Bauch, remind me to keep the mission simple, “Help them feel like they are coming over to Grandma’s house!”
Who are our guests? Men that have lost a job. Moms with kids who struggle to care for their family and afford a place to stay. Folks who had a fight with a friend or stayed a little too long in a bad place. They are stuck and don’t know where to go or who to call. They burned some bridges. To make matters worse, the post-pandemic world has made apartments financially out of reach.
Somewhere along their path someone gave them a phone number to call for help. I suspect most don’t call right away. I have a feeling that calling that number is the last thing they want to do. I have been on the receiving end of some of those calls. You can hear it in their voices. They might have called once and there was no room. They were turned down. Now they have to call and ask for help . . . again.
When guests are invited to stay, our mission is to help them feel at home; take the sting out of an embarrassing situation. But that first hour in our house is tough. It’s the part of their experience that doesn’t feel like grandma’s house. We have to wand them and check their bags. We ask some pretty personal questions. We ask them to read the house rules. (Not exactly riveting reading!) But it is all a part of making sure the house is safe. But once they settle in the love of God and even the encouragement of other guests kicks in and they feel welcomed.
How can you help us serve our mission to show the compassion and kindness of our Savior to our guests? You could help us serve families – moms with a young child and infant, or a dad with twin toddlers. And they are coming in record numbers because evictions are rampant. CARES is on pace to more than double the number of families we served in 2021. Families.
You could choose to serve the increasing numbers of men, women, and older teenagers in our Living Well Program. Hosted by our very own board member, Ruth Verratti. Ruth offers hands-on learning in basic life skills while offering them opportunities to feel, see, and know the love of Christ. And like our families, the numbers she is reaching through increased collaboration with other agencies is doubling and tripling.
The task of serving our guests is not always easy, but it is simple. Lately I have been asking people, “Can you consider serving the homeless for just two hours a month?” What will that look like? It will be you clothing yourself in Jesus, in His love and compassion and probably a fair amount of patience. Patience because sometimes our guests are experiencing a lot of pain and with that often comes some demands or expectations. It will test you. But you can do it.
So . . . just two hours. I’ll be real, some shifts are harder to serve than others, but the people you meet, they look a lot like you. And I read in Scripture that when you serve the least, you are really serving Jesus. I think you can find a couple hours. I’ll be looking for you.
Lockport CARES is Eastern Niagara County’s only emergency homeless shelter serving people in need with shelter and compassion through the Love of Jesus. We provide short term comfort and support while helping them find permanent solutions to their immediate hard times.
