CAMP QUIXOTE AND US, TOGETHER AGAIN

Just as you did it to one of the least of these . . . you did it to me.

                                     MATTHEW 25: 40

Beginning December 12 and until the middle of March, we will once again host the homeless residents at Camp Quixote. This time, however, we will host the camp on the grounds at First Christian Church where our sisters and brothers in that congregation are graciously providing a dry place for the winter months in their lower parking lot with its protective overhang.

The decision to provide this hospitality again this year was ratified by the Council in August following the overwhelming approval for this outreach from those of you responding to our congregational survey.

What will be needed. As before, we are asked as members and friends of our congregation to sign up for three hour shifts at the host security table at First Christian. In so doing, your individual commitment will once again provide the wonderful opportunity to get to know the residents, their efforts, hopes and concerns for their lives. In the coming week, there will be information online and in the Narthex regarding the process for accessing the host calendar and signing up for shifts and for parking at First Christian.

For others of us, physically or otherwise unable to take a shift, be on the lookout for other ways in which your help will make this a special time for our homeless friends and one of particular meaning for ourselves at this Advent season. There will be opportunities to assist in the preparation and serving of occasional meals and desserts, including those which accompany the residents’ Sunday evening meetings when the business of the camp as community is taken up. With Christmas approaching, we are also giving thought to gifts of “survival Christmas stockings”. More on this later.

In adopting its own temporary shelter ordinance for homeless single men and women, the King County Council noted that these folk have always been given the lowest place in our social safety nets. Thus, as we are extend our outreach to them, do we not do it to the “least of these”?