Starting the year off right

It wasn't something that was announced in church Sunday morning. In fact, as of Sunday, there wasn't even a plan to open up the church New Year's Day and invite homeless people to come in for some warmth and some food.
But yesterday, a homeless woman called our pastor and asked of she could come into the church during the day because nothing else was open New Year's Day -- not even a public rest room.
So Joe Hoffman, the pastor, called around to see whether any day programs or public buildings would be open, and when he couldn't find any that were, he decided to open the church. He sent out an e-mail and asked for volunteers to come in and help with food and companionship. He went to the shelters to let people know they could come to the church Friendship Hall between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
In the morning, Kathryn Cartledge went out in her car to tell people they were welcome at the church. Rob and I arrived just before noon with a pot of homemade turkey soup and Rob's old jacket to find about 75 homeless people and 30 volunteers. A couple dozen people were crowded around the TV, a few were wrapped in blankets sleeping. But most were just sitting at the tables, enjoying being indoors.
We brought out the bin of warm things I was going to drop off at A-HOPE, the day program for homeless people in Asheville, because somebody asked Joe whether we had an extra warm hat. We were able to give out sweaters, coats, hats, scarves, socks and more.
It was an amazing day. The grandkids were there for some of it, watching me and other church people giving out hugs with the food and warm things. Trey asked whether his 12 cents would help anyone.
"You gotta love people who love you; otherwise you don't have anything," one man told us.
I brought along my camera to take pictures for the church, but I wound up going into work and writing a story for tomorrow's paper.
A couple years ago, when we moved into this church downtown, we all wondered why God led us to this church when we had planned so hard for a church on a mountainside outside of town. Those plans had fallen through and we didn't know where we would wind up when we found out this wonderful old stone church building was available.
We all knew there would be a reason for the turn of events that led us downtown. Now I think we know.