The Rescue Mission of Roanoke’s Weblog

 The first time I met Jeffery, he offered me ice cream. It was about 3:45 in the afternoon, the time right before the kitchen gets crazy. Only two people were in the kitchen, one person was chopping onions and the other person was putting dishes away. The kitchen was quiet. I looked for the cook, Jeffery, on the line..not there. In the office…not there. By the ovens…not there. By the sinks…not there. Then, Jeffery came strolling out of the freezer with a tub of ice cream in his hands, “You want some ice cream?” he asked. I did. Jeffery and I became friends.
Jeffery and the other cooks, prepare food for 700-900 meals a day. That’s a lot of people. Have you ever been in a mass of people and felt like you were that mass, instead of 1? Yup. I have. But not at the Rescue Mission. Here, Jeffery smiles at you. He treats our guests with individual fairness and respect. Our volunteers look our guests in the eyes and smile-to each and every single ONE of them. So there I was eating ice cream with Jeffery, feeling like ONE of the people he serves, like Christ, every day.

           Last month, invitations to honor area church secretaries spread across the Roanoke Valley to the churches.  The church secretaries sorted that day’s mail batch into the pastor’s pile, youth minister’s pile, children’s pastor…secretary’s pile—a card from the Rescue Mission.  The cover of the invitation spelled, “Passion” in purple rays, and the inside read, “We Know you are a Passionate Church Secretary…Passionate about the people, passionate about the work, Passionate about doing God’s will.”  And all the secretaries sighed, ‘oh yes.’ They RSVPed and showed up at the Rescue Mission on May 21,2008.

                Purple balloons floated above twenty two tables.  The Mission served our guests with chicken salad, melon fruit, and poppy-seed cake, adorned with a strawberry.  Karen McNew, a local news anchor, gave her testimony as to how she came to know the Lord.  Every woman in the room admired her poise and sweet presence.  The Simplicity Singers carried a tune as well as the ladies’ hearts.  The music was lovely.  For our mission moment, Mary Ellen, a girl in the recovery program, told her story.  She told the ladies about her addictive behavior as a cutter, alcoholic, and bulimic.  One night she was on a binge drink and she ended the night at the hospital with a deep and intentional cut in her thigh.  She tried remedial programs, but nothing stuck.  She said, “I wasn’t doing it for myself, I was doing it for my parents.” One night, she hit a turning point.  After twenty or so beers, after verbally and physically assaulting the police, and after a night in jail, Mary Ellen’s parents gave her two options: go to the Rescue Mission or get out of our house.  Now, at the mission, Mary Ellen has been sober for a year.  Her parents come to every occasion and encourage their bright eyed daughter to complete recovery.  Backed by their support, she says, “Now, I’m doing it for myself.”  Mary Ellen stood in front of the luncheon and proudly told her story.  The roomed stopped moving, stirring, twitching.  Instead, she moved everyone’s heart with inspiration and love.  Stories like Mary Ellen’s are the heart of the Rescue Mission.  It’s what we are passionate about.

         Church secretaries are passionate about the church. Everyone has a different passion.  The Rescue Mission announced the church secretaries by name and honored them with perfume and thanked them for being passionate about the body of Christ.

            At lunch, Hollins Road Church of the Brethren presented this quilt to Art on a Mission to be auctioned at silent auction for the month of June.  Like the mission, the quilt is a pallet of donation, service, community, and talent.  And like the mission, this quilt has a story of how it came to be.  One day, a community member donated hand-stitched-Sun-Bonnet-Sue-appliquéd squares to the thrift store. Auxiliary member, Virginia Boyer found the squares and gave them to auxiliary member Sylvia Lemon.  Sylvia knew exactly what to do with them.  She brought the ‘Sunbonnet Sues’ to Hollins Road Church of the Brethren.  A male church member assembled the squares and did the lattice work.  Another member drew the quilting pattern. Then the quilt was ready for Sylvia’s quilting circle to hand-quilt the fabrics together.  But, it was not finished yet.  For completion, another church member hemmed the quilt.  Finally, the piece is done and ready to present back to the mission.   Just like the mission, this quilt shows a mosaic of God’s blessings—time, service, and treasure. Sylvia said, “We take what we have and try to make something out of it.” The money from quilt will go towards purchasing twelve pac-n-plays for The Women and Children’s Shelter.

Finally, the ladies met Crash, Lee ‘Crash’ Clark.  Dash could not come….but Crash could! Crash, Dash’s cousin, gobbled on about the Dumbstick Dash on Thanksgiving Day. “TRANSLATION OF THE TURKEY HAND SIGNAL…..It’s not too late for you to be getting groups in your home churches to support DRUMSTICK DASH this Thanksgiving!”

Every Monday and Tuesday, Barbara cuts and serves desserts in the kitchen.

Danny is a member of our recovery program.

9:30am on a Saturday, the Cave Spring United Methodist Boy Scout Troup 221 came to pick up trash around the mission.  When they walked into the lobby, the boys already had their gloves on and were ready to work.  But first, we went on a tour.  Afterwards, the boys gathered in the parking lot, put their gloves back on, and shook black bags open.   As they marched out to the underpass, they eyed all of the colorful junk on the ground.  Some, even started to pick it up on the way there.  The boy scouts said, ‘The more we get now, the less we have to get later.’  So, they started at the overpass and worked down Tazewell Ave., into the graveyard, and across 4^th street.  They bent over, straightened up, bent over, and straightened up.   Some lugged overstuffed bags to the thrift store dumpster, back and forth.  At noon, the boys finished and joined the mission for lunch. After lunch we walked outside and look around.  The mission property looked beautiful! The sun shined down on spotless grass, clear sidewalks, and empty gutters. The boy scouts left no trace behind, except for the effort behind a clean and clear ground.

Bethany Webb and family have been coming to the Rescue Mission for seven years.  Once a week, they serve guests table favors, napkins, and drinks. She shares a story from Lewis, a guest at the mission.     

Yesterday, a tour bus rolled into the Rescue Mission parking lot from Charlotte, North Carolina.  Forty 7^th graders and five chaperons from Trinity Episcopal School came to help for the afternoon.  First, twenty students single-filed off the bus and filled the lobby. Some students became peelers, some wrappers, some can openers, some onion cutters. So, they went to their assignment. Next, twenty more students filed off the bus and into the lobby.  Unieta greeted them and took them on a tour of the Mission.  They followed Unieta from dining room, to chapel, to men’s shelter, to clinic, to learning center, to pottery studio, to women’s shelter.  She told them about how the mission helps people in need through offering food, washing clothes, giving health care, providing temporary residency, and teaching classes.  There is also a rehabilitation program for recovering addicts.  While the students listened, they became eager and willing to serve.  After the tour, they switched with their classmates and became peelers, washers, and wrappers.  The other twenty were anxious to understand why they peeled so many potatoes, cut too many onions, and wrap one hundred perfume bottles.  Then, Unieta showed them the mission.  On the tour, the students began to understand why their hand’s smelled like potatoes and hurt from gripping the peeler; why their eyes burned from onions. The students served the mission, because the Rescue Mission serves hurting men and women.  Seeing how the mission serves, inspires service—no matter the aches. The students were very hard workers.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!