Dallas Church Opening Doors To Homeless During Bitter Cold
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The late season blast of bitter cold in North Texas puts plants and pets at risk but, a Dallas church is working to take care of people.
"I believe we have 75 cots," says Oak Lawn United Methodist Church Executive Pastor Heather Gottas, gesturing to the neatly stacked cots in the church Fellowship Hall, and folded blankets nearby. And when asked if they expected them all to be used, her response came quick: "Absolutely. And then some, probably!"
Pastor Gottas says the church works closely with local homeless shelters and the reality is that there simply are not enough available beds. So with the help of other churches, nearby restaurants in the Oak Lawn area an even strangers, the church supplements, serves and perhaps even saves those neighbors who would risk exposure in the bitter cold.
"I had a gentleman that came this morning whose wife had been cleaning the house. They brought in coats, comforters, blankets, sheets," says Pastor Gottas, "all sorts of things that we'll be able to use with our community."
A community that, for Monday night, will include a homeless man named Jim.
"Be on the street if it wasn't for this place right now," he admitted, saying he has lived on the street for some ten years. "Sometimes it's hard; but, I been managing."
Jim is one of the many homeless residents managing life on the streets of Dallas; the people that many of us would rather look past, than look at... never venturing close enough to ask 'how do you think you got here?'
Thus today, Jim answered.
"I know how I got here," he explained quickly. "I live on $1000 a month in social security. I can't even get an apartment for that. That's how I been homeless for a long time."
He says he is grateful that the church has opened its doors practicing a faith that extends beyond its walls.
"Everything that we do, we really feel like this is a part of who God has called us as Oak Lawn to be," says Pastor Gottas, adding that their interactions with their homeless neighbors has allowed them to see that their stories are not so very different from their own. "And once you start to see the humanity in them, start to learn their names, learn about their families, their history, the things they have been through... the wonderful things they have done. You start to see homelessness in a very different way."
Organizers say they are always in need of volunteers. If you're spring cleaning in the midst of this cold snap, they say they're always in need of coats, blankets, socks, hats and gloves.
"Sometimes you just freeze," says Jim, when asked how he manages to survive, "lot of sleeping bags. This place makes it easier."
