‘I Was a Stranger and You Invited Me In’

This column is part of Times Opinion’s 2024 Giving Guide. Read more about the guide in a note from Times Opinion’s editor, Kathleen Kingsbury.

I won’t forget the first time I volunteered for a Nashville homeless ministry called Room in the Inn. It was decades ago, in 1990, on a cold night in the dead of winter. I drove to my church, walked into the kitchen and immediately started cooking more food than I’d ever made in my life. We were making lasagna for roughly 20 men who were due to arrive at the church at any moment.

The model for the ministry was simple. In the late afternoon, homeless and vulnerable people would arrive at a central location in downtown Nashville, and dozens of church buses, vans and other vehicles would take them in small groups to a participating church in the city. Once our guests arrived, we’d make them a good meal and we’d hang out while they washed their clothes or showered or just relaxed.

My first night at Room in the Inn I played basketball with a small group of Guatemalan migrants. Another night, I listened while a young Mexican immigrant gave a practice sermon in English. He wanted to be a pastor and he was trying to work his way off the streets. On still another night, I ached for a trucker who described a life of indescribable loss.

We’d sleep in cots next to our guests, rise before the sun came up, fix a hot breakfast, provide a snack lunch — and then our guests would head back into the world, rested and nourished.

No one claimed in those days that Room in the Inn was fixing homelessness. It was, however, doing more than meeting immediate needs. Night after night, over meal after meal, those of us who volunteered also learned. The model for the ministry created relationships, and those relationships meant that we had a better and deeper understanding of the men and women we served.