A couple of hours ago, I got a call from a nurse at a low income apartment in Marion. One of their residents had been evicted for smoking in his room, and he was sitting at the bus stop outside the building in the cold with no money and nowhere to go. The nurse wondered if I could help.

There aren’t a lot of options in Marion for a situation like this, so I drove to the location, met the man, named Terry, and called the Marion Police for a welfare check. Terry uses an oxygen machine, almost empty, and had been outside in thirty degree weather since 7:30 this morning. He refused to go to the mission, which is not unusual, and said a friend would pick him up.

The police arrived in 10 minutes. The officer called the friend who lived in the complex, so Terry, having been evicted, could not stay with him. An ambulance was the next step, so that Terry could get warmed up at the hospital and hopefully find a social worker to get further help for him. The ambulance arrived in another 10 minutes, while the officer convinced Terry to go with it to the hospital.

This is a tenuously happy ending, but it’s a story that could easily have gone wrong. If the nurse hadn’t called me, Terry would be courting hypothermia right now, and his future depends on the yet unknown social worker finding help for him.

Unfortunately he’s not the only person in difficulties this Advent season. We need to be aware of this, as followers of Jesus, and be ready to help as we can. I wish there was a simple and easy solution, but there’s not. There’s just a calling, as followers of Jesus, to care for the poor and those with less than we have. That’s something to think about as we remember Jesus’ birth and anticipate his return.

Written by Gethsemane Rector, Rev.Dr. James Warnock 12.02.19