In 1985, Charles was a pastor of a holy name Catholic Church over in East Nashville, and
he looked out of his window on one cold winter night, and he saw some homeless people, and
they were all huddled out in the parking lot, and Charles said, you know, if I'm going
to do God's work, I'm going to invite the men, but he said the bigger decision I had
to make is if I do that tonight, what will I do tomorrow night, and the next, and the
next?
Well, he invited the men, he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them, and he housed
them for the night.
Just that time in 1985, we have over, room in the inn has over 200 congregations that
have joined him in housing homeless people from the coldest months of the year, November
one through the end of March in Nashville.
And all of these systems are supposed to help us, but as you fall through one, two, three,
and four, there's a spiraling downward that occurs that ends in hopelessness and despair.
The room in the inn is trying to promote hope by engaging people in relationships that
are nurturing and full of healing.
You know, to think of this great thriving city that has so much, so much to offer, and
all these people who in so many ways are left behind, they're left behind from having the
dignity of a place to call home, and they're left out of so many of the things that so
many of us take for granted.
The relationships with one another, the ability to love people in the eye and be trusted,
and the ability to know that they're loved.
So what we do at room in the inn every day is to try to offer home when people have done,
you know, we offer the tangible things like meals, a place to stay for the night, you
know, identification help, things like that, but we also offer that sense of relationship.
We offer the chance for people to get to know their neighbors, who they probably wouldn't
have any chance of meeting otherwise.
So you all are part of that, you're part of loving your neighbor, and you're part of
the room in the inn by being here, so I want to say thank you.
I got a day with a base, a day with a base, just me and my base, just me and my base.
