General
Azalea Baptist Church has now concluded its portion of the N.E.S.T. (Norfolk Emergency Shelter Team) program. Nightly for one week our church has fed (supper and breakfast), sheltered and issued some clothing to between 50-54 homeless persons.
Most of these unfortunate persons have totally lost everything they may once have owned, their home, their loved ones and their jobs. Some fortunate few still have a job which provides them some money but not sufficient to fully make ends meet. Some of the homeless are sick and have no family to provide them even the simplest things of life.
It did my heart glad to see a young lady playing the card game “Crazy Eights” with one or more of our guests (and winning most of the time). For hours I observed two young men playing chess on a board provided them. One young man was teaching another the game. Other members of our church sat down and talked with and listened to those less fortunate than themselves.
I can not name all the persons participating during our church’s N.E.S.T. week but there were many. It made me proud to see our young people helping to cook, serve the food and clean up the kitchen. Many adults that were scheduled for certain hours came in early. Some came and stayed to help out were never scheduled but saw a need and responded positively.
Many members of our church came and gave of their time and of themselves to help those person and to fulfill the commandment of our Lord, “…to love one another as I have loved you.”