CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – As the weather gets colder, Wausau’s warming center is preparing to open for a new season. City leaders are debating whether it will stay open year-round. They will likely decide ‘yes’. That’s a good decision.
A reasonable goal for a community of Wausau’s size is that there’s a roof over everyone’s head who seeks it. Wausau is small; many of our problems are manageable. We’re not Seattle or Los Angeles where the homeless are in tents by the thousands. Even people who want to help there might throw up their hands and say ‘this is impossible.”
Wausau’s old warming center, on the west side, had room for 25 people a night. The new location, on the east side in the basement at First United Methodist Church, can house 29 and has better facilities, like a shower. And even during the summer months, sleeping outdoors is dangerous and degrading.
There are still some other changes I’d like to see. People must register in the late afternoon to spend the night at the warning center. Often they have to wait outside in the cold until registration time. They should be let in. A few years ago, I was at an evening church service as the warming center clients began lining up. Someone should have invited them in for worship. I should have.
The warming center is a community assist. It’s run by religious groups, but there are no faith requirements for those who use it. But, at some point, is a logical question for someone to ask one of the volunteers, “why do you do this?”
Jesus said what you do for the least of these, you do for me.
A fine answer is “because God told me to.”
Chris Conley
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