Submitted By:
Lisa Jorgenson RN, BSN
Medical Office Assistant Coordinator
Moorhead Campus
Hmmm…. What should I write about? How lucky we are and how thankful we should be, sounds good to me.
As the days get colder I think back to one weekend I spent this last October without food and shelter and wonder to myself would I do it again, especially now with the temps dipping below the 32 degree mark.
The event was Homeless and Hungry. As the youth director at the First Lutheran Church of Fargo, Eric Hatch wanted to raise the awareness of the problem of homelessness in the area. A few years ago starting out with some of the members of the youth group he directed, and their parents this event has grown to 700 strong with various participating churches.
The weekend consisted of a thirty hour fast for the hungry part, and building a shelter out of a refrigerator size cardboard box to spend the night in to represent the homeless part of the event. For me the weekend started on a Saturday morning with approximately 200 other people of various ages taping and painting what we would call home for the night. There were getting to know your neighbor games and a door to door food drive. I will never forget the one house; she answered the door with oxygen in hand and must have been one hundred years old. After telling her who we were and that we were collecting food for the local food pantries she smiled and said, “I would love to help but I am too weak to get the cans.” Yikes. Then of course an evening of musical prayer, and quiet time by the barrel fires. Finally after a long day, bedtime. Then the rain came. With “houses” collapsing around me it soon became difficult to sleep. As the daylight came the rain finally stopped, cold and wet we had a lovely worship with the first Lutheran congregation. The rest of the day was spent at various shelters in the community and making fleece blankets for the area homeless.
I must say that it was quite an experience. But back to my original thoughts. I was lucky because for my night out in the cold I was allowed a sleeping bag and we were allowed water and hot chocolate and cider through the night and orange juice in the morning. I am so very thankful that I have a warm, dry bed to sleep in every night.
So this holiday season when you see the bell ringers or someone comes to your door asking for donations, please open your hearts and give.
Be thankful that you are not one of the 700, which was the number of homeless in the Fargo- Moorhead area on that cold wet night in October.
All my best,
Lisa Jorgenson RN, BSN
Medical Office Assistant Coordinator
Moorhead Campus