December 7 , 2008 There’s No Place Like Well BeingBy Cornelia Seigneur
The man’s words just would not leave Kari the nurse’s heart. He did not have a safe place to go for a meal on Sundays. During the weekdays he had a place, but not on Sundays. There was no safe place to just be on this most sacred of days. Kari and her husband Les kept hearing the words and the words turned into a calling. Open up The Well on Sundays. Offer a home cooked meal. Serve the home cooked meal on real china -- not on paper plates. Serve the home cooked meal on a table with a table cloth and warm candles burning and serve up sweet conversation. Make it safe. With no judgments. Make it like home. Call it Well Being. And they did. And people came. On the other side of town, another call came. This one for Dan and Sally Waritz. Well Being needed help. Last minute help. Would Dan answer the call? Yes, he did. “But, I’ll be the first to admit, when they told me who we’d be serving, I was hesitant at first. I will not pretend,” says Dan. “But after the one time, I knew this was where I needed to be.” Now his community group comes back every month. Last Sunday, they brought shepherd’s pie and salad and dessert to share. Kari and Les love having Rolling Hills helping. It has eased the weekly burden so they can focus on making those who need a safe place on Sundays to feel part of a community. “For a lot of HIV-positive people the church is pointing the finger. Here we do no preaching. We open up our church home to them. We serve them. It allows those living with HIV and AIDS to see that there are others in the church who care. Many of those who come have never stepped inside a church before. Some will then come to Sunday service. It is always in the background,” says Kari. The people who come become etched into their hearts. Dan says, “We notice that you see people each time you are here and all of a sudden you notice when they are not here anymore.” And you wonder if it is because of their health. And you are never ever the same again.
Reach writer Cornelia Seigneur at her blog: |