First Pres Winter Shelter
Winter Shelter sounds cool, but what is it? It’s a ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Hayward where the unhoused in Castro Valley can find a place for a hot meal and housing for the night.
Weekly we're serving food and sharing God's love with those needing shelter for the night, and giving away Bibles and books. The residents are amazed by how we think of them and show love and care for them. We're planning for Good Friday & Easter Service events the next two weeks, along with a Passion Experience presentation about the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin.
In February, we got to meet many people and it was moving to hear their stories. We were mutually touched several times as we shared a birthday with one of the residents. We also got to share our favorite story of God’s love through Jesus to our new friends. At the end of the day, we were all grateful to serve God at the shelter and we want to keep coming to this harvest field and to share the gospel with many more people.
Shrinky dinks!
In March, we took a survey to see what activities the men and women of the Winter Shelter wanted to do. What did they choose? Drum roll please … Arts and crafts! You wouldn’t believe the level of excitement around our first activity – shrinky dinks! Yes, this Joyland staple was a hit! It was so heart-warming and yet so unexpected to see these men and women put so much time and thought into their shrinky dinks. And to see how proud they were of their shrinky dinks coming out of the oven! It reminds us that these forgotten and shunned people in our society were once someone’s precious child too, who loved just doing arts and craft. It seems that they can feel that we think about them, care about them, and want them to have a memorable Friday each week with them. We have just 6 weeks left until the Winter Shelter closes, so please pray for us as we prepare a virtual Passion Week experience, leading up to Good Friday, and Easter where we hope to have an Easter service with food, flowers, and just maybe, witness someone cross the line of faith!