We visited a home that had only requested a bed. When we arrived, we learned that the bed was for a grandmother who had been displaced from another relative’s home after the house burned down. The mother and daughter were making a place in their home for the handicapped grandmother. Three generations of women caring for one another.

The accommodations were sparse and they only inquired of a bed. As the visit wrapped up, we wrote a voucher to the SVdP Thrift Store for a complete bed (mattress, box springs, and frame) and a shower seat.

Christ just knocked at our door!

At the Cathedral Parish, we have 2 hour periods, 4 days a week, when we open the doors and answer the needs of those in our city who are desperate. During my last session, I wrote 14 vouchers for Community Harvest Food Bank.

One was the need of a single mom with 5 children. Another was a man, just released from incarceration. He had NOTHING. Someone needed rent assistance and another needed a bed, an actual bed to sleep on.

And this, I remember well: An older woman who was in need of food. She had with her a lard hard suitcase on wheels. This is what she carries on the CitiLink bus to go to Community Harvest Food Bank to get some food. Imagine if this is your mother or grandmother. All of those that I served that day were so very thankful and appreciative of the help.

Christ just knocked at our door!

A mother, whose youngest child will graduate from high school this year, was diagnosed with cancer in four of her vital organs. She has kept her faith in God through debilitating chemo treatments. She is all but worn out and she and her husband are financially strapped.

During a recent wind storm, their home sustained damage to the roof. The insurance was called and there was a $1,000 deductible. They had no way to pay for this deductible, and they had just received another large medical bill.

A plea for funds was called to all the local Fort Wayne SVdP Conferences.

Monies were generously given to pay the deductible. In addition, her own Parrish, an SVdP Conference, raised extra funds to help with ongoing medical bills!

Christ just knocked at our door!

The members of our small SVdP Conference gather one day each December to assemble our One of A Kind Soup. In this project, each member brings a gallon or two of homemade vegetable soup and a dozen or two home baked cookies to our church kitchen.

All of the soup is mixed together in a large pot. Half gallon containers are then filled with this delicious, nutritious soup. The soup, cookies, and other treats are packed in colorful Christmas containers. They are then shared with members and neighbors of our church who are elderly, home bound, nursing home residents, or those who have recently lost a spouse or child, or have fallen on hard times.

As our Conference members visit and share these gifts, the true meaning of Christmas is evident and that this is truly a Mission Moment.

Christ just knocked at our door!

I was on call for the Society of St Vincent de Paul — Fort Wayne “Help Line,” when I received a phone call from one of our SVdP Parishes concerning a single mother with five children who was in need of a bed, a dining table and chairs, and a recliner or regular easy chair.

I called and talked with the lady and later visited her in her home where she had just moved in. There was a couch, a TV set, and one small bed. Other than that, the house was empty of any other furniture. There was a piece of carpet on the wood floor on which some of the children were sleeping with three pillows against the wall.

I asked her if I got some furniture, could she pick it up or pay $40 for it to be delivered…but she said she had no way to pick it up. Nor could she afford to pay to have it delivered.

So, my wife and I went to the St Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, picked out a bed, a mattress and box springs, a table with four chairs, and a recliner. We delivered it to the family and she couldn’t thank us enough!

This becomes a Mission Moment for the works of our Society of St Vincent de Paul — Fort Wayne.

Christ just knocked at our door!