One of the reasons we opened gifts on Christmas Eve is that I wanted to go down to the shelter on Christmas Day while the guys opened their gifts. I brought a DVD player and some DVDs as well. The guys watched The Wrath of Khan (and yes, they all yelled out “Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan” at the appropriate moment) and First Contact among some other movies and had a good time.
For Christmas each of the guys got a duffel bag with a leather wallet and dress watch inside it. They all came from The Bargains Group which did a wonderful job in helping me shop this year. As I mentioned before, Wal-Mart donated a bunch of pajamas and under garments to the guys. They all came into the chapel as we made jokes about the pajamas and underwear and grabbed their bags.
The guys rifled through the clothes and found sizes for each other, made cracks about the boxer shorts, and pulled out their gifts. Some of the guys got emotional and hugged myself and the other staff person and wished us all a Merry Christmas.
On Boxing Day, we went to Midtown Plaza for a quick trip. While in there I ran into one of the Centre’s clients who told me that this was the first watch he ever had and the first wallet. He had made some money at day labour and showed me his hard earned cash as well. He couldn’t believe that you could get a watch that you didn’t wind. He cracked some jokes about “movin’ on up” with a watch like this.
I didn’t quite understand the impact that the gifts made until today when a guy came up and said, “For guys who have been used to castoffs for years, you have no idea what something dressy and new means to us. [The staff] is nice to us all year long and on Christmas to give us this, it was amazing.” I was left speechless and as stupid as it sounds, I can’t wait until Christmas 2009 now.
Thanks Jordon for your ministry and all that you do. This is really a beautiful post.