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*Note* I‘m leaving out some details here so as not to make this a “:Fratching“ sort of topic, let‘s just say that there were a few things about this woman‘s (I’ll call her “Nora“) story which didn‘t make sense, and that from a business viewpoint, it’s frustrating when people make assumptions about the services the church is able to provide needy people.*
To give some background detail, every year the church participates in an “Adopt a Family” program for Christmas. The program itself is run by a local community center, and the Mission Committee is responsible for organizing it at the church level. I’m not directly involved with this, so I don’t have much in the way of details on how the program is set up, nor do I have contact info.
Last week I got a phone call in the office from a woman who was asking if we helped out needy families for Christmas. I told her that we did, and mentioned a few details about the “Adopt a Family” program. Apparently she got the wrong idea, because her response was “Great! Can I sign my kids up?” I tried to explain that I couldn’t do that because this program was handled by an outside agency, and I’d never been given info/details on how it was set up. “Nora” kept pressing the issue, and as she mentioned being outside the church building and needing help with other things, I told her to come into the office and I’d see what we might be able to do to help her.
Unfortunately, it turned out that everything which “Nora” needed assistance with, the church is NOT set up to provide. The only thing which I could’ve done would be to give her something from the food pantry, but she declined because of having recently had surgery……she said that she wasn’t supposed to be walking around or carrying anything, so she was hoping that someone from the church would be able to deliver things to her place. (I will say that I did find it odd that she didn’t seem too interested in looking into other churches in the area which might be able to help)
Anyhow, what I finally ended up doing was taking “Nora’s” number and telling her that I’d try to see if I could locate someone who’d be able to help her out with what she was requesting. And I did pass that info on to my sister, as she’s made it a project to help out needy families as she’s able to. She happened to misplace the phone number, and in the meantime, “Nora” showed up in the church office this past week for a “follow-up” on assistance….pointing out that it wasn’t that long until Christmas. Which I do feel bad about, but then again, I DID tell “Nora” what we were/were not able to do for her, and she didn’t seem to really understand that.
To give some background detail, every year the church participates in an “Adopt a Family” program for Christmas. The program itself is run by a local community center, and the Mission Committee is responsible for organizing it at the church level. I’m not directly involved with this, so I don’t have much in the way of details on how the program is set up, nor do I have contact info.
Last week I got a phone call in the office from a woman who was asking if we helped out needy families for Christmas. I told her that we did, and mentioned a few details about the “Adopt a Family” program. Apparently she got the wrong idea, because her response was “Great! Can I sign my kids up?” I tried to explain that I couldn’t do that because this program was handled by an outside agency, and I’d never been given info/details on how it was set up. “Nora” kept pressing the issue, and as she mentioned being outside the church building and needing help with other things, I told her to come into the office and I’d see what we might be able to do to help her.
Unfortunately, it turned out that everything which “Nora” needed assistance with, the church is NOT set up to provide. The only thing which I could’ve done would be to give her something from the food pantry, but she declined because of having recently had surgery……she said that she wasn’t supposed to be walking around or carrying anything, so she was hoping that someone from the church would be able to deliver things to her place. (I will say that I did find it odd that she didn’t seem too interested in looking into other churches in the area which might be able to help)
Anyhow, what I finally ended up doing was taking “Nora’s” number and telling her that I’d try to see if I could locate someone who’d be able to help her out with what she was requesting. And I did pass that info on to my sister, as she’s made it a project to help out needy families as she’s able to. She happened to misplace the phone number, and in the meantime, “Nora” showed up in the church office this past week for a “follow-up” on assistance….pointing out that it wasn’t that long until Christmas. Which I do feel bad about, but then again, I DID tell “Nora” what we were/were not able to do for her, and she didn’t seem to really understand that.
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