Coordinating

the intake room...doubles as a dorm when we have more guests.

 Well, they've put me charge.  I've been promoted to shift coordinator. Our shifts run from 7am-3pm or 2pm-10pm. On each shift there are usually at least 3 volunteers (always good to have more) and these are supplemented by community volunteers-those who live in or around El Paso. As the shift coordinator, I get to see that things get done (and ask others to do them).  When things are slow, it is cleaning and checking that things are in order for when we have arrivals. It is making sure someone is taking care of the Salidas (departures)-that those who are leaving have snack bags for their travel, coats if they are going somewhere cold (north) and information about the bus station or airport and then getting out to the shuttle. 

When there are arrivals, it is assigning people to do intake forms, COVID tests (if we don't have an outside group to come in to help), bring snacks, then make family/friend phone calls, cover the dispensa so people can get toothpaste, tooth brushes, bed rolls, etc.  Then if there are people left, we are able to open the Roperia where guests can pick out a set of clothes that are clean (even if they aren't a perfect fit).

On one of my first shifts as coordinator we had 90 arrivals. I was on the 2-10 shift and they came in around 11am. We started with a 5 minute meditation/devotion. I used d365.org (2/2/22 even though that wasn't today's devo). Carrying Heavy Nets. It starts with a piece of Mary Oliver's "At the River Clarion" about being a part of the holiness. A reading from Luke 5:5-7 getting friends to help lift the full nets. I mentioned being grateful for my support system-in leading this day it was them helping to get done what needed to get done. Another volunteer mentioned that during the reading she thought of our guests and their long journeys and who they might have had for support. One of the Brothers who is a volunteer talked of the overwhelming gratitude of our guests when they are on to the next leg of their journey, getting dropped at the airport or bus station and the spontaneous tears that spring up. Of guests telling us, "you do too much. thank you."      And then we jumped into the shift:

So the intake forms had been done. The COVID testing was in progress. We were able to bring the first set of people up after the 15 minutes of waiting for their tests to come back negative. I had 3 people on phone calls, as well as people in the Dispensa and the Roperia. I felt a little at loose ends because I didn't have a specific job. And yet I also realized that I couldn't put myself into a specific job because I had to be free to see the big picture and make sure everything was getting done.  It felt like lots of pressure. Seeing what was happening, where people were having to wait, and what was going to have to happen even before other things were finished. But it works. Working together as a team and realizing that most things (and everything today) were not life/death emergencies. We do what we can as we can.  Everyone got helped, I started to serve dinner until other volunteers were free to take over. I went back to the office to start clearing the phones...checking texts and voice mails for travel information, answering phones for the same. Writing it on travel slips so that we have confirmation numbers and know when we need to get people to the airport/bus station. It is busy. The 'pharmacy' is also in the office, so guests come by with requests for headache medicine, stomach issues, cold medicines for themselves and their children. Organized chaos. Ready to be repeated the next day...