Miracle on Belmont Boulevard

Story and Photos by Suzanne Lynch, Christ the King Catholic Church 

From November until March, Christ the King continues its long history of hosting guests through Room In The Inn. This season, the ministry is opening its doors to more overnight guests, increasing from last year’s 15 homeless men, women and children to 20. With the ample room and comfortable facilities the school offers, the increase in guests is easily accommodated. And with a strong force of volunteers they are all equally cared for as well. Director John Green fondly tells the guests to expect five-star service.

Room In The Inn is not designed to be another homeless shelter. Instead, it strives to create an environment of acceptance and to put faith into action. Room In The Inn’s website describes the program as a way for more people in every sector to understand the problems of the homeless by becoming directly involved with people who are homeless. The evenings provide an opportunity to receive a blessing from God in the midst of suffering, hardship and grief.

A blessing is what you will receive when you come to break bread with the guests. “Parishioners will see a revelation of Christ when they participate,” said Louis Roberts, a long-time volunteer who currently assists John. “Guests sit and bond with parishioners—there isn’t a separation.” 

Returning guests are quick to tell you how much they enjoy being at Christ the King. “You just open the door and welcome us in. You don’t push or make us do things your way,” said Gwyneth, a woman whose countenance is filled with love for Jesus and whose hard life she is quick to share. “This week I was car-jacked but God told me I didn’t need that car. God has always taken care of me.”

That is just a glimpse of a blessing you will receive—a recipient of Gwyneth’s joy for knowing Christ. You may also witness a miracle. At Room In The Inn, they happen all the time. For example, over Thanksgiving a gentleman suffering from Alzheimer’s got lost in the school and became disoriented. In the process of trying to find out who he was, it was discovered he had been reported missing by his son in Minnesota. Louis recalls how moving it was to call and tell the man his father was safe.

Many of the volunteers have been coming to help at Room In The Inn for years. Louis says it’s because the experience is so rewarding. The volunteers find fellowship not just with the guests, but with each other. While they go about their tasks preparing for the evening, there is opportunity for friendships to develop.

The evening dinner is started early in the day by Donald St. Charles, Kate Dumas and other volunteers. Donald has been cooking for the program for at least six years. By 5:30 p.m. volunteers have arrived to get the beds ready—led by Father Ryan Junior, Gina Schmid. A volunteer since her first experience as a Christ the King 8^th grader, she recalls the first time she came, how friendly everyone was and that her second time, how the guests remembered her. Those relationships keep her returning every week, even Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Gina instructs the teens and younger children to put cases on the pillows and make the beds. Parents are here too, and young adults looking for a place to become the hands and feet of Christ. Carly Moffa and Matt Brown are two such young parishioners who wanted to be more involved with their church. They have been coming every week this season and bringing their friends.

“When I met Gwyneth and saw how happy she was to be here, to have one more meal—she was enjoying the moment regardless of her situation, I was inspired,” said Matt, who has been in Nashville just a year. “I really enjoy coming. It makes me feel more at home.”

Carly was moved to go a step further in caring for the guests and asked if she could offer the ladies a “girls night” with manicures and facials. “I wanted the ladies to feel pampered and to get what they needed. And I wanted to connect with them and talk to them about Jesus,” she said. So on the evening of December 3, Carly brought all the necessities, having spent time visiting salons and asking for samples as well as collecting from friends. Miraculously, of course, the same evening Carly spoke with John about her idea, he received a call from another parishioner, Michelle Fisher, who is a stylist and wanted to offer the guests haircuts. Carly also brought her friend Simone Parke who is also a stylist. The guests were thrilled and there was lots of conversation, laughter and sharing during the process. Even the men weren’t shy about getting their hair cut, beards trimmed and even a manicure.

Many people are involved every week at Room In The Inn. From the drivers who pick up the guests downtown to those who do the laundry, there is a place for everyone and everyone is invited. Join Room In The Inn every Wednesday for dinner. It’s a bargain and if you are quick, you might get a slice of Mrs. Carmen Kavass’ homemade pound cake. She brings two of them Wednesday afternoon, still warm from the oven—one for the evening meal and the other sliced and divided into baggies for the guests to take with them on Thursday.

First Coming

We use this reading, adapted from the poem "First Coming" by Madeline L'Engle to close our annual Blue Christmas worship service at Room In The Inn.


God did not wait until the world was ready, till…nations were at peace.

God came when the Heavens were unsteady and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.

God came when the need was deep and great. God dined with sinners in all their grime, turned water into wine.

God did not wait till hearts were pure.

In joy, God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt. To a world like ours, of anguished shame, God came and God’s light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh; to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.

In the mystery of the Word made flesh, the maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wait till the world is sane to raise our songs with joyful voice, or to share our grief, to touch our pain.

God came with love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Beautiful Feet

by Jeff Moles

Stories from scripture remind us of the importance of our feet.  God, calling from the burning bush, instructed Moses to take off his shoes because the ground on which he stood was holy.  At the home of Lazarus, Mary washes Jesus’ feet with her tears.  On the last night of his life, in an act of humility, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, saying “so if I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

With this expression of spirituality as our starting place, people gather in a room that normally serves as an art studio each week at Room In The Inn, Nashville’s comprehensive center for people struggling with homelessness.  Staff and volunteers come together to create a sacred space, where physical needs can be met and spiritual ones too.  Our foot clinic is a place where people who call the streets their home encounter others who are not there to judge their lives or question their contribution to society.  In fact, the people who staff the foot clinic are most aware of the hard work that it takes to be homeless.  We see the scars on feet, and the weariness of spirits that come to us.  And so we serve, washing feet as Jesus asked us to do.  We are served in return by the humor and the hope that we see in people we discover to be very much like us.

In thinking about why we need a foot clinic, it would be easy to speak only of the many hours homeless people spend on their feet standing in lines, walking, and working.  But these are not the only things our feet were created to do.

One afternoon a few years ago, toward the end of a particularly cold winter, a member of our staff put on some music in our day center.  The rhythmic sounds of Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Marvin Gaye filled the room where people congregate during the day.  I looked up, expecting to see the tightly-packed crowd in all of its usual tension.  Instead, I saw some movement.  Two women in the room were twirling one another around to the beat of the music.  Pretty soon, chairs were being moved out of the way, and more people got onto their feet.  Even I, not the best or most confident dancer by a long shot, got into the act.  A dance party had broken out in our homeless shelter.  Sorrows were forgotten, anger was diffused, and worry was replaced with fun, if only for an afternoon.

We care for feet not only because they are important for work and survival, but because it humbles us all, reminding us of the command to love one another.  We clip nails and massage feet not only to relieve pain, but because too many people are deprived of human touch that is not sexual or violent.  We take the risk of removing our shoes and entering into another person’s life not only because we are crazy (and some might say we are!), but because we need these feet to become instruments of peace.  We need them for dancing, our statement to the world that even in the midst of hardship, there is reason for joy.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.  Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.   –Isaiah 52:7-9

Join Nashville's Inn Crowd

by Mary Wilder
Room In The Inn Winter Shelter Director

Everyone wants to be cool. None of us really get past that feeling we had in school, that desire to fit in with just the right group. We all look for our place to belong.

As adults, though, our criteria for choosing a group may mature. We may look for people who pursue similar professional goals or who share interests with us. Recently, I searched for a book club to join. A quick internet search uncovered dozens of choices representing every genre of literature imaginable. There is a web site called Meet Up, which features clubs from Scrabble playing to hiking to poetry writing. We are all searching for ways to connect and find meaning.

Then there is the Inn Crowd.  For twenty-nine years Room In The Inn has been a community of people bound together to offer shelter and compassion to people experiencing homelessness. 188 congregations open their doors to welcome guests in the winter months. It is a ministry that creates a real mutuality, a chance to break down barriers that separate us. We take part in time together and focus on relationship in the simple act of offering a meal and a place to stay.  It is a movement that allows people to experience something sacred. On one level, Room In The Inn is about bringing people inside from the cold. But, in a profound way, it is about encountering God in the faces around the table.

The polar vortex last winter taught us a hard lesson at Room In The Inn. We learned how brutal and life-threatening the weather can be. In response, we are working diligently to expand The Inn Crowd. We are asking congregations already part of Room In The Inn to do one of two things: take an extra guest or two or schedule extra nights in the coldest months of January and February. We also need help identifying congregations who do not take part in Room In The Inn and invite them to join us. We are looking for contacts within those congregations.

Everyone should know what it is like to be in The Inn Crowd.

Contact Mary to let her know how you and your congregation plan to help.

Education: Shakespeare Allowed!

In an effort to promote literacy and the arts, Room In The Inn has partnered with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, the nonprofit responsible for bringing many local theater traditions including Shakespeare in the Park, to offer Shakespeare Allowed!, a twice-weekly class where people come together to read through the works of William Shakespeare round-robin style and to share their experiences and insights with the plays and their many adventures.

The first play the group read through was the Shakesperean comedy, "As You Like It." The play is full of many lighthearted moments, but somewhat surprisingly to the class instructor Nettie Kraft, the play gave the participants the chance to process through a lot of the struggles they have or are facing. The play focuses on a family torn apart by pettiness and people who are left to live in the forest when the people in the royal court reject them. According to Kraft, many of the students in her class felt a connection with some of these characters. 

"As You Like It" will be the play performed during this year's Shakespeare in the Park, held in August and September in Centennial Park. Room In The Inn students who participated in all or nearly all the Shakespeare Allowed! classes for this play will be given the opportunity to go watch the play for free one evening and stay in the Guest House--as most Nashville overnight shelters require check-in prior to when the play would end.

After a short break, Shakespeare Allowed! returned and is currently reading through the classic tragedy, Macbeth, at student request. Classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Cathy Link reflects on her first year at Room In The Inn

by Cathy Link, RN
Recuperative Care Manager, Room In The Inn

It’s hard to believe a whole year has passed since I began my journey home.  Being a nurse in Nashville for over 30 years has led me down many roads, ending right here on Drexel Street.  Those other paths almost prepared me for the most challenging position I have had.

My entire career has been one of assisting and caring for the most vulnerable, the powerless, and the disenfranchised through the VA, public health, public schools, psychiatric intensive care, and community psychiatric crisis services.  But to face day to day the overwhelming and complicated medical, social, and emotional needs of truly “the least of these” has stretched me in ways I had no idea I could reach.  I have been honored to care for, advocate for, share in joys and sorrows, celebrate healing and life, feel the pain of death, and the fear of continuing the struggle of homelessness for hundreds of referred individuals.

Even my past work experience did not prepare me to daily face this very ill population who lack adequate funding and access to health care.  Just this year we have sheltered and cared for those who have had open heart surgery, brain surgery, lung surgery, surgery for cancer, surgeries for multiple orthopedic injuries, gynecological surgery, chemotherapy, severe COPD, post stroke, amputations, uncontrolled diabetes, kidney failure, dialysis patients, liver failure, severe rheumatoid arthritis, congestive heart failure, major depression, schizophrenia, major phobias, bipolar disorder, severe anxiety disorders, burn patients, and HIV/AIDS patients. The lack of funding and limited access to care continues to shock me and break my heart.

To add to these burdens approximately 90 percent of those entrusted to our care have drug and alcohol addiction with the complicating social factors of disconnections from family and friends, incarcerations, and criminal records.

Anyone remotely involved in the world of healthcare knows how fragmented our system is.  To hobble together and care for not “these people” but “my people” is like working on a big puzzle; I’m trying every day to put the pieces together.

I am ably assisted by my recuperative care coordinator, Charlotte West.  She guides me and keeps me sane

Charlotte West

by keeping all the spread sheets and statistics of recuperative care, by the loving and caring staff throughout Room In The Inn, from the staff who prepare our food, to direct care, to day center staff who provide case management consultation and support, and to our own workforce team who assist with job placement.

Last of all, the care provided for our friends and neighbors has been a gift from our wonderful partners, which include United Neighborhood Health's Downtown Clinic, Metro General Hospital, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, HCA Hospitals: Centennial, Skyline, Southern Hills & Summit, St. Thomas West and Midtown, MTMHI, Nashville Cares, and Comprehensive Care Center.

It is my privilege to serve.

Volunteer Workday

During the summer, volunteers come in for a volunteer workday on the third Saturday of the month.  We spend the better part of the morning doing work around the grounds to help give Room In The Inn a facelift after a hectic winter season.

This past work day we had groups come from Kentucky and different parts of Tennessee.  They had projects to paint the storage cubbies, plant an herb garden, stripe the parking lot, and help clean the chairs in the dining room.  It was a wonderful day to serve with people who support the mission of RITI (and help us look good too)!

We are thankful for our volunteers!


For more information contact, volunteer@roomintheinn.org