Everett, WA – It is always a reflecting and healing time to gather as veterans and to gather with the community to remember and honor those we have lost along the way this year.
This year’s National Homeless Memorial Day Candlelight Vigil, on 12/21/23, was unseasonably warm compared to snow and frigid temperatures last year. However, our guest speaker, Rodney, shared his testimony of homelessness within a poem that reflected how cold this world can be. What affected me the most, within his poem, was how much grief he still feels as he remembers and recounts how family rejected him each time he needed a place to stay.
As a chaplain, a daughter, sister, and auntie, I know how messy family situations can be.
As we enter this new year, consider how you might open your heart or open your home to a loved one who has gone astray or who has become homeless.
Hopefully, we will run out to meet them; hug them; and love them when they return.
Hopefully, we will eagerly greet them without fear and without rejection.
If you found yourself homeless in 2023 or find yourself homeless in 2024, know that you are worthy of being housed. You are worthy of being loved and you are a valuable part of this community.
And as you seek a community to provide a new chapter to your story; please give us a second chance to show you how much we need you.
We can choose to contribute to a cold world or we can extend a light to those who need one.
Debbie Maund, Chaplain
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1561
Veterans For Worship
