Father Strobel is legendary in the Homeless community for his kindness, his graciousness, his unswerving devotion to helping those of us who are somewhere in our lives that precludes us from being able to live inside four walls and a roof.
You can read all kinds of great stuff on Charlie; just do a Google search and you'll be busy for hours. But nothing compares to actually working with the man to advance the cause of assisting the Homeless. I ought to know, I'm working with him right now, along with a number of other amazing people as we put together Nashville's Homeless newspaper, The Contributor (Web address coming very soon!).
One of my first contacts on the street here was a gentleman who related a story about Father Strobel to me that left me in awe. I'm not sure of the truth of the story as I've never verified it with Father Strobel, but the fact that people would even make up something like what I'm about to share with you says an awful lot about the way people on the street view this Catholic priest here in Nashville.
Let me preface this by sharing a piece out of the Nashville Scene's writeup on Father Strobel as the 2004 Nashvillian of the Year:
On Dec. 9 (1986), while making her volunteer rounds, Mary Catherine Strobel went missing; two days later, her body was discovered in the trunk of her car. A man who had escaped from a prison mental ward was later charged in her murder and several others. The front page of the Dec. 14 Tennessean reported that more than 1,000 people—most of whom Mary Catherine had personally touched—gathered for her funeral service. The family—led by Father Charles Strobel—called on them to forgive. "We know the answers are not easy and clear, but we still believe in the miracle of forgiveness," Father Strobel was quoted as saying. "And we extend our arms in that embrace.... There are still needs all around us, and we must attend to those needs."I don't want to rekindle old and ugly memories for Charlie, but it's important for those of you who may not know this about the man to understand his past so as to better understand why it is that his efforts to assist the Homeless are so awe inspiring, at least to me. I'm not sure I'd be able to take such a forgiving, loving and compassionate view if the same thing were to occur to me.... Anyway, I was talking to "Dewight" one day and he told me a story about a very cold day one fall here in Nashville. It seems that the radio was reporting a freeze warning for that night and Dwight was camped in a well known area close to downtown called "Tent City." I won't tell you where this is at but suffice it to say, a lot of folks call the place home. As the sun began to set and the cold began to creep past the layers of clothing on Dwight, Father Strobel came strolling by. He saw Dwight and stopped to warn him about the freeze, then asked him to come in to his church for the night but Dwight, being a loner of sorts, politely refused. Father Strobel asked again, pleaded, cajoled, practically begged Dwight to get out of the cold, all to no avail. So Father Strobel disappeared for a while, but eventually returned with a kerosine heater. Presently, a couple of other "volunteers" arrived, each carrying their own heaters. They all sat that night by the riverside, heaters blazing, chatting, laughing and reminiscing as they passed the time through a bitterly cold Nashville evening. Now I reiterate - I don't know whether this story is true and if it is, how accurate the description of events are, since Dwight is prone to embellishing a bit, although he rarely lies to me, unless he's desperate for something and knows I'll say "no" if he tells me the truth. There was nothing in this story for him to gain by lying to me, and the story has been repeated to me a couple of times now, and each time the details remain exactly the same. Anyone who has had to deal with chronic liars knows they have a way of forgetting certain details and so the story changes when they tell it over a period of months or years. Not so in this case, which lends additional credibility to the tale. To be sure, this isn't as powerful a story as say, losing your family member and asking for mercy for the killer. But it tells you something else; it speaks to the determination and commitment of Father Strobel to ensure that the Homeless and less fortunate in our society get the same care and compassion afforded to those who can call on family members or close friends in times of need. Because the Homeless often have nowhere to turn and no one to turn to, Father Strobel steps in and makes sure that someone cares. It appears his compassion is contagious; I know it inspired me and from the looks of things, a whole lot of other people as well.....
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The breakfast will take place at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Burnside Room of The Old Country Store. The organization is a local non-profit that provides emergency assistance to low-income individuals and families.
The emergency shelter project, "Room in the Inn," will begin Nov. 1 in Jackson.
"Room in the Inn" is modeled after a similar program of the same name that has been successful in Nashville since 1986.
It is an inter-faith program in which congregations agree to host homeless persons in their own local church facilities. The program is now duplicated in cities all over the country.
Father Charles Strobel, a Catholic priest in Nashville, started the program when he decided to invite homeless individuals sleeping outside of his church on a cold winter night to sleep inside the church cafeteria.
The program grew from four congregations the first year to the current 120 congregations.
Father Strobel will host a question and answer session at the breakfast.
Area Relief Ministries decided to coordinate the project here in Jackson.
"Homeless individuals kept walking through our doors last winter, and we had nowhere to refer them to," says Lisa Peoples, the organization's executive director. "We wanted to do something to fill the gap when we realized there is a need for an emergency shelter in our city. The thought of people sleeping out in the cold was the driving force for us try to do something ... that's when we heard about Nashville's Room in the Inn."
The breakfast event is intended to encourage pastors to get their congregations involved in this inaugural year of the program and to answer any questions they may have.
For more information about the breakfast or to RSVP, call Area Relief Ministries at 423-9257 or email Lisa Peoples at lpeoples@jaxnet
