We have always seemed to have the luck of choosing the coldest weekend when we hold our annual lockout, but it worked out great for us. The kids experienced what it was like to be homeless for a night and understood that people do not get to choose when theyre homeless, said Belinda Lentz, Christian education coordinator for St. Johns United Church of Christ in Dover. It was important for the kids to know what it is like to be homeless when the weather was not ideal for sleeping outside.
Some of the youth from St. Johns UCC took part in what is called a lockout on the night of Jan. 21, where instead of being locked up inside the church for the night, the kids were locked out, sleeping outside in the snow instead. The lockout also served as a fundraiser and donations drive for the Friends of the Homeless of Tuscarawas County homeless shelter in New Philadelphia. This year was the fifth year for the lockout, with many of the kids returning for a third, fourth and even fifth year.
I came back for a third year. It was one of those things that I look forward to every year now. It was a chance to experience, for a brief time, what it is like to be less fortunate and to truly understand how blessed I am, said Nathan McCutcheon, a freshman at Dover High School. We see people every day who are less fortunate, and yet we cant put ourselves in their shoes. But for this one night we did just that.
It always seems to be very cold when we hold the lockout, but it makes it that much more difficult. Tonight I wore about four layers of clothes, and I slept in a refrigerator box that had a couple of blankets in it. It reminded me of how blessed I am to have a home.
We had nine children take part in the lockout this year along with three adult chaperones, said Lentz. The lockout program is something done by many United Church of Christ churches each year. Each church chooses when to hold their events, so we chose this time of year to make it more difficult, so we can have a better understanding of what it is like to be homeless rather than just camping out in the summer.
Along with staying outside for the night, we took donations for the local homeless shelter. This year our donations were down, which is sad. We are told by Jesus to take care of those less fortunate and that we are only as good as the less fortunate among us; that is why we do this year after year. It was a chance for our kids to learn what it was like, even for one night, to be homeless so that they understood better what it is like to be less fortunate, and for them to be inspired to do better for the less fortunate.
