In preparation for cold weather coming in Wednesday night, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church volunteers prepared to shelter people from the bitter cold.
"Because everyone deserves to have a warm place to be, and a hot meal to eat, and people to treat them with love and dignity," Senior Pastor Rachel Baughman said.
Baughman's church is the first to be enrolled in Dallas' emergency shelter program, something the church has been advocating for the last five years.
Everyone who enters Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, from the people seeking shelter to volunteers, will be COVID tested. Anyone who tests positive will be brought to stay at a quarantine shelter. Baughman said COVID social distancing has cut the number of people the church can shelter by half.
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"We need to do our part to come together as a city and make it possible for everyone to be inside somewhere, and that's not just faith communities," Baughman said. "If you have a building and it's empty in the middle of the night, but still heated, that's you."
Our Calling, a daytime drop-in shelter in Dallas, will also stay open overnight to shelter about 200 people from the cold, as well as serve meals.
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church expects to operate its emergency shelter for the next four days.
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"We will be changed by the people who stay with us," Baughman said. "I love that we're able to do this."
