Rachel Boisen serves as Trinity's Front Door Ministry Coordinator and the Administrative Assistant at Trinity House. Answering the doorbell and our phone calls, she has the most contact with people seeking assistance. Below, find her thoughts on a recent interaction.
"Every morning, I settle into my desk at Trinity House and see the voicemail light blinking on the phone. Every morning, I push the button, enter the code, and hear the stories:
“I’m on disability and I need help with rent.”
“Do you help with utilities? I’ve got a shut off notice.”
“I need a gas voucher to get to a doctor’s appointment.”
“Please call back. I don’t know what to do.”
Most of the time there are no funds. There is nothing I can do but pray.
And then last January, thanks to a generous Christmas Eve offering, I had the money to help.
“I just need a little help to get a job.”
The Front Door Ministry paid for a new ID and fresh car tabs so she could legally drive to interviews. She stopped by a few times to get all the paperwork taken care of, carefully planning trips to preserve gas. I gave her information about jobs I’d heard about, and prayed something would turn up.
Most of the time, I don’t hear from anyone after they receive their check. Faces and stories cycle through my memory, and I wonder if the divorce finalized, the lawsuit was settled, if they managed to keep their home.
Monday, I arrived at work to find a pile of pamphlets pushed through the mailslot, and a new kind of voicemail blinked on the phone.
“Rachel, I got a job! Thank you so much for all your help!”
She found a fantastic job, offering important services to the same clientele we serve at Trinity House. “Pass out the pamphlets. Trinity helped me so much, I wanted to offer help in return.” With the information she shared, others can acquire specialized skills to find jobs of their own!
I was so happy - floating through the day. As the “face” for Trinity’s Front Door ministry, I have learned to offer what we have with faith that the little we can give makes a difference. But it gets hard to continue to see all the need. Thanks to one woman’s thoughtfulness and joy at finding a job, I was reminded that what we do matters - to the individual and to the Trinity community. “For whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 24:40).
Trinity provided her with help with her finances. She gave me the gift of joy and the priviledge to see the church at Christ's work.