BATAVIA, Ohio — A church in Batavia is making sure no one is stuck outside in the cold as the Tri-State remains under a Winter Weather Advisory.
One Way Church has opened its building as a shelter for those who are homeless.
“The word of God says to go into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in,” Pastor Terra Schaeffer said.
Schaeffer and her husband, also a pastor, made the call on Saturday night to open the church on Sunday. But they still had one problem: they had no supplies.
“We announced it to our church on Sunday morning,” she said.
Within a few hours, the church had received piles of mattresses, clothes and blankets.
“It’s just been the most beautiful thing, the way that the community has come together,” she said.
Schaeffer said they were only expecting a few people to take advantage of the offer, but by Thursday the church was housing around 25 individuals.
“We want to reach the broken,” she said. “We just want them to know that they're no different than us.”
Guests at the shelter told WCPO they weren’t sure what they were going to do before the church opened up.
“It rained right before it got cold,” said Raymond Powers. “All my sleeping bags got wet.”
“It's terrible,” said Anita Idler, who came straight to the shelter from the hospital. “People can actually freeze and there's people that's known to die out there.”
Robert Guilliams works full-time but has been homeless for about seven years. He said having a dog makes finding shelter difficult.
“Homeless shelters pretty much won’t accept you if you’ve got a dog right now,” he said.
His dog, Copper, is his “heart.”
“If you never offer to help, then people never receive it,” he said.
Guilliams said the help he’s received has raised his spirits that tomorrow will be better.
The doors to the makeshift shelter will close on Tuesday, but Schaeffer said the work is far from over. She said church leaders are exploring renovations to the facility that can add more bathrooms and showers for people in need.
“When cold weather comes, we want to have a place where they know that they can sleep,” she said.
She also said church leaders plan to keep in contact with the people who have sheltered in the building this week. The church is raising money to help them secure counseling, housing and transportation.
Church officials said they need car donations to provide vehicles to their guests who have jobs, but no way to get to them.
Beyond that, they’ve started a GoFundMe to raise money for the guests. You can also Venmo the church to support the effort by sending money to @owcchurch.
“They need so many things,” said Schaeffer. “When your eyes have been open to that, I hope you can never go back to being the same person.”
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