HOUSTON — Some local volunteers are trading Black Friday for “Bless Friday”, swapping shopping for service on a day known for its consumerism.
It’s a movement that started in a Houston church nearly a decade earlier before spreading to other churches in the Woodlands, Trinity, and as far away as Seattle, Washington.
Inside the Open Door Mission on Houston’s East End, the fall decorations were coming down Friday morning and the Christmas decorations were going up.
“Hopefully something to boost their morale and have it look good for Christmas,” said volunteer Dick Ebling.
Ebling was one of around 60 members of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church volunteering as part of “Bless Friday”.
“Maybe we can bless someone and serve someone instead of spend all our day shopping,” said Ebling.
At Open Door Mission, they were serving the disabled, addicted, or homeless men.
“This place is gonna save my life,” said David Dorn, who had been staying at the mission for nearly a month. “People who like you say could be doing anything just giving up their time for us. We’re truly blessed.”
Across town at the Star of Hope facility on Reed Road, Jedidiah Holloway, who was in town from Springfield, Missouri, visiting family, helped a different group of volunteers from MDPC.
“I worked retail for probably about five or six years, so I’m very okay with skipping the Black Friday shopping extravaganza,” said Holloway. “We got into town on Wednesday, and our uncle said ‘Hey, would you guys be interested in doing this on Friday?’ We said, ‘Yeah, for sure!’”
The group fed lunch to more than 100 women and children.
“It’s priceless to be able to get nourishment versus being out there on the street, and then you have to literally ask a stranger to give you some finances to get you something to eat,” said Linda Jefferson, who had been staying at the facility for nearly two weeks and received lunch Friday. “It’s a blessing that you can come in here and sit down here and be treated with dignity and respect.”
Volunteers with MDPC also helped out at the Houston Food Bank. Others stayed home, assembling meal packs for thousands of preschoolers and bagging rice and beans for the church food pantry.