Article by Nora Kitchen
During the winter of 2005, the City of Boise was faced with a crisis-as many as 300 men, women and children were living unsheltered inside the city limits. It was an emergency situation, exacerbated by the necessity of solving the problem quickly for so many cold and hungry people. As a result, the Interfaith Sanctuary was established by the collaborative efforts of a small group of social workers and 40 religious leaders of all different faiths. They shifted into high gear and offered a solution for the homeless.
If you want to get very far in starting a project from such frantic beginnings-no money, no building, no staff, and no experience, it takes an exceptionally capable leader. For the shelter, its staff, volunteers, and the homeless they serve, Jayne Sorrels, a former nun, has been more than just capable. She has been outstanding. Today, Interfaith Sanctuary has evolved into a year-round nonprofit entity, staffed almost entirely by volunteers and housing over 125 people each night.
During the shelter's precarious beginnings, Jayne worked 80 hours each week to keep the shelter afloat. The only time not spent on her work or spiritual practices were the early mornings. She would often rollerblade at 2 a.m. on the Green Belt, providing herself a little time to relax in nature. She occasionally garnered looks from passersby, those perhaps not expecting to see a rollerblading nun so early in the morning. By five o'clock, though, seven days a week, Jayne would be walking in the shelter door.
Some say Jayne is a superwoman. Some ask why she does so much. To her, there is no asking because there is no choice. From the moment she had heard of the homeless crisis, she knew she wanted to be part of the solution. She says, "There was no question. It was like everything in me said, 'I have to be a part of this. I have to. I have to.' There's no doubt, I have to be a part of this."
Things have settled down a bit for the Interfaith Sanctuary since 2005. Jayne still spends time organizing staff and volunteers, and working with and supporting the people the shelter serves, but not at the blistering pace of 80 hours a week. But that doesn't mean she has much spare time, and that's okay. Jayne's 18 women making herstory: women in the sciences work is her life-and this is exactly the way she likes it. Fittingly, one of Jayne's role models is Mother Antonia, a nun who lives in a jail cell in Mexico, residing and identifying with the people she serves, nicknamed the prison nun. Always having felt that same spiritual calling toward serving others, Jayne also searches for that deeper connection. Compassion, she says, has been the theme song of her life. "All of this has been a study in compassion for me, in a lot of ways like in my own personal path, to understanding the difference in what Buddhists refer to as idiot or blind compassion and genuine compassion. And there's a difference."
Of course, working with people who are homeless requires courage to confront difficult situations. It can also be difficult to witness the outcomes of those situations. It's helpful, Jayne says, to detach herself from seeing results. She does her service work, as she believes all people should, because she has to, whether or not the effects are actualized. Even when faced with painful images, Jayne strives to keep her heart as open as possible, a promise she made in her very first week of working at the sanctuary, standing among the sleeping homeless men, women and children.
"I just stood there, and I connected to God and said, 'I'm going to keep my heart open. I'm not going to shield. I'm going to keep it open fully. I'm not going to protect myself and I'm not going to run.' Because something that I know is that if you try to protect yourself from the pain and suffering that is all around you, you also then create a barrier to all the love."
Though the vast majority of homeless people visiting the sanctuary are from the Boise community, some are from elsewhere. Having been to shelters all across the west, many of these people name Interfaith as the most unique because of the caring and respectful staff and volunteers. Whether the shelter attracts volunteers with such generous spirits, or it is the act of giving back that creates such generosity in people, it is not difficult to imagine that it is Jayne's example that helps to create such a heartwarming atmosphere.
Currently, Jayne is training to become a spiritual director, offering herself as a companion to those setting out on their own spiritual journeys. At the same time, her hopes for the future of the Interfaith Sanctuary is that it will be able to grow not just as a charitable organization, but as a transformative one as well, a place that can provide guidance and services to help the homeless people who are ready to move on and improve their lives.
Jayne is always looking toward improvement, a quality that as a nun earned her the title Maha or "one who aspires to be one's great being." And though Jayne is no longer a nun, having chosen to take a different route in her spirituality, the title has stuck, along with some others. To many, she will always be Mahajayne, Mama Jayne, or Mother Jayne.
Everyone at the shelter is part of Jayne's family. To her, this is the greatest reward. She not only has her biological family, including three grown children of her own, but a vast extended family. And the possibility of that has also been Jayne's greatest surprise-the possibility that one person can in fact love so very many others.
