It’s difficult for most of us to imagine as temperatures plummet to frigid single digits and lower, but there are area residents living in homes without heat or, worse yet, outside under the Arkansas River bridge south of Great Bend.

To serve these folks, Live Like Jesus Today Ministries, based in Ellinwood and Great Bend, and Lasting Life Ministries, based in Great Bend, teamed up to open an over-night warming shelter at 4903 10th Street in the former Ace Hardware building next to Heartland Community Church. It opened Friday afternoon, and will be open from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. at least through Thursday.

“We had to do something,” said Buzz Birney of Live Like Jesus Today Ministries. “We’re going to see what we can do.”

He has no idea how busy they will be, but he said they will be there. Provided will be showers, restrooms, mattresses, bedding, food and toiletries. “All they need to bring are their clothes,” he said.

There will be supervision and guidelines the guests must follow. The Great Bend Police Department has also been made aware of the shelter.

“I get calls all day” from people whose furnaces aren’t working or are facing the cold for other reasons, Birney said. So he and Mark Ball of Lasting Life Ministries came up with this idea Thursday and rapidly put it together.

“We figured now was the time,” he said. They have received support from the Central Kansas Dream Center as well as other churches in town.