Al Robinson and his wife, Vivian, thought they'd spend the holidays hosting their nine children while relaxing and cooking together. But when their Buffalo, New York community needed them, this family stepped up to feed 130 strangers.
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Robinson, a pastor at Spirit Of Truth Urban Ministry, tells TODAY.com they had just completed food shopping for their family of eleven for the Christmas holiday when they heard about the storm.
📸: Courtesy Al Robinson
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Since they had plenty of food and knew people were stuck outside and freezing to death, the couple enlisted the help of a friend with a snowmobile to rescue people and bring them to the church. By Dec. 24th, the Robinsons had welcomed 120 people inside.
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The couple even had space for these unexpected guests to sleep. They recently sold a rehabilitation home to create a larger center and had just moved all the mattresses and beds from that home into the church.
📸: Courtesy Al Robinson
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"We used every one of those mattresses and beds to house all these people. It was just crazy. I mean, it's like all the life that we have lived before was for this one moment in time,” Robinson tells TODAY.
📸: Courtesy Al Robinson
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Buffalo resident Maria ColĂłn referenced a Margaret J. Wheatley quote, which she says encompasses the Robinsons.
"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about," the quote reads. ♥️
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