Tap the Brakes on That One...

I don't really even know where to start...oh wait, maybe the beginning! This morning I rushed out of bed and took a shower before heading up to the store. I bought water, orange juice and gatorade for the 'free donut giveaway' at the church. I should have known it was going to be a weird day because me and Brad just didn't make it to the church in time. The idea was to catch the kids waiting for the bus (it stops right in front of the church) and give them free donuts and drinks and let them know what we're up to on Wednesday nights. But when we got out there to set up everything the kids were piling on to the bus and it was pulling away! So we hung out for about an hour or so to see if anyone would take us up on our offer. We had a huge poster board that made it clear we had FREE donuts. Nobody stopped. It was a good to test the waters on that though. Next time we'll know about what time the bus picks up the kids.

The plan already was to head downtown and hang with some homeless people so we packed up our donuts and ice chest and headed out. We drove south of downtown and cruised the streets and thats where we came across our buddy, Ray. Ray was sitting by himself on the curb, so we pulled over and offered him donuts and orange juice (I don't know why we even ask...i've never had a homeless guy turn down free food or drinks). Then the people came out in flocks! We had no idea but the abandon warehouse that Ray was sitting in front of was actually shelter/workers pool. So Brad and I had the privilidge of giving away donuts, orange juice, water and gatorade to about 30 homeless men and women. Driving through there we would have never guessed that there were that many homeless people in that abandoned warehouse. Ray told us that early in the morning there will be as much as 150-200 people packed in there. I'm not excited about hearing there are that many in that one building but I am excited to know so we can reach out to them soon.

After that, we got in the truck and headed to Mickey D's for breakfast. We were getting pretty hungry because there were no donuts left for us (of course that was just fine with us)! I like to do this thing where we go eat and find a homeless guy to eat with us and pay for his meal. I guess I just like the idea of building a relationship instead of sticking my nose up and throwing money at a homeless person. So we parked and spotted a guy by the name of John Tucker. We walked over to him and started to conversate with him. He supposedly had just got out of a 12 year stint in jail and wanted to go to a shelter and get fed and cleaned up. I offered him to come eat with us but he refused. I was ok with that and gave him $5 for his shelter fund. There's a good chance he wasn't going to use the money for that but I don't think Jesus would have care. He would just give with a loving heart...so that's what I did. Some people say that the last thing you give a homeless person is money but I guess i'm cool with giving anything [everything] to the homeless. It was so awesome though because both Ray and John remembered me in the black car last Friday giving away sack lunches! It gave me a good feeling...like we were really making an impact.

After John was on his way we headed to the back of Mickey D's and strolled down about 50 yards down the street looking for a homeless guy to reach out to. We found no ono but when we got back, we met another guy by the name of....not sure if this was a nickname...but...Cando [??]. I'm thinking it was his nickname, like this guy could do anything for you (can do!). Once again...that's just a guess. The guy was just a little out there and seemed (not putting the guy down, it was reality) like he had the mind of a 9-year-old. So we invited him and and sat down and at breakfast with him. I love when the homeless guy brings up and talks about God and stuff. The guy kinda gave somewhat of a testimony saying that he had done some things that probably deserved punishment from God and that he knew why he had fallen so far. But what was even more amazing was the hope he had. He didn't seemed worried about anything and knew that God would continue to supply his needs. He talked about seeing rich people roll up with their nice rims and shiny cars but he noticed they never seemed happy. It was like he totally understood some of the things Soloman lamented on in Ecclesiastes, that true joy was found in the Lord. As far as I could tell, Cando had found peace in His heavenly father.

So as our day of ministering to the homeless seemed to be coming to a successful end we looked out the window and Brad's truck was being towed!! We ran outside and there was nothing we could do. Apparently, there was a Mickey D's employee outside monitoring the parking lot at all times and saw us walking around and thought we weren't customers and had us towed. They are keeping close watch this time of year due to the mass amount of Fair goers. Anyways, the guy was non-apologetic and claimed we walked over to the fair (which we did not). I never wanted to cuss someone out more in my life (I know that sounds bad and you're probably thinking, dude...c'mon...you're ministering to homeless and you wanted to cuss?) but i'm not trying to act like the all high mighty Christian...I was definitely seeking the Lord to bless him with my FIST! But I kept my cool and drug Cando back inside who was upset by the fact that this guy, who was feeding him, was getting his truck towed. It was hilarious because all the customers inside saw what was going on and were all going up to the counter asking if they'd be having their car towed for eating inside! Haha! So we called the cops and they came and only could say it was a civil matter between us and the guy. What really killed me was when the lady cop started lecturing me about feeding homeless people. Saying that WE were part of the problem that exists in Dallas. That sure hit me pretty hard. We debated for a few minutes and she tried to use the "teach a man how to fish, don't give him fish". Which she was paraphrasing scripture but using it totally out of context. Jesus didn't call us to offer homeless people jobs but to willingly give them everything. Some of them do work, like the shelter we found earlier in the morning. But just because they live on the streets or in shelter doesn't give her the right to say we shouldn't help them. Then the guy that had Brad's truck towed said somthing that really shook me up. He said, "We shouldn't be around this part of town. A lot of people get robbed and bad things happen. You need to stay away from those people, they are nothing but trouble". I could not believe he told us to stay away from that part of town. Maybe he doesn't need help and he wants to be secluded but there are people who are reaching out for help. That was right after I told him that we weren't mad at him (a complete lie) for having the truck towed for no reason and him knowing that we were NOT in the wrong.

I thought I would leave Dallas today feeling sorry for Ray or John Tucker or Cando but it was the people with a warped perception of the world we live in today that I truly was heart broken for.