Thank the Lord for Closure

What a weekend! Friday was something I had been planning on and looking forward to for some time. Kip and I went downtown to reach out to the homeless. The night before I had spent some time at the grocery store buying stuff for the sack lunches. I didn't realize how much work goes into making sack lunches!! I woke up around 7:30 Friday morning and made 36 sack lunches. I was worried about that not being enough but just that took me and hour and a half! The sack lunch was pretty simple and included either a ham and cheese or turkey and cheese along with individual serving of pringles, banana and a pack of gum (you'll have to read The Irresistible Revolution to understand). I also bought bottles of water to hand out with it. It was crazy how desperate the homeless ppl were for water. The reality is that we take the most simple things for granted. Maybe instead of paying $2 for DP at restaurants...I should go with the free water.

So I picked up Kip at his apartment and we headed out for downtown. The first adventure on the agenda was to hit the Mickey D's across from Fair Park and see if there were any homeless guys hanging around. Back when I worked for Bridgford Foods we often headed over there to pick up breakfast in the morning and I always saw homeless guys asking for money and sometimes even saw them inside with the little bit they could afford eating at a table. But this time around...nothing. So I remembered the Mickey D's downtown by the bus station so we headed over that way. We parked and just waited for someone to walk up to us. It took longer than I expected. It's funny how in the past when I didn't want to be bothered it seemed there were always homeless ppl bugging me. Now we were waiting for them and couldn't get one to save my life! But...finally after 20 minutes or so a guy came up to us and Kip will have to tell you his name because I can't remember. The thing about this guy was he didn't want a sack lunch, he didn't want us to buy him mickey d's (even if i went inside, bought it and brought it out) but he kept asking us for money and eventually a bus pass to Beaumont. So Kip took him over to the bus station and on the way over there ran into our next buddy, Edward. Edward headed my direction as I waited in front of Mickey D's and I took him inside and we had an early lunch together (it was after 10:30). It was cool how humble he was about everything. He didn't seem to want to rock the boat and just wanted to stay out of people's way. But I convinced him to sit down with me. We talked about everything from God to church and where he was from (New York). Then I gave him a sack lunch and water and he was on his way. I remember thinking later that night when it was getting dark....wondering what Edward was up to. I was hoping that maybe he thought about what he did that morning and the friends he made in me and Kip.

After eating with Edward, we headed out to hand out the rest of our sack lunches (we still had 34 lunches). It took us quite a while and a couple of times my car started overheating. We didn't expect there to be a high of 98 degrees. It was pretty freakin amazing though. I couldn't believe how much joy I could get out of something that did nothing for me. I think there's definitely a deception in the selfish way we think. We think that anything that brings joy is something that is done to make us feel satisfied. But the most amazing thing was seeing the look on the guys face when we rolled down the window and asked if they were hungry and that we had water and sack lunches. This wasn't the same as when they head down to Big Heart (which is a wonderful ministry that our church will help out with this Saturday morning) and expect to be blessed. This blessing is totally unexpected and on an afternoon that they are probably unsure of where or when they'll get their next meal.

All in all I feel like it was somewhat of a success. I'm praying about going downtown and doing the same thing this Friday morning. It'll be my last opportunity until October 27 (which is my next Friday off). I'm praying that God will show me what we did right and what we could do differently.

If you read this pray about it and let me know if in the future you'd be interested in joining this ministry.



As for closure...I'm pretty sure I got it last night. I wonder if it really is closure...but then I know what it feels like to be confused and not have clarity and what I'm feeling right now is the exact opposite of that.