Monday, February 6, 2012

Night & Day

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you know that my family and I go out to the streets of downtown Tampa to feed the homeless nearly every Sunday.

Usually, we have a lot of fun and find it very rewarding.  Yes, it can be very "interesting" in the things we see (like the woman walking around in her underwear) and heart-wrenching too.  Still, we usually leave with joy in our hearts and the hopes and prayers that what we have done has made their lives at least a little bit easier.

Last week, that was not really the case.  Last week, we heard way too many "I want's" and "Give me's." It was kind of like that children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie where the mouse then wants milk and everything else too.  Then, we were lectured on how the homeless are treated by the public and the charities who try to help them--things like the fear of them and the lack of nutritional value in the food supplied, etc.  So, we left with a disturbing feeling that nothing we could do would ever be enough.

This week, however, was the complete opposite.  Well, not completely.  We still saw some "interesting" things.  LOL! 

This week, though, there was:
  • the proud, old man who told me he didn't want anything, that he comes out for the love and respect we show to him.
  • the man who couldn't believe we would clean up his badly scraped hand and worry about it being on the verge of a bad infection.
  • and the guy who said he felt so good about himself because we asked him to read the Bible passage aloud to the group.  He enjoyed doing that a few weeks ago and now reads the Bible to himself throughout the week.
So, yes, it is all very worth it and we cannot wait until the week-end when we'll get to do it again.

Until next time, Happy Creative Time!

2 comments:

TonyaKaye said...

I thought of you and your family as I heard the news this morning on the TV. They are shutting down at least 5 of the "homeless" camps in our city. They served "evection" notices in the last few days. Some were found because of violence happening in the areas. So sad.

Trisha said...

I am so glad you shared this. Our daughter and her family have been trying to minister to people left with nothing because of last summer's wildfires. They are sometimes met with ill will, and sometimes not. I will share this with her to encourage her. Thanks, Ileana.