Week #27 - CHRISTMAS

Yesterday was incredible!  How cool that Christmas fell on a Tuesday this year!  :)  Once I realized several weeks ago that Christmas was going to fall on a Tuesday I put the word out and started collecting coats, hats, mittens, blankets and $5 gift cards to Steak-n-Shake and McDonald's.  People were very generous and I was able to collect tons of winter clothing/accessories.  I also received enough donations to purchase $200 worth of gift cards.  I even had enough cash left over to cover bologna for sandwiches this week!  Ha!  It's a Christmas gift to my homeless friends...no PB&J!  :)

Honestly, I wasn't sure how my kids would react when I told them that Christmas fell on a Tuesday this year and I wanted all of us to go downtown just like I do every Tuesday to serve our homeless friends at the park.  They were overjoyed which was VERY cool!  Then when I mentioned it to Rachelle she was completely on board with her family and the entire Lorch family wanted to join us too!  My mom even came with us!!!

We were there for a few hours passing out everything we had collected from some very generous people, serving lunches and hot chocolate and simply spending time with our downtown friends.  It was a beautiful time and I could not have imagined a better way to spend Christmas Day!  

Week #23 - 11/27/12

Today was a good day.  We met Gregory, a Marine veteran.  We met ‘Uncle Mike’ who had been set on fire the night before in his sleeping bag for no apparent reason.  And we officially met Charles who we see often but had not officially met before.  They talked our ears off and it was awesome.  Lots of hugs by the time we were leaving.

Week #17 - 10/16/12

Rain. Okay…17 weeks in a row and this is the first that it rained. Crazy, right? AND it stopped while we were there. Dima loved it. While I was trying to stay dry, he was splashing in every puddle he could find. Rachelle wasn’t able to go with us this week, so it was just the two of us. The park was fairly empty today. A few came out once the rain relented a little and we saw a few new faces.

Serving Hangups

We had our women’s shepherd training last week and we talked some about service and outreach. The Women’s Ministry at our church takes one week during the spring semester and sets it aside as our ‘Go Week’ and all of the small groups choose something to do or collect for different organizations in order to reach out to others.


During our training, all of the shepherds were discussing the different reactions from their groups last spring regarding this experience. One shepherd shared with us that her group had a really hard time with it…as in they really did not want to participate. Now, just in case you were about to all get high and mighty and judgmental you need to know that these groups are primarily moms of young children…a lot of them with newborns even. Their argument was that they felt they barely had enough time and energy to serve their own family let alone others. I get that! I have been there! I have moments/days/weeks that I feel that way. This amazing shepherd who shared this told us that in response to their grumblings she sent out an email to the girls in her group with a link (I think it was a link or maybe a list??) with lots of little ways that we can still ‘serve’ others as easy as picking up a piece of garbage at the park that missed the trash can. It is that easy! Just doing those little things can and WILL change our whole frame of mind, because instead of being self-focused you will slowly become others-focused and isn’t that what it’s all about?!?! It doesn’t matter that you are not over in Africa this week administering vaccinations to HIV+ grandmothers. While that is absolutely wonderful, you CAN make a difference right where you are! Not only to others but for yourself and for your children and friends and ENTIRE sphere of influence. WHY WOULDN’T WE WANT TO DO THAT?


I have thought a lot about that group and about where I was personally with regards to serving others when my now 9 year old was a newborn. I remember being right about where this group sounded to be.


Some of our discussion that day was also about how easy it is to get hung up on wanting to serve ‘BIG.’ Like that is the only way to make a difference. That was one of my own biggest hang-ups when I started putting this plan into motion. How silly...a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch. What’s that going to do, right? I’ve even had a ‘friend’ essentially tell me how ridiculous it is. The thing of it is, it IS making a difference. And it is WAY more than just a PB&J!

Week #12 - 9/11/12

Today we met McCall.  He is struggling with several different health issues and wanted us to pray with him.  He talked to us for a long time.

It seems like a lot of the time our friends here in the park just want someone to listen to them. 

Week #11 - 9/4/12

WOW! Here we go (Two parts):  So I have been feeling a little discouraged about the last several weeks.  I think mostly because we had several weeks in the summer where we had several people ask us to pray with them and I really felt that they were becoming comfortable and opening up some and then that all stopped.  It was still incredible and it is/was obvious that they are becoming comfortable with us.  Nonetheless, I was discouraged in some ways.

Part One:   

We pray before we get started every week, but this particular morning I finally handed over my discouraged heart to God and prayed specifically that if anyone needed prayer or a hug or even just a touch, that they would reach out to us for that.  Enter Jameson.  Jameson was traveling from one end of the park to the other towards the bus stop when we offered him a lunch.  He gratefully accepted and went on his way to wait for the bus.  Shortly after, we had finished our ‘route’ and saw someone we had not yet served over close to the bus bench so we headed that way.  We were walking behind the bus bench toward this man when Jameson, who was sitting on the bench waiting for the bus, literally reached his hand out to us and asked if we would pray with him.  (SAY WHAT, GOD!?!?!?).

Part Two:  

The previous week we had several lunches left over so we also prayed that we would have just the right amount this time.  It turned out when all was said and done, we had three lunches remaining.  So Rachelle and I decided that we would keep them up front with us instead of in the cooler just in case we saw someone on the way home.  We also had the discussion that in order to avoid insulting anyone it would have to be very obvious that the person needed a lunch before we would just start tossing lunches out the car window.  J  So we are traveling North on Meridian almost to 38^th Street, which is really the last point that we would most likely encounter an opportunity to hand a lunch out the window.  J  As I am approaching the light (which is RED) I look to the corner of the intersection where we are and there is a young woman standing there with a sign “Please Help my family.  We will accept anything.”  I move to the right lane, which was wide open - Rachelle saw her at the same time and was rolling her window down and grabbing the lunches - We pull up, hand over the lunches, and the light turns green.  It happened just as you read it.  God’s impeccable timing.

Some weeks I guiltily feel like I am receiving more blessings than the people I am serving and trying to bless myself.  I hope you have had a moment or a season where you were so close to God, you literally felt his breath on the back of your neck.  I know that some of those seasons are during heartbreak or struggles.  BUT, if you’ve been there and have had that experience you know that those can often be some of the sweetest times in your walk with Jesus.  I may sound off my rocker…but that is the best way I can describe it.           

Week #9 - 8/21/12

Well, it has been a few weeks since I have posted.  Rest assured we have not missed any in the park.  :)  People are recognizing us which is very cool!

Had an incredible yet bittersweet moment this week!  We had gone all the way around the park passing out our lunches.  We had made it almost to the very end when we came to a group of three men.  We only had one lunch left.  We, of course, felt terrible but they were very gracious.  One of the men finally accepted the lunch and we went on our way.  As we turned around we saw the three of them sharing that lunch.  I know they were all hungry, and not one of them complained that we had run out.  Instead they happily shared what little they had been given.  

What if we all lived like that?      

Week #5 - 7/24/12

Learned a few things today…you CAN have TOO many with you passing out lunches.  We had a surprise family in addition to two other families come with us today which was awesome, but it was a different experience.  We had many refuse a lunch (perhaps we were intimidating as a large group?) and I felt like we missed out on the personal aspect.  Hopefully we can still have everyone serve, just in smaller doses.  :)


UPDATE (January 2013):  I think that there is a way to make it work if there are a lot of volunteers, it just looks different than the typical week of walking around passing the lunches out.  At this point (going on the 8th month), now that relationships have been created, I think my friends downtown appreciate when there are more volunteers showing up for them.  I think it was just too intimidating in the beginning before those friendships had been formed.

Thoughts

I’ve already been thinking about what our meal delivery will look like in the winter.  I am hoping to be able to make a hearty soup of some kind each week to pass out.      

Every week I get butterflies in my stomach on our way to the park as we approach our parking spot.  And every week, by the time we have passed out all of our lunches, I am reeling from the spectrum of emotions I have experienced from serving these lost people in the park.  Every week I am truly humbled.  Almost every single person we give a lunch to wishes God’s blessings on us.  Many ask us to pray with them before we can even offer.  They don’t flinch from our touch.  It’s obvious that many of them know Jesus.  They don’t seem to reject Him or blame Him because of the troubles they are facing or the situation they are in, but instead reach for Him. 

Tomorrow will only be my 5^th Tuesday.  Excluding myself and my own 3 kids, I have already had 9 different people serve with us and 3 more ‘newbie’s’ tomorrow.

Week #4 – 7/17/12

Another great week!  We had some dear family friends that were visiting from Florida with us today and the same dear friend and her kiddos from last week with us as well.  What an experience with the kids!  I wonder what is going on in their precious little minds?  We prayed with several of the men which was an AWESOME experience.  The BEST was when we came to the bus stop bench and ‘Mr. Cranky’ from Week #1 was there!  Turns out his name is Reggie which we will rightfully be referring to him as from this point on.  He asked me to pray with him today which was humbling.  We had just over 50 sandwiches (thank you to Brandy for the boost today!) and handed them all out with the help of the 6 kiddos that were with us.  We had a young gentleman from the first bench we stopped by that walked with us for half of the park to make sure all of the people we encountered were appreciative which was a little comical (and very sweet).  I also encountered David who was a unique character and kept calling me Red which was funny since I was not wearing anything red and as far as I know, I don’t have red hair either.  I had the privilege to pray with him too.