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.

Week #3 – 7/10/12

This was a great week.  We had a very dear friend and her kiddos with us today.  There were a few people that recognized us from the two previous weeks.  We prayed with a few people today which was very cool!  We met Mr. Tim and Wayne (who is a line cook looking for a job).  There were quite a few people in the park today…I assume b/c the weather was very nice.  We didn’t even have enough lunches to go over to the other side of the park which was heartbreaking.

Week #2 – 7/3/12

Thankfully, Tori was able to go with us this week.  After last week’s experience, we started at the bus stop.  There was a young woman there that we gave a lunch to who repeatedly reminded us that she was not homeless to which I responded…’that’s just fine…we don’t discriminate.’  Almost everyone we passed a lunch out to said ‘God Bless You.’  Most are very kind and appreciative.  They also seem to really enjoy the kids.  We offer a lunch to everyone we see.  Last week everyone accepted a lunch, but this week we had a few (not many) that refused.

PS. Did pay the parking meter today.

Week #1 – 6/26/12

WOW!  Except for the fact that I was so pumped when we arrived that I forgot to pay the parking meter, everything went great!  (Thankfully, I did not receive a ticket).  We packed 25 lunches and ran out before we were all the way through the park.  Few things we learned:  keep the lunches simple, hit the bus stop bench first and be thankful for the rolling cooler!  The bus stop seems to have the largest group…several who don’t necessarily get on or off of the bus.  This is where we quickly learned that we should hit this bench first based on our encounter with a man we affectionately referred to as ‘Mr. Cranky.’  He was very displeased that we were out of lunches.  Bless him…I’m cranky too when I’m hungry.  Thankfully we had packed our own lunches in the car and were able to get those and give some to him.  We also realized that it probably doesn’t matter how many lunches we bring, we will run out.  No one refused a lunch this week.