Drawing too much attention!!

We got to meet and talk to the homeless people today. It was sunny and the temp was in the lower 90s, which is actually a bit cooler than the past several days. As usual, since this is a day off for me, my day usually starts out a bit strange and I am in a strange mood to start things off. Those going out today included Anne (as usual), two other youth and an adult who will be handeling the next delivery since we will be getting back from camp that day.

New for this delivery were about 60 frozen bottles of water. We heard this would be a good idea, so on Wednesday we stuck them in a freezer and we will pack them in the bags as we go. Also new is the "Spiritual Food" we have included. While in youth group on Wednesday, each youth held one of the bags we were to pack and hand out while we listened to and sang a few praise songs. They prayed over their bag, then wrote a note that had thier first name on it and something that said, "I prayed for you today." My goal is to make this as personal as possible for all the youth, even those who can't deliver the actual food.

Back to the actual delivery. It was really smooth with a few exceptions.
The first exception was seeing a tent on the ground which belonged to a couple who seemed to have thier act togehter. I remembered when I first met them about 3 deliveries ago - they were so neat and tidy. The wife was in her flannel PJ wearing slippers. The husband was cooking something on the grill. They were both excited about the possibility of getting into some sort of housing situation. Today we learned that the wife was in prison. The husband was in prison 2 weeks ago and is out now. This is just one example of how fast things change for these people. It is very hard to keep everything straight.

Secondly, we learned that another who lives near there is missing. No one knows where he is. He has not picked up is recent pay check and his friend was very worried. Please pray for them.

The last exception was at the very end. As we were getting back into the van, we heard the sirens of an ambulance on the major road we park along. Everyone was in the car except Anne and the ambulance actually stopped right behind my van!! The EMT guys got out and talked to Anne, they seemed to be OK with whatever she said. Anne got in the van and told me that someone had called them saying they saw someone hanging out the window of a car. Next, a police officer approached my van. I panicked a bit since I don't hear well at all with all the traffic noise. He asked if we were OK and wondered what we were doing. We told him we were feeding the homeless and he let us go and got into his car.

Other than that is was smooth. We did get to spend time talking to quite a few people and that is always nice. My mood quickly changed while we were out. I love doing this and seeing the youth be involved.

I guess I learned that these people really need someone to be there for them, making sure they are looked after and noticed that they are missing. That lesson can be applied in our churches as well.