There is an amazing woman named Jenn in my TSSM class. She was the heart and brains behind this venture. Last year when she heard that there was no hot breakfast served in Abilene for the homeless, her little family of four (with a 1 year old and a 3 year old!) and another couple made hot breakfasts and served them out of their van. This year she had the use of a church kitchen and a group of volunteers who came together at 6:00 am prepared with hot breakfast "casseroles" and tortillas. We made an assembly line with Christmas music blaring and sacked up over 100 hot breakfasts. Then we waited thinking people would come to us. It turns out they didn't, so we divided up the sacks and set out to serve. That's when things got interesting.
There were 3 of us in our car - Geoff, Jordan (our amazing "daughter we never had") and me. We had about 20 breakfast bags and bottles of juice. We set out to find people who might need something to eat. They were there but they weren't that easy to find. We drove all over and eventually ended up downtown. There we found people just walking around. Individually. Not in pairs or groups. Just walking. It was eye-opening. Here were these precious people just walking - with nowhere to really go - on Christmas Day. We would drive up and offer them a breakfast bag and juice. They were so grateful. And then we met Cliff. He was walking across a church parking lot. He wanted to talk. He was the only person we met that asked us for anything. And he asked us for plastic sacks. Plastic sacks! We only had one that didn't have a hole in it already. He told us how valuable the sacks were to him. Plastic sacks! He told us how it felt to need a warm place to sit down and how IHOP would let you do that if you didn't doze off. But if you dozed off they would ask you to leave. IHOP is miles from where we saw Cliff. He walked there. We tried to imagine what it would be like if we had to do that. We couldn't. He stunned us.
Then there were the very cool people we met out in front of The Salvation Army. They had such joy! They were so happy to see us and interact for just a few minutes - coming over to the car and wishing us Merry Christmas and blessing us!
Our eyes were opened Christmas morning. All these people have been walking around Abilene for years and I never saw them before. Well, I saw them but I never really SAW them. I confess that until Sunday morning, December 25, 2011, I was simply appeasing my own need to give when I handed someone a few dollars on the street corner. Now I will see people who have a story to tell, and they have something to give me. There is something to be learned from interactions with people who have a story - every time. And we all have a story - every one of us.
1 comment:
That is amazing, Candy. I am so glad that you had the opportunity to do that!
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