06/18/2019
This morning I volunteered at the food pantry in Nitro. Now some skeptics say that those people are just freeloaders or methheads, I hear it all the time. In some instances that might be true and there are people who take advantage of the system, I get it, I know, however, not everyone. A man in early thirties walks in today who is dirty and skinny, says he's homeless and can he have some food. He WAS NOT a methhead and I had never seen him before. We tried to give him what we give everyone else but he said he had no way to refrigerate or cook anything. So I put together a few things told him to have a seat out side while I try to put together things he could open with pull tab and eat without cooking. We had given him a bag of gorp (good old raisins and peanuts) and I looked outside and he was devouring it. It broke my heart. Unlike some of our second generation clients who get free food this guy was starving. I threw together a bunch of stuff that he could eat along with some hygiene articles. I then went to my car where I keep articles for the homeless I run into and got him my two last Wendy's gift cards.
The point of this story is that we who can open our fridge and get food should consider ourselves blessed. Seeing this guy eat like he was doing took me back to my Haiti and Africa trips where you see real hunger and starvation. It brought me to tears. I will take to my grave and I also think it is what caused my PTSD in Haiti, is a memory of a child after the earthquake there begging me for food at the compound I was staying at. He literally would stick his hand through the fence motioning to his mouth.
I am asking if you feel blessed would you consider buying some either Wendy's or McDonalds gift cards to use in this manner. I don't haphazardly give them away. I have been doing Street Ministry for quite some time now and I can get a good read on people. I usually do $5.00 cards. I purchase them at times and I have had friends purchase and give them to me. Do what the Holy Spirit prompts you to do.
