Another interesting Sunday ...

This morning, a friend drove me to church (in the city) so that I wouldn't have to walk in the cold. Because she had a meeting before our rehearsal, I brought along some homework to do while I waited. I decided to go into the dining room of the church, and as I entered the room, I smiled and greeted an older homeless man who was sitting at the table. He took this as an invitation to start a conversation.

For the next 30-40 minutes, I had a fascinating talk with this man, Benny. He claims he's 67 but was born in 1945. Because he grew up on a farm (with 13 siblings!), he dropped out of school after 8th Grade. He has fathered 12 children. He quoted Scripture verses as he told me about his faith and his life philosophies.

"Your choices make you who you are. It's choices that bring you where you end up."

I responded, "But things happen that we don't choose. Bad things can happen even if you make good choices."

"But if you make bad choices, like hanging out with the wrong people, being in the wrong places, and doing drugs, you ain't gonna end up with good things. I know. I've done that."

It was a really powerful conversation. As time went on, more homeless people came into the room. When it was time for me to leave, I told my new friend and the man sitting nearest us that I needed to go to choir rehearsal. Benny asked me what my voice part was, and I told him. Then he and the other man asked if I'd sing for them. "Just two words," they begged.

Benny's friend (didn't catch his name) said something about how we've been given our gifts to use for God. He told us that he'd been given the gift of poetry, and Benny assured me this was true. In order to distract them from their request for my singing, I asked about this man's poetry. For the next two minutes, he recited original poems about his faith - humbly describing his brokenness and the amazing grace that is God's love. Wow.
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This evening, I returned to the MySchool group which distributes food and clothing to the homeless. Because it was so cold outside, we decided to drop off the items at a nearby shelter. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it, but we asked a cop for directions to another local shelter. We got there with our gifts, and we were told that they weren't accepting donations. The nearest shelter which would accept donations was a good 20 minute walk away in far-below-freezing temperatures. It wasn't safe or healthy for us to go that far. We sadly trudged back to MySchool and had to throw out the food we had prepared.