OPERATION ATTEMPT TO SERVE... Maundy Thursday

So I have been wanting this passion week to come alive for my kids...

Maundy Thursday... Jesus washing the disciples feet... the last supper... Jesus serving his disciples...  Jesus saying, "Love as I have loved you!"

 

I wanted to actually do SOMETHING to serve someone else...

Too often we are about serving ourselves... YUCK!  It makes me sick sometimes...

 

So we set to work making snack bags for the homeless in our area..

 

Snacks were chosen, split up and put in little baggies...

 

 Easter notes were written by the four oldest kids... and stuffed in the bags with the snacks...

We wanted them to know first and foremost we were doing this because of Jesus... really for no other reason than to point them to the Savior that died for us and  for them...

 

 

 

And we took to the streets...

Now here is where the rubber meets the road so to speak...

 

I had a couple people's eyes grow big when I said I took my kids... to give some food to the homeless..

 

But honestly, deep down in my heart, I was feeling totally convicted...  If I am willing to hang out with the homeless in Uganda, serve food to HUNGRY kids in Africa, talk and engage with hurting people on the other side of the world...  for Pete's sake why wouldn't I be willing to do it here???

 

Why haven't I done it more often here?? 

Truly, I was overcome with the lousy state of my own heart and how self absorbed we can be...

But I wanted to show my kids something different... That it IS important to serve others like Jesus served us...

Important in Africa, the amazon, and right here in our own back yard...

 

We went to a safer area of town where we knew some homeless people hang out.  I was so proud of the kids... was it uncomfortable at times??? Sure... but was it worth it??? Absolutely!!

 

(Of course I don't have any pictures of the people we shared the snack bags with... Louis got a great picture of the grass and the bottom half of my legs as we talked with one man who was getting ready to celebrate his 57th birthday today March 29th...Good job Lou... but in all honesty,  we didn't want to be rude and photograph them...)

 

We shared snack bags with Pat who is abused and hurting and a friend of hers who was begging on the corner... She was wondering where their next meal will come from.  She rents a room from someone, but knew she would be kicked out soon and said she would be camping out... the nights were cold...

 

We gave 2 bags to a grandpa who wanted to share the bags with his grandkids... He said he knew Jesus loved him...

 

We shared with the gentleman I talked about above, who celebrated his birthday today... He was so excited to talk with us... He appeared to be blind, but was so very joyful in heart...as he spent his day just sitting up against the side of the building...

 

And we shared with more... Having conversations with them and hearing their stories was so good for us... we needed to hear that...

 

After we spent about 45 minutes just walking the streets we decided we would head downtown.  We were looking for a ministry in town that serves meals to the homeless and houses up to 100 people a night...

 

The minute we turned onto Easton street there they were... The boys ran inside and said that they were doing a chapel service with maybe 200 homeless and there had to be about 50  or more out on the street waiting for the meal to be served...

 

WOW!!! What a ministry John 3:16 has... We dropped a bunch of bags there for them to hand out inside and we saved one for a homeless gentleman we pass every Tuesday on the way to our home school coop. 

When we arrived at the bridge, that  Crystal lives under  (That is the name that some of the coop kids gave to him) he appeared to be sleeping.   It is a BUSY area with really no where to stop and we had to go around the block to pass right by him...

Louis was worried that we would have to yell out to him... but when it came down to it... he wasn't sleeping at all.   The minute we drove up... he hopped up and Louis gave him the bag and told him he wanted to share this food with him and wish him a happy Easter.

All in all our eyes were opened to the amount of hurting people right here where we live.  We had moments of just being together in the car of pure laughter...  of frustration and of sadness.  I had some great discussions with all the kids later that night.  ( Some of the kids even asked, "Why don't they get jobs or why didn't we give them money too??"  I know we could go on and on about all of the possibilities with that...  and you may have thought that your self or questioned my wisdom in taking the littles out with us... but yesterday wasn't about any of that... Making little food bags for them was no problem for us... and whatever they did with it is ok with us...I knew that we would be safe...)

 Our main hope is that they read the note, heard our message clearly that Jesus died for them and us... and that He loves them!  That maybe just for a day they felt cared for, loved, listened to... I think we all realized reaching out to these people here is something we NEED to do more often.  If we love Jesus like we say we do... then the natural response should be to be willing to hang out, visit with them, and share Jesus with them.  We have so much growing to do:)  Thankful for all the abundant blessings we have and for the grace the Father gives us!