Friday, September 30, 2005

Not a normal day

Just before we set out to give away our big load of bread yesterday, we had a prayer time. After prayer, I like to ask if anyone had felt any specific direction from God. One of the girls working with us said she felt God telling her that it was not going to be a normal day and added that she didn’t quite know what it means.

Typically on bread day, we go to the gospel mission and pick up their leftovers, have some friendly joking around with the guys working there. Then we go to a park in the airport district and distribute to 60 - 100 folks there. After that we go back to the mission to load up again and go to another park in the west side and give it away to about 30 - 50 people.

That’s what happened yesterday. In many ways, it was a normal day. I thought about this later on and wondered about Leah’s impression that is was not going to be a normal day. And I know God spoke to me...

It wasn’t a normal day because I got to meet and talk to Charles, an older gentleman who comes to the bread line. I’ve never spoken to him and he seemed to brighten just by having someone pay attention to him. It wasn’t normal because one of the men working at the mission treated me so kindly that it refreshed my heart. I got to help an elderly (and very cantankerous) lady find the closest thing I could find to a pie. I got to smile and encourage people. The poor, who are usually ignored, looked at with disdain or somehow locked out or expected to jump through hoops, got bread and a dessert for their family without any red tape. Neighbors thought about each other. God was with us all as we were all together.

It was not a normal day. God keeps his promises.

1 comment:

Aimee said...

thanks for the kudos, chris. i'm not much of a poet, but every once in a while i'll come up with something decent.