peanut butter jelly time

So, my Saturday morning at the abortion clinic ended with a conversation with a homeless man, Jose. His street name is "the Candy". He's old and weathered and walks with a walker. His mother was from Laos, his father from Jamaica and he was born in Cuba. It was a confusing conversation, his accent thick, his mind foggy from years of drugs I assume. With one hand on his shoulder, and one hand clinching the half-smoked cigarette he extinguished for the moment, I prayed for him. And my sister sang him a song. And he wept. And then he sang us a song. He told us he wanted to come to our church.

Bye-bye comfort zone. Oh, and by the way, the conversation was so confusing that somehow it was discussed that we would pick him up for church.

So, I packed up three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with some other food and we all boarded our minivan and chugged ahead the meeting place my sister thought he was describing. She was probably right...I really couldn't figure out where he was saying the pick-up location would be. We arrived, but couldn't see him anywhere. Okay. That was what I was secretly hoping for...kind of. I mean, of course I wanted him to come to hear the music and be blessed by the community and hear the powerful Word of God preached, but, it was kind of...well, scary.

So, we headed to church, worshipped and...

Using the church's phone, I called to confirm a last minute babysitter. I hung up, turned around and there was one of our good friends! "Hey, Josh, what are you and Sara up to tonight? I just got a babysitter and we have no plans." Well, they were also footloose and fancy-free and up for an adventure. We got our babysitter settled and all hopped in the car. We decided that since we were going downtown, we'd bring the bag of food originally intended for Jose. But, when we got there, I changed my mind, "I don't want to carry this around?!!" Sara looked at me, eyes wide, purse open and said, "I have room in here! Let's bring some!" So, we put in the three p.b. & j sandwiches, a can of peaches and a bag of chex mix.

Do you know we saw a total of THREE people who asked, "Can you help me out?" That's exactly how many sandwiches we had. Do you know how glad we felt to offer some food. And they were so sweet and grateful. I thought, Do I ever want to go downtown without a peanut butter and jelly ever again in my life??? No way!.

So, if you and your honey are heading out for a night on the town...particularly a town that is host to many homeless, pack a few sandwiches to hand out. You'll be blessed just by blessing others.