wow!
God gave me a street-story yesterday, which was super-cool, since i had just prayed for a new story!
it was a dark and stormy night. (jk. that just sounds cool.)
so, anyway, it actually was a rainy day in atlanta, and i had about 150 lunches and some ice-water loaded into the ol’ nissan pickup… i had the great privilege of taking two 8th graders with me for the day (pretty cool kids, actually. daniel and trent. nice guys)
when it’s raining, it can be quite a feat to find homeless people. they try desperately to stay dry, since it’s so much more of a problem for them to be wet than for us home-d people. most of us are happy to see the rain, but for them, it’s the enemy…
so, finally it stopped raining, and we went to this parking lot where we can usually give ‘em away pretty quickly.
one quiet, young, black man got his lunch, and hung around the truck while others got their lunches. after i’d let another man use my phone, he timidly asked if he could call someone. he seemed to almost be crying like a lost child. you know, quivering lip, shaky voice.
finally, we got through to the voice mail of his father. the young man asked me to leave a message, telling him we were on the corner of Peachtree and Trinity, and to ask if he would pick him up or bring him some food.
the father called back immediately. he was looking for the boy just a few blocks away, at Underground Atlanta!
he told me that at 17, the young man had been hit by a car that ran a red light, and that he had lost part of his brain, and gets confused sometimes… and that he’d left his uncle’s house in Alabama a couple days ago, on a bus, and they’d been trying to find him!
fifteen minutes later, a fine looking man in a fine looking Lexus pulled in. they were happy to see each other, and the father teased the son a little bit. “we need to get you cleaned up a little bit. get you some better clothes. and you need a little shave”. rubbing his beard, the young man replied “i need a lotta shave”, and we all laughed.
he asked about our routine, and i told him we come out to share food 3 times a week. i told him how i felt that sometimes, it seems some of the people are scamming us, and that they might not actually “need” a meal, but that other times, we just know we’re helping out a great need.
hugs were exchanged. the man gave us some money to help us share more food.
no doubt this time; we had truly just helped out a great need. . .
yep. i know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. there are many similarities in this story to our story. damaged. lost. confused. found. a lotta cleaning up needed.
go ahead and think those thoughts. then give thanks. both for his story, and for our stories.
eh