Dude! Share The Food!

sunday was a lot of fun.

my friend, troy, came with me downtown.  he’s a cheerful guy, big, strong, and harley-lovin.

but not just troy came.

he brought 4 harley-lovin’ friends!

we all had a good time.  they are all givers, no doubt about it.

duane, elaine, woody, crystal; thanks for showing the love….

eh

due to the severe flooding all over the west side of atlanta, we weren’t able to deliver the sandwich lunches today.

so many bridges and roads were blocked, and even the main highway was blocked!

just hoping that our friends downtown have stayed safe.

anyone wanna donate some dry socks to take downtown this weekend?

eh

today we stopped at a location where we don’t usually stop.

(i think God was at work….)

i think it was He who told my friend Don to go downtown with us today.

i think it was He who told me that we should stop at this particular spot.

after we parked at the curb near a very small pie-shaped park on the west side of atlanta, i got out and approached 20-30 people hanging out.  first, i asked my standard approach question “y’all know anyone who needs a meal?”.  (this type of phrase allows people to keep their dignity; it doesn’t assume that they’re homeless, poor, or hungry.  and they have the opportunity to reply “yes! i do!” or “well, there’s a guy over there by the bridge that might need one.”)

several replied “yes! i do!” and started for the truck.

i began asking for a real nice young man that i’d met there before.  “Shane!”  “has anyone seen Shane?”

a young lady then spoke up “i’m Shane’s wife!”

as we took a few steps toward the truck, she opened up immediately, saying that she was dealing with some addictions.  then we prayed together.  then i felt like she should meet my friend Don, who is very loving and yet bold with prayers and very knowledgable in the scriptures.

the three of us talked for awhile.  she cried when talking about her baby, i teared up, and pointed out the beauty of God bringing us together.  Don asked if she would go into a program that would help her and her baby.  she said that she would, and would call him later for direction.

Don told her how valuable she was.  (i don’t think she’d heard that very much).

i told her “we’ve shared about 70 lunches here today, and it was all worth it just to speak with you.  actually, we’d gladly share 7,000 lunches, just to speak with and meet and pray with you!”

God is just SOOO cool, bringing people together, spreading His love!

LET’S KEEP ON SHARING, OK?!!!

eh

check out this story/reminder.

http://www.enochmagazine.com/articles/general/the-brandt-russo-experience

man, did we have a good time hanging out together saturday night!

great food, great people, great times!!

thanks to wil and carrie for hosting.  and thanks to chrissy and others for working it all out.

y’all are great!

eh

something cool is happening….

a couple of weeks ago, i told rick, who used to take lunches on tuesdays until his work schedule changed, to let me know if he could go downtown on any of the upcoming tuesdays.  (i know, tough sentence to translate from english to english)

so, sunday after church, he tells me “hey, i can’t go on tuesdays, but, i can go on fridays if someone will prep the meals.  i miss going”

then, minutes later, i asked lynn and karen (2 ladies who are highly involved with food prep) if they wanted to change the prep day from tuesday to friday.  they both said no, that they thought tuesday prepping and sharing should continue.  and that friday would somehow work itself out-  just like everything else works itself out.  (with God doing the working….)

then, literally as i was walking away, chris, from our “missions team” said “hey erik.  we need to talk to you for a minute!”

so, they told me that they’d like to help out, maybe on sunday.   we discussed it, and yet, somehow, they realized that there was more of a need for meals on friday…. (no idea where the thought came from)…. and they jumped right on board!

result:  in the next few weeks, they’ll be prepping meals that will be shared on friday!!!!

so, i was crazy excited!  within 20 minutes, we had an offer for a  food-to-the-streets-taker, a shot-down-idea-to-stop-food-on-tuesdays, and a whole new crew-to-prep-meals-for-friday!!!

coincidence?  no, chris reminded me “providence”.

God is soooo cool!

eh

“Croutons? Sure! We’ll take them.” What in the world are we going to do with a few hundred small bags of croutons? Lynn will kill me if I refuse free food. Erik thought to himself as he was driving away from The Pantry.

God had a plan. (As always)

Erik brought the container of croutons back to the church and several of us stared at them for a while. “We could use them as salties?” someone suggested. Erik made a command decision. “We are taking them downtown.” God must have been working because Erik rarely makes “command decisions.”

We get to the parking lot downtown, set-up and start serving the hotdogs (with the fixin’s), chips, ice-cream, desserts, etc. Everyone had a plate-full, so the croutons were not in high demand.

Then…another group sharing food pulled in across the street and they were serving… salads (among other things). Karen and Erik smiled and proceeded to take the entire container of croutons across the street.

You see, God was in the mood for salad and he wanted croutons with his salad. That’s right, God took two groups of people (and don’t forget about the people at The Pantry) from different parts of town and put them across the street from one another on the same day at the same time so we would praise Him just a little bit more. He did it so we could share this story with others and inspire them to praise Him.

I pray that God continues to show His power and continues to use us. I pray that we would all listen to the little voice that says “Take them downtown.” I pray we will all be friendly to one another and walk across the street to say “Hello” and “Want some croutons?”

Praise God for croutons.

wil

how awesome is this post???

two years ago today, some friends teamed up to begin this “Dude! Share the Food!” thingy.  since then, we’ve been able to share more than 42,000 meals!!

it’s just a simple idea: make up some meals, share ‘em with the homeless and hungry around Atlanta, and spread the fame of Jesus.   and when necessary, we use words….

since then, many, many others have joined in this quest.  and the quest is still simple:  to do what was stated above, in a consistent AND constant manner.

to all who have joined in:   thanks.  i know you are blessed for it today, with more blessing to come…

sorry.  no comedy in this post.  just a great big WOW!!  ISN’T THIS GREAT!!!

eh

this time, i chose to stare.

usually, i look away from those who have the obvious physical disabilities.  i guess i think that they’ve been stared at way too many times, and i shouldn’t add to that number.  so i look away.

but today, while sharing food in atlanta with my good friend Wil, i chose to stare.

we were trying to go to our next “regular” stop, and we were stopped at a light near a bridge/exit ramp.  i saw some “panhandlers” on the other side of the road, and, if i had been driving, i would have just continued on toward our destination.  and i’d have wondered if they were scammers.

but, wil saw it as a need, and next thing you know, we’re stopped on the street.

one guy was helping a blind guy ask for money.  one lady was helping another lady in a wheelchair ask for money.  we gave them lunches and cups of cold water.

when i was back at the truck, after giving out a couple more lunches, i looked over and realized that she had no legs…! both of them missing just below the knee!  had i noticed before, as i handed her helper the water?  i had noticed that she was counting through some pennies and some silver coins on her lap.  maybe i had noticed her missing legs.  but, now i REALLY noticed!

and i stared.  (from a distance, of course)

from one shoulder i heard “don’t stare”.   from the other i heard “no.  don’t look away.  not this time.  look at her”.

they struggled to cross the street.  i wondered what her days were like.  all of her other struggles.

as i got back in the truck, i said “she had no legs!” and i reached down and touched my own.  i was thankful again.

for my own legs, homely as they may be.

for my recently repaired knee.

and i’m thankful that Wil chose to stop,  when i might have just seen “scammers” through my jaded eyes.

and i’m thankful that this ragtag group of “food-sharers” continues to push me and take me and bring me to the streets.  to the poor.  to the needy.

actually, to the face of Christ.

i’m so, so blessed.

eh

HOW DID I FIND MYSELF IN A BETTER PLACE?  I CAN’T LOOK DOWN ON THE FROWN ON THE OTHER GUY’S FACE.  CAUSE WHEN I STOOP DOWN LOW, LOOK HIM SQUARE IN THE EYE, I GET A FUNNY FEELIN’, I JUST MIGHT BE DEALIN’ WITH THE FACE OF CHRIST – chris rice.

Marcus (one of our homeless friends, who lives with Charles under the bridge) passes along his thanks to the DSTF family.  He helped me Tuesday evening and had a blast!

As I was driving downtown I asked the Holy Spirit to lead me where he wanted me to go.  When I got to Charles and Marcus there was no-one else around and I was going to take the remainder of the meals to the shelter and go home.  But as we were talking, Marcus eagerly asked if he could give out meals while I gave out water.  I was puzzled because no one was around.  He immediately yelled at a couple of people down the street. “Hey! Y’all come here!” Before you know it we had a crowd.

Charles was introducing me to everybody under the sun while Marcus made sure everyone was taken care of.  When we were out of meals, there were a couple people without anything so Charles and Marcus gave them some of their own food.

Marcus wanted me to make sure everybody knew how thankful he was. “Tell Erik and everybody we worked as a team!”  It was good to see a spark in his eye and joy in his heart.

Wil