Dude! Share The Food!

“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

wow, it was super hot downtown yesterday.

wil and i shared 100+ meals, and a whole bunch of drinks.  bottled cold drinks, some 1-gal jugs of water, some sweet tea, and 2-liter drinks, too.

at Little 5 Pts., people were just coming to the truck, people that were not homeless: no problem, we’re just here to give it away.

one guy, in his fancy, original “Air Jordans”, said “guess who i just saw”  – “who?” – “dave chapelle. look, i got my picture with him” and he showed me on his fancy phone.

so, i’m like “cool”, and blah blah blah.  but, i was able to say “God bless”, so, maybe we just watered a previously planted seed.

it’s all good!

eh

(tomorrow, we’ll serve our 40,000th meal in just 23 months.  AWESOME!!)

Praise God!  Our request for gallon jugs has been answered.  A local company donated 192 brand new gallon bottle with lids.  We do not need any additional donations at this time.

Lynn

The people living on the streets do not have easy access to clean water. If you have any  clean gallon plastic jugs, such as the ones you get from the store with tea and lemonade, would you be willing donate them to us.    We will fill them with water and take them out with the meals that are shared.

We will have a bin in the back hall near the kitchen for donations.

Thank you.

hey

haven’t been typing much lately…  maybe i think it’s like schoolwork (which i rarely did any of…)

just a note to say thanks to all that help out!

and, you might want to check out some video that was taken a couple weeks ago with rusty.  this motorcycle group is going to have a benefit ride for Innermission/ DudeShareTheFood!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kingkustomcycles

y’all be good

eh

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

sunday, we took our normal batch of 100 lunches donwtown.  we were also able to take some nice goodies…

a ladies group had donated some sweet tea, ceasar salads, pasta salads, spinach/chicken/onion salads, coconut pie, and key lime pie.  man, the guys in the woods (and one lady) tore that stuff up!! (and i enjoyed a piece of the key lime pie myself… mmmmm good!)

quite different than the normal lunch we share.  of course, i’m not knockin’ the lunches we share. we try to make the most number of lunches we can for the money spent, without spreading it too thin.  i guess we have to fall somewhere in between the steaks that we’d like to share, and the ramen noodle or rice type of meal that would cost just a few pennies…

but, yeah, it was nice.  and quite a pleasure to have my son out there with me, too.  love that guy…

keep giving!!

eh