the following notes are from rick, who slept overnight on the streets of atlanta, along with his son, jared.
“I finally am able to sit down and put some thoughts together. It’s been a strange week. To start off, God had been working on me for awhile to stay with the homeless one weekend. I didn’t have the opportunity until recently, when I met two beautiful people, Roderick and Terry. We arranged to meet them last Friday at Hurt Park near Ga. State Univ. and when we arrived, and didn’t see them, I begin to panic. But we knew where they were staying, so we drove to their (parking lot) home, got our pack out, parked the truck and then walked two blocks back to Hurt Park. Rod and Terry were there this time plus two other homeless people we knew, Keith and Teresa. They live in an abandoned apartment over by the dome.
What they do for food is to “chase it.” Safe House feeds first, and the line starts to form at 6:30. We hiked about three or four blocks to the safe house and, as we got there, a lady pulled up in a car with clothes, and was mobbed by about 15-20 people. We then were allowed in the safe house and had to listen to a sermon by a man who said he was a pastor, but he acted like a street hood. After the 45 minute sermon, we stood in line to get our food. It tasted very good, since the only thing I had eaten was a pb&j at 11:30 for lunch. Next chase was to Garnett St. (the parking lot where we serve.) It was about 8:30pm when we started to walk, and we had to get there by 9:00 to get fed. But since it was the first of the month, our guide did not think we would have a problem getting fed.
We got there in time and I talked to a couple of the people that were running this outreach. One of the gentlemen has been doing it for 7 years the other one for 3. He said that they come for 4 different churches in Gwinnet county. The preacher here was real good and after he spoke for about 15-20 minutes. We prayed and then we formed lines to be fed. The meal was Church’s Chicken with rice and pinto beans and a cookie. By this time I am over whelmed with humbleness and gratitude at what I have.
The last stop that night was Woodruff Park, where they give out hot soup and coffee. This is their last stop of the night cuz it’s warm and it warms them. There was also a group of teenagers from the Christian college in Toccoa, GA here and they come down every Friday night just to talk to the homeless. They were excited to meet me cuz they had heard what I do for the homeless. I told them that I am just a servant of God doing His will.
Next stop was to bed. Jared and I came sort of ill-prepared, thinking our 30 degree sleeping bags would be enough to keep us warm. Rod gave us a quilt to put under our bags and one to put over us. The temp. got down to 28 degrees. Needless to say, we froze that night. Again, I was humbled by God knowing that at anytime I wanted I could have gotten in my truck to get warm or go home. But also that would have been a win for the Devil, so we suffered, which was gain. I think we slept maybe 2 hours total. They said that’s typical for the first night because of all the noise that goes on. Plus we were fully exposed since where we slept was a parking lot.
Saturday they got us up at 7:00 am and we went to Hurt Park to spend the day. We met several people and food was brought by several different organizations including Erik (the chili was awesome.) For breakfast we had pb&j plus water.
We left Saturday at 4:45 exhausted and very appreciative of what we take for granted. Oh yea, we had to hike about 15 minutes to the student union bldg. to relieve ourselves. On one trip, Jared went with me, and as we were on our way back to the park, there was a Mercedes Benz at a red light with two well dressed black men in front and a well dressed black woman sitting in the back. As we approached the car to go behind it, the woman locked her car door and told the men to do the same. I laughed and told them we were not going to rob them.
I could say a lot more, but maybe another time.
In God’s grace,
Rick”
again, this is so cool, that someone would do this to get a better understanding of what it’s like out there…… thanks guys!   eh