Downtown 5/26/2013

 "Listen.  If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."  Luke 17:3

"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him."  Luke 15:1

Repentance and forgiveness were two of the main tenets Jesus taught during His earthly ministry.  It's easy to see why 'tax collectors and sinners' would draw near to hear Him.  The outcasts of society are the ones experiencing little forgiveness from others, yet Jesus still loved them and treated them as people of worth.  A couple of days ago I 'shared' a post on facebook from the missionary group, Gospel for Asia.  It was simply a picture of a woman laying face down amid a lot of dirt and debris.  Yesterday, I found a man laying face down on a sidewalk that reminded me of the Gospel for Asia picture.  He appeared to be sleeping, although when I walked over to him and asked if he was hungry he immediately turned over and said, "yes".  When I gave him a couple of burgers to eat he started eating them right away.  If you look carefully at the picture, you can see he has no socks and only one of the shoes had laces.  I asked him about his shoes and he said they were too small.  Luckily, I had one pair of tennis shoes and I gave him some socks to go with them along with a couple of shirts.  The man's name was Alisio and he was from "California".  He didn't seem to want to give too many details of his life, so I didn't press him for details.  Where I found him was a bit of a walk from the skid row area where one can get a

meal.  I'm hearing that some of the missions aren't serving 3 meals a day anymore.  So it's likely Alisio hadn't eaten all day and at the time of the afternoon (about 5:30 pm) that I saw him, he wasn't going to eat until at least the next day.  That particular street was deserted on a Sunday.  No cars and no pedestrians around.  There was another homeless man about a quarter mile down the street who had set up his 'house'.  His name was Rafael and he was from Panama.  He had on a T-shirt that he had gotten at a shelter.  It was a soccer jersey with someone else's name on it and it was about 4 sizes too big.  I gave him a couple of new shirts that actually fit. Rafael was very happy to receive the help I offered.  When I prayed with him he repeated the words I said, it was very humbling.  When I was about to leave him, two other homeless people (a couple actually) were walking towards me.  They lived around the corner on the next street and had seen me.  Apparently, I had helped them before and they recognized me and came over looking for help again.  They got the last of the burgers and smoothies.  I only had a box of about a dozen or so smoothies, but they were a big hit with my friends downtown.  The woman was from Texas and they said they were leaving this next week to go back there.  I'm glad there was family available and willing to give them a place to go to.

At this point I was now out of burgers to give out, (I had helped a few other people before I saw Alisio) so I was driving towards the freeway onramp when I saw a couple of men working on a car.  One of the men looked up as I was driving by and we recognized each other.  I stopped the car and the one who looked up was Kenny, a man I knew.  He came over and we talked for a few minutes.  It turns out he was helping the other man change the water pump on the other man's car.  I did have some canned food left and some water which I gave Kenny and he also asked for some socks.  This area where we were is about a half mile or more from the BBQ alleys which is where I usually see Kenny.  So he asked about the other folks that we know from over there.  He told me that Gary, who was living behind the auto parts store on Washington is staying in a parking lot by the food bank on Paloma St on the other side of Washington.  I'll look for him next week.  So I had prayed with Kenny and before he walked back across the street to work on the car, two other men walked up looking for help.  Like I said I was out of burgers, but I did have some canned food left and some snacks which I gave them.  These other two men looked through the back of the car for clothes that fit and both found an armful they could use.  When I prayed for them I reminded God that He had their picture on His refrigerator, they both got a kick out of that image.  When I finished praying with them another man walked up looking for some help too!  I think this place, under the freeway, is where homeless people with cars live.  I think all these people stay/live there in cars.  Perhaps, this could be a potential BBQ site this summer.  I hope so.  I look forward to having an opportunity to give these people a nice afternoon and tell them about the Jesus I know.  --Until next time.  John