Downtown Sunday night 11/23/14

"Never worry about numbers.  Help one person at a time and always start with the person in front of you."  --Mother Teresa

"There is a terrible hunger for love.  We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness.  We must have the courage to recognize it.  The poor you may have right in your own family.  Find them.  Love them."  --Mother Teresa

After last week's trip, I didn't necessarily want to go back to the same street corner, but I did want to try and find Gabriel.  I wrote about meeting him last week, however, as I crossed Washington Blvd on San Pedro there was some police activity right near the alley he said he spends his nights at.  Since it was already dark, I couldn't really see people walking up and down the street too well either. Gabriel said he spends most of his time there on San Pedro St during the daytime.  I'll keep looking around for him in the weeks ahead.

I didn't arrive downtown until almost 5:30 pm and by this time it's night time now.  The trip didn't take very long once I got there.  Everyone I met I prayed with and I'm pretty sure everyone I helped would have gone to sleep without eating anything too, so it was a worthwhile trip on both counts.

I found Antonio and Leticia on their street (Trinity), but they were standing on the other side of the street than they usually are.  Antonio is always very reserved, but Leticia is always happy to see me and asks for me to pray for them.  I'm always happy to oblige.

Just down the street from them and under the freeway was a woman named Sharon.  She looked to be about my age and all bundled up.  It is starting to get cold a night around here.  She was happy for the food, but didn't need any water.  I think she was surprised when I asked to pray for her.  Perhaps next time she will be a little more talkative.  She said she was from around the LA area.

On the corner of Los Angeles St and Venice Blvd there is an auto repair shop.  A pit bull guards the back door behind a small fenced area.  I call this dog Rocky (because he's built like a rock) and I usually feed him some treats when I go by there.  It's probably been six weeks or more since I've seen Rocky, but he was happy to see me and ate the treats right out of my hand!  Around the corner from him were three Latino men getting ready to spend the night on the sidewalk.  Alex, Santa and (I think they said) Bocha.  I gave out food and water to all of them and a blanket too.  Then I prayed for them.

At this point I only had two burgers left.  I drove down an alley off Pico Ave separating a couple of fenced parking lots and found Angel.  I hadn't seen her in at least two months. She had a small flashlight and showed me her cat.  When I saw it the last time it was just a kitten.  She also has a small dog named Prince too.  She told me her tent was stolen and also a tarp she had for the 'roof' of her make-shift home.  I gave her a blanket to help her get through these cold nights.  Then she told me someone was providing her with a bus ticket to go back to Utah next month and that this would probably be the last time we'd see each other.  I said,"Well, let me pray for a safe trip."  So I prayed for her.  I wonder what will become of her dog and cat when she leaves. Angel has a lot of 'issues'. One big one is that she needs a wheel chair to get around in.  I'm sure she's also a very lonely woman and that's why she has the dog and cat.  I thought the second quote from Mother Teresa was a great quote. What if we all recognized the need others have to be loved and just loved them unconditionally?  The world would be a better place I'm sure.  --Until next time.  John