Downtown 12/20/14

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him..."  John 3:16-17

I had been on a trip to visit family all day Saturday and stopped downtown on my way back home.  I didn't even arrive there until about 6 pm and needed to rest for a half an hour or so.  I had kind of dozed off for a little bit and I was awakened by "Jackie", a homeless guy who wanted to say "Hello" and "Merry Christmas".  I went into the Jack in the Box (I had been in my car in the parking lot) and had some coffee and a couple of tacos before meeting with any homeless friends.  When I left the burger joint at 7 pm I purchased a bunch of burgers and went down a few streets to where I had the BBQ during the summer.  There were a half dozen or so homeless folks there where Willie lives. They were all real happy to see me.  One of the cool things that happened was one of the homeless men I had given some burgers to came back up to me thanking me for the food....after he had eaten the burgers.  It kind of reminded me of the story of Jesus and the 10 lepers (and the one who returned to thank him for the healing).  During this time Nicole and Bill came by with her baby, Billy Joe. She works at the recycler on the other side of the block.  I had collected some things for her that I was going to leave with Willie, but it was great that they just happened to show up while I was there.  Most of the men who were there had been there for the BBQ back in August, so one of the things they asked me about was when I was going to do another one!  I had to tell them, "Not for a while."  I need to be off the night shift and we need daylight savings time back too.  This won't happen until after February.  Since there were so many people there the food went pretty quickly and all the coats and jackets went too.

I left there with only four burgers left so I drove around the corner and gave them to Dave and John Stokes. It ended up being a fairly quick trip once I actually got started.  However brief it was, it was still very fulfilling and several people were helped on a cold December night downtown the weekend before Christmas.  --Until next time.  John


Here's a photo of Nicole and Billy Joe