Downtown 3/15/15

"I pray that your love will keep on growing and that you will fully know and understand how to make the right choices.  Then you will still be pure and innocent when Christ returns.  And until that day, Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God."  --Philippians 1:9-11

When I began last week's trip I drove to a section of town I normally don't go to.  It was just northeast of Soto and Washington Blvd.  Thirty years ago I drove trucks out of a warehouse in this area so I am very familiar with the turf.  I saw a homeless man that day in this area on a corner of a street off Grande Vista.  He had a shopping cart with him and there was a red car parked at the corner that turned out to be his.  His wife was sitting in the front seat on the passenger side.  When I drove up I had to double-park by their car (very unsafe on the corner) and leaned over to ask him if he was hungry (that's when I saw his wife sitting in the car) the trunk to the car was up.  I didn't have time to really find out their story as cars were coming behind me and turning down that little street.  The man, I'm guessing he was in his sixties, came over to get the food.  On his way towards me he leaned over, looked at me and said, "I don't know where you came from, but you are a blessing."  Then I had to drive away.  I didn't have time to ask him his name or even to pray for them.  Well, you can imagine that this man and his situation stuck with me all week.  So on yesterday's trip I started by going over there again.  I didn't see them, but I saw what I think may be their car.  I'll check again next week.

A couple of weeks ago I went downtown on a cold Sunday night.  It had rained during the day and everyone down there was cold, hungry and miserable.  I had seen Angel, a homeless woman on the corner of Pico and Olive streets.  She had been forced to relocate from the alley around the corner due to some construction going on.  I was out of blankets by the time I saw her at the time, so last week and again yesterday I tried to find her but she isn't there anymore.

Last week I ended up stopping on the little street where John Stokes lives.  I only had enough food for him, but surprise surprise there were a half dozen others on that street that day.  I'm always disappointed when there isn't enough food to go around.  I let everyone go through the clothes in the back, but they're always disappointed if you don't have food too.  Yesterday, the first thing that one of the women living there said as I pulled up was, "You got food today?".  Oddly enough, this weekend had record heat for this time of year.  It's the last week of winter and temperatures reached the low 90's the last few days.  However, I gave out very few bottles of water, like maybe only a half dozen.  Maybe, everyone already had gotten some I don't know.  I'll save what I have for the next trip.  Anyway, between the people on that little street (5) and the three others around the corner I gave out all the food I had in the one stop.  It ended up being a pretty short trip time-wise.  --Until next time.  John