Sunday night-5-31-15

"The truth is always worth the risk."  --a line from a action adventure movie I watched earlier in the day.

This week my work schedule switched back to nights (for the next four months), so after waking up around 1:30-2:00 pm I watched a movie made from an old TV show.  Although the "truth" spoken about in the line above from the movie isn't quite the same "truth" in theological terms, the line did get my attention. These trips downtown have always been a spiritual adventure and just when things get a little too "normal" or average, it means it's time to shake things up and do things differently.  I decided to drive down to MacArther Park first, just to see what was going on.  It has been over a year since I saw any of my evangelistic friends down there and I didn't see any this evening either, although it was a lot later in the day when I got down there than when I used to go there.  Still it was worth the extra time to go see the area again.  I've gone down there maybe once a month for the last year just to check things out.  I then drove back into downtown and ended up stopping in at the Jack in the Box. I just kind of hung out there reading for almost an hour before I bought some food to give out.  I ended up leaving there at almost 8:30 pm.  It was dark by this time and I drove over to a couple of places by Olive St, but found no one around.

I knew it was getting so dark that it was going to make things more difficult to find people still up. I drove over to Trinity St and found Leticia and Antonio getting ready to go to sleep.  Five or ten minutes later and it would have been too late for them.  I hadn't seen them in about a month so they were happy to see me and as always Leticia wanted me to pray for them.  I found out her sons are 30 something and 25 years old.  I'll find out where they live next time.  I stopped at three different places on down the street from them.  Alfred, Anthony and Lee were by themselves, although Lee (an elderly woman) asked for some extra food for "her friend".

When I left Trinity St I drove west on Washington Blvd, but then I decided I'd go back the other way (east) to check on Carlos down by Long Beach Ave.  I didn't see him last week and probably wouldn't see him this late at night, but it was worth trying. However, as I got to the next signal on Washington I saw Dorothy standing on the other side of Washington.  Dorothy is quite distinctive in that she's maybe five feet tall and I'm sure weighs less than a hundred pounds.  She carries a large plastic bag with all her worldly possessions in it everywhere she goes.  She doesn't talk much and walks like she's trying to get to the bank before it closes.  I know we don't hardly even go to the bank anymore, but the older people reading this will know what I'm talking about!  Anyway, I called out to her as I turned left onto the cross street and pulled into a small parking area by the sidewalk just passed the corner.  Dorothy made her way over to me and I gave her some food and water.  What happened next is what I'll always remember.  She thanked me and kept walking quickly on down the street.  I remained stopped to write down all the names of the folks I had helped so I wouldn't forget them. When I looked up Dorothy had sat down just about 15 or 20 yards down the street and was quickly eating the burgers.  It was a picture of a hungry homeless person I won't ever forget.  In fact, everyone that I had just helped was hungry and eating the food I gave them as I drove away, but Dorothy was the poster child of people in need.  Once again, if I hadn't have made the trip, all of these folks would have gone to sleep hungry.  That's something I haven't had to deal with personally in a very very long time.  As I was getting on the freeway I noticed it was 8:55 pm.  I had seen all these people in about twenty minutes!  Trinity St...I call it Kingdom Turf.   --Until next time.  John