It's been a while since I last wrote about any of my trips. I've gone every week, but just haven't had the time to write about them. Last Sunday I had to work unexpectedly, and went down Monday evening instead. I had been telling the folks living around the parking lot at San Pedro and 9th that I'd do a BBQ with them in the next couple of weeks. When I got there Monday evening, they all were asking me if I was going to do it this weekend. So I decided it was probably the best weekend to do it and I told them to go ahead and count on it. I also have a family friend who was wanting to come with me, so today was the day. Interestingly enough, I had a co-worker who 'owed' me a day at work. I had forgotten about it and when he asked what Saturday I wanted off, I decided to go with this Saturday, so I had an extra day to get ready. As far as planning these things go, I was as ready for this day as I'd ever been, but something had me on edge and a little nervous about how it would all go down.
When you're on the front lines of war or ministry you never quite know what to expect, but you know one thing for sure, there will be conflict. Today's BBQ was a battle on a couple of different fronts. We kept persevering and by the end of the day we were rewarded big time.
Conflict #1
We arrived at the location (which the homeless folks had told me would be 'no problem' on a Sunday afternoon. I noticed there were more cars in the parking lots than I normally see at that time (2 pm), but as I pulled into the alley Edgar was there and greeted me. He had a flag and was probably being the parking attendant there. He told me that although no one was there now, they (our mutual friends) were all planning on coming. Another guy I know was there and when I told him I was doing the BBQ, he said he would go get his friends and be back. So Connor, my friend who went with me, and I drove around the block once just to see if there were any folks in the immediate area to let know we were about to get started and then drove back to the spot where we were going to set up. We had just gotten everything set up and the BBQ started when the owner showed up and wanted to know what we were doing. When I told him what we were doing he asked us to leave. He tried to justify his position by telling me all the problems that the homeless folks cause around there and he didn't want them encouraged to continue to congregate there. So we had no choice but to leave. Red, one of the regular homeless folks there, said that a church group sets up across the street once a month and has people lined up around the block every time. I'm not sure what they serve or how they do it, but I am a little uncomfortable having a BBQ on a public sidewalk because the police could shut you down for having an open flame on the sidewalk. And....speaking of church groups, when I was there Monday evening there was a church group that had set up with 50 or so chairs there in that parking lot and they served food to the homeless too. But I didn't argue with the guy, we just packed everything back in the car and went across the street and unpacked everything and set up on the sidewalk. Incidentally, this was the exact spot where I had a most memorable encounter two or three years ago with a man who had just gotten out of prison after being locked up for decades. He kept asking me why I was being so nice to him. I'll never forget that encounter. But back to today's trip.
So it didn't take too long to get everything set up again and there were a couple of Latino men who where hanging around there when we got there. They asked if we had food and we told them yes, but it would take thirty minutes or so for things to get ready. I had rented some tables and chairs and offered them chairs to sit in while we got the food ready. It turned out that these guys were friends of the original guy that went to get his friends when we first showed up across the street. So very quickly we had four men waiting and 3 or 4 others who inquired what was going on and a little group had gathered and was waiting before anything was ready. Well, the BBQ was already started and I started getting all the other stuff out. I had bought 8 lbs of potato salad and four bags of chips and salsa. I started dishing out the potato salad and when everyone there at that time got a bowlful I went looking for the chips and salsa. That's when I realized I had left the four large bags of chips in the garage at home!! I had put them at the end of the garage right by the car while I loaded the last couple of chairs and an extra card table in the car. I didn't want the chips to get crushed while I put those items in, so I was going to pack them in after these heavy items got loaded......and then I forgot them. This proved to be crucial to the next obstacle.
So the first guy sitting down is Edgar and the guy in the green shirt is the guy who was going to get his buddies. The guy in the white T-shirt is the guy who translated my short talk/prayer for everyone who only understood Spanish. More on that later.
Conflict #2
So you can see from the picture above, things started off calmly enough. But soon there were a dozen more men there and I could only cook about 5 burgers at a time. The potato salad helped initially, in fact, the guy in the white t-shirt was handing out the bowels as fast as I could fill them. Eight pounds of potato salad was gone in twenty minutes. I've never run out of potato salad before. And now I was faced with no chips. So I gave Conner some cash and he went with another man, not pictured, around the corner to a 7-11 type store and bought some chips and seasoning since I forgot that too. I had brought some lettuce and cherry tomatoes (but forgot the salad dressing even though I was going to pick some up during the last trip to the store for ice). I also had three large cans of baked beans, but they didn't get used until the hamburgers started coming off the grill. So the problem was only being able to cook about five or six at a time. I couldn't get them ready fast enough and two of the men, in particular, started getting unruly. One of them slapped another man around a couple of times and I knew this guy and was totally surprised at his behavior. The other man I didn't know, but he thought he was being passed over because of his race. It was getting so ugly that one of the men came up with a number system since, "Some people aren't acting like gentlemen." It prove to be somewhat effective, but the real problem was just not being able to cook things fast enough. Then some of the folks said they liked theirs medium rare so they could get theirs sooner. I knew a few of the burgers simply weren't ready and with one guy I actually had to put his back on the grill after he tasted it! Another guy said his wasn't ready either, but I guess he ate it anyway. We had torn up a plate or something and wrote numbers from 1 to 10 on them and started giving them out. It got pretty intense for a short time. Eventually, everyone got theirs and the two men left (although one of them came back demanding he get the next one because he had a "situation"). When he didn't get the next one off the grill he left and didn't come back. I didn't shed any tears over that. So as things started to wind down and all the hamburgers (32 patties) were cooked, people still were drifting by. I had twelve sausages left to cook and gave those out too. The last three or so went to some of the guys who hung around until the end, I wanted to finish cooking everything and give it out, so they got a burger and a sausage or two.
The number system that proved to be somewhat effective. There were two men who actually were quite helpful in keeping some of the other guys in line. I think they knew them all well enough that they could get in their face a little and get away with it!!
So before we started giving out the burgers I paused everything for a few minutes and asked someone to interpret for me so everyone could understand. The guy in the white t-shirt above volunteered. If you go to church services in December they generally follow a familiar pattern in the weeks leading up to Christmas. There's the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth and their giving birth to John the Baptist. Then there is the story of the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she's going to be pregnant and give birth to the Messiah, Jesus. Then you have Mary going to visit Elizabeth and then the story of Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem and giving birth to Jesus and the Shepard's story. Now I didn't go into that much detail, but stuck with Gabriel telling Mary she was going to give birth to the Messiah. Her first response was, "How can this be for I have not known a man?" And the angel's response was, "With God all things are possible." So this was the point I wanted to make to these men, that whatever their "impossible" situation was, (like getting off the street) with God's help, "all things are possible". I encouraged them to pray and talk to God about their "impossible situation". I also reminded them that praying was not like putting something in a microwave oven and it being ready in a couple of minutes.. Things take time....the journey to the destination is as important as the destination sometimes. I had hoped to get this on the video, but we didn't get it started in time and only got the end and the prayer. I made a comment about wanting this to be a 'family time'. Sometimes what went on today was, unfortunately, just like some families. Well, I tried multiple times to get the video loaded up here, but to no avail. I'll keep trying, but for now you'll have to just imagine my short sermonette and prayer!!!
The menu:
32 burgers and buns
12 sausages and buns
48 slices of cheese--we ran out after about 25 burgers
8 pounds of potato salad
3 pounds of lettuce and two small tubs of cherry tomatoes
3 twenty ounce cans of baked beans
1 jug of salsa
2 bags of chips (plus the 4 I forgot at home)
6 two liter bottles of soda
24 bottles of water
Sounds like a regular family backyard BBQ huh?
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