Downtown 7/5/2015

When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him , he asked Philip, 'Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?'  He said this to test Philip, since he already knew what he was going to do.  Philip answered, 'Don't you know that it would take almost a year's wages just to buy only a little bread for each of these people?'  Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples.  He spoke up and said, 'There is a boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish.  But what good is that with all these people?' ---John 6:5-9

After last week's meeting with a group of men on 9th near San Pedro I had promised to return to them again this week.  I have been trying to figure out how to maximize the small resources I have to purchase food and decided to finally buy the ingredients to make more food available.  I have resisted this primarily because there may be some liability issues that I'm not prepared for.  I have done the BBQ's though which is the same thing and have had no problems, so I decided to give this a test run and bought a bunch of lunch meat and bread and made my own.  So now the preparations for these trips is a lot more than before and if you pretty much give everything out in one stop the trip is far shorter than the prep time.  Anyway, so be it, it allows more time to pray for the people I'll be seeing. Also, I won't be seeing a large group every week and having more food available means reaching more people.  Have you noticed how planning and logistics are playing a prominent role now?  I usually buy enough food to give out to 8 people.  This week the plan was to have a sandwich for twelve people.

I got off the freeway at about 5:45 pm and found three people needing help before I got to 9th and San Pedro.  When I got there about 7 men and 1 woman were there initially.  A couple of others came by after all the food was given out.  So I had nine sandwiches to give out to the eight original people and then one man had asked for another one (he practically begged me for it). How could I refuse? When I pulled up Gustavo, who I had met a couple of months ago with another man named Red were both there.  Gustavo had a microphone and speaker and he was just yakking away in Spanish.  I'm not really sure what he was talking about, I think he was just narrating life there in the parking lot. He actually offered to give me the microphone to preach.  I told him when it's time to pray OK, but that was it.  Most of these men understand very little English although Gustavo is fluent in both languages.  Perhaps another time he can interpret for me. But when it was time to pray, Gustavo got everyone up and holding hands together and as I prayed he held the microphone up so it picked up the prayer time.  A short time after this Red brought another man up to me by the name of Miguel Gomez. Miguel was in tears.  Red told me that he had gone to a hospital/clinic for a pain in his side and small back area.  They couldn't help him.  I said let me pray for him right now.  So I turned Miguel around and with my right hand on his shoulder and my left hand on his side I prayed for the pain to go away.  I don't know if it helped or not, but he kept thanking me and said "God bless you." repeatedly.  The only thing I can add to this is that when I was told Miguel had an ailment, I didn't hesitate to pray for him, it was such an automatic response to the situation.  I don't think I've ever felt quite that way before in similar situations.

Well, I had reloaded the car with shirts since the last visit and they all went through the clothes,so that was a big hit again.  I gave out hugs to just about everyone.  It was another good visit and time well spent with these folks. Its so hard to describe what it feels like to bring the Kingdom of God to folks caught in life's hopeless situations.  I really love these people and the opportunities God has given me to help them.  Here's some photo's of the trip:

 That's Red with his back to the camera and Julio, from last week, with his USA shirt on below.

This is Miguel Gomez, the one with the back pain.

A fitting end to a great trip.--Until next time. --John

  

 








 

Downtown Sunday 6/28/2015

Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come.  His answer was, "The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen.  No one will say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!'; because the Kingdom of God is within you." --Luke 17:20-21

I had prayed before leaving the house and while en route downtown that I would be cognizant of bringing the Kingdom of God with me wherever I went.  I wanted to be aware of it and I wanted the people I met with to experience the peace and tranquility of being in the midst of His kingdom.

I got down there later than I had hoped.  It has been very hot here in Southern California the past few days and today was no exception.  Although the temperature peaked in the mid 90's, by the time I got down there it was probably 85 or so.  I wanted to bring a lot of bottled water on ice (which I did), but had hoped to be there during the hottest time of the day.  Perhaps, when I showed up was the best time anyway. I had driven around quite a bit before really finding anybody.  I did see Sonya, the Korean woman from a couple of weeks back.  She was laying on the sidewalk on Alameda right where I saw her the last time.  She remembered me and was surprised I remembered her name. She knows very little English and she started to tell me a somewhat long and involved story in her native language.  At first I wanted to politely move on, but realized I was probably the only person who took the time to help her today and listen to what she had to say.  Even though I couldn't understand a word of it, I smiled and patiently listened to her.  I think she was telling me about someone who took all her belongings a while back.  Everyone needs to be heard by someone sometime.  I was Sonya's someone today.

Well I kept driving around and ended up going down a small alley where I met some folks a few weeks back.  I haven't seen those people there since then, but as I started to drive away I noticed a group of men (about a half dozen) sitting in front of a wall in an adjacent parking lot from the alley. I kept driving, but kept feeling like I was supposed to go back to where these men were sitting.  So back I went and drove right up to where they were all sitting.  I asked if anyone was hungry.  That was the only password I needed.  I got out and started handing out burgers which they all loved and then the water.  Some of the men had been drinking a few beers in the heat of the day and I think the water was a welcome relief.  One of the men I had seen there the last time was Shorty (I think that was his name).  He didn't stay too long, probably because he didn't speak Spanish like all the other men there.  Before he left he asked if he could get a T-shirt from the back of the car.  So when I opened up the back and told them they could all have a shirt or whatever they could find there was a big crowd at the back of the car.  All the T-shirts and shoes were taken.  One of the men was Julio. He spoke pretty good English and told me he had been in this country since he was seven years old. He kind of caught me off guard when he asked me if I was Irish!  One of the men who was very talkative (due to the beers) was quite a kidder.  I'm not sure what all he was kidding me about, but it was all in fun and pleasant.  I had been by there on a Monday night a few weeks ago and noticed a Spanish speaking church group had set up some speakers and were preaching there about the time the sun went down.  I asked about them and was told they show up every Monday night.  

So all of these men were Spanish speaking men.  All in all, probably a dozen men were there or came by during the time I was there.  Yet through it all I was at perfect peace and in perfect harmony with them all.  I think there were a couple of others who spoke some English, but really only one, Julio, carried on a lengthy conversation with me in English.  Luckily, I know some Spanish so I wasn't completely unable to talk to them in their language.  Here are a couple of photos...

Julio is the guy in the bottom photo with the USA tank top on.  Juan is the man on the right.  He is a big soccer and Laker fan.  These guys were just to the left of the guys in the top photo.  I tried to put these photos next to each other, but couldn't get it to fit.  Julio was a pretty happy guy, I'm so glad he was there.  When it was time for me to leave I told them I was going to pray for them all.  When I finished praying and opened my eyes, they had all gathered around me with their heads bowed.  It just gets me every time....  the Kingdom landed there in a parking lot in downtown LA.  --Until next time.  John

Downtown 6/14/2015

The Great Commission:

     Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.  When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.  And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'  Amen  

So here was a trip I'll remember for a long, long time.  It started kind of slow.  I hadn't been to East Los Angeles for a while, so I thought I'd drive by Lincoln Park and see what was up.  Most of the homeless that had set up encampments have been moved out.  There were a few birthday parties going on in the park, but not many homeless folks were there, at least not yet.  As I drove back into the downtown area I even noticed a spot where some Cuban men used to live had been cleaned out too.  So I drove on (south) down Alameda and helped one Korean woman named Sonya.  She didn't speak much English, but she knew enough to know I was offering her food.  She also asked for the only blanket I had with me.  

Well, I drove around some more, but didn't see any of the kind of people I usually try to target, so I drove on into what the locals refer to as the 'T-flats' or just the 'flats'.  It's the south side of Washington Blvd and I ended up going by 25th St and San Pedro. I only saw a couple of people there and I wasn't planning on stopping, but as I drove back north the first alley I passed had several people in it and one of them was Becky.  I drove around the block and entered the alley from the other end. The group of people were almost to the San Pedro end.  Anyway, as I pulled up Nicky, who helped me serve the people back in November when I had the dinner on the street corner, recognized me and immediately came over and kissed my hand when I reached out to her.  Then she told everyone there that didn't know me who I was.  It was quite a welcome.  There were about 8 or 9 people there and about an even mix of men and women.  I opened up the back of the car and let them look through everything.  I had nine sandwiches left when I got there, within a couple of minutes they were all gone.  The energy level of the folks skyrocketed, they were so happy.  I stayed for quite a while talking with them. Others would come by asking for clothes, but they were pretty much picked through.  Just about everyone got a pair or two of new socks.  There were three or four older women there that I hadn't met before.  One of them was in tears after I prayed for everyone.  Here's some pictures from the alley:

I opened this blog with the famous commission verse by Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20).  We often romanticize this by thinking in terms of going to exotic places to preach the gospel.  Yet, here I am in an alley off 25th and San Pedro in Los Angeles, California where anywhere from 6-10 people live every night.  As I pulled up one of the women was going to the bathroom about 10 yards away from the rest of the group.  They have no hope of ever getting off the street unless someone intervenes or a family member offers to take them back in.  It's hardly a romantic awe-inspiring location, yet I was received with open arms.  I left here and went around the block to where I served many of these people last November. Hiram and another man were on that sidewalk.  I talked with Hiram for twenty minutes or so.  Nicky had told me to go see him because he was emotionally down.  He used to drive trucks like I did for years so we swapped trucking stories for a while.  He told me he hoped to get into a SRO housing facility in a week or so off 21st and Hoover.  He told me his son lived in Whittier, but I guess relations are strained.  I told Hiram there is one thing he can pray about and that is that God will soften and change peoples hearts.  The thing is that often times the first one that needs changing is our own.  I'll be praying for him tonight. When I was with the other folks in the alley I had finished praying for them, but wanted to leave them with one more thought.  I reminded them that the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. That's when I noticed the one woman in tears.  Wow...I just loved this trip!!!


So when I got home, this is who was cheering for me upon my arrival.....

Yep...our dog Zoey.  Until next time.  John

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

Saturday evening downtown 5-23-15

One of  His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"  --John 6:9

Yeah, I took a Saturday off to visit a family member and came back home via downtown.  I arrived there at around 6:30-7 pm and drove to the Jack in the Box to kind of 'freshen up' after the long drive. I hadn't 'reloaded' the car with clothes from the week before and didn't have any water with me, so this trip (stop would be more accurate) would be somewhat brief.  I ordered a combo meal and read for a while before getting started.  I went into the bathroom to wash up and met Kenny one of my homeless friends. He told me he had a bad day recycling.  It seemed that every place he went to where he usually scores a good amount of recyclables had already been picked through.  So now its the end of the day and he had little to show for it.  I told him so see me when he came out of the bathroom and I'd hook him up.  I had finished my combo meal and told Kenny he could have my soda cup and refill it with whatever he wanted.  I gave him a couple of burgers and he asked if he could look through the clothes in my car.  I told him there weren't a lot of men's clothes this time, but he was welcome to look through anyway.  While he was looking through the car, John Stokes came up.  Now I hadn't see John in a while.  There are a lot, maybe up to a dozen, people living where he lives and it depletes your food and water resources too quickly to stop there now.  In fact, in talking with him about this he told me someone else came by the other day where he lives and that's exactly what happened to them too.  My guess is it won't be long before the police run everyone off there.  I gave John some burgers and about two or three minutes later he came back with a woman about thirty years old who was obviously upset.  John said her boyfriend had just left her and she needed a phone to use so I let her use mine.  While this was happening another man walked up asking to look through the clothes. Apparently, he had gone through the clothes in my car a while back and got a new shirt of some sort that still had a tag on it. The tag said $80.00 and he told me he still had it. Once again I had to warn him that most of the clothes were women's but he didn't seem to mind.  He ended up with an arm load of clothes (and two burgers too).  I gave him a hug and he was on his way. Kenny was still there and was now eating his burgers.  The woman was still on the phone trying to get in touch with her uncle. I waited a while longer and Kenny and I continued to talk. I asked him about some of our mutual friends.  Will (or Willie) who lived across the street from where we had the BBQ back in August was now out of jail.  I'm not sure where he's staying now because the police had run everyone out of Channing St.  The other Willie I know Kenny said he saw him a couple of weeks ago.  I guess he's doing OK.

By now I started giving the woman using my phone signals that I needed to get going.  She finished up her calls after a couple of more minutes and thanked me for the use of the phone.  She said, "You don't know what a life-saver you've been".  I gave her a hug and told her everything would work out. I gave Kenny a hug too before leaving.  I had enough burgers left for two others and drove over to Washington and Long Beach Ave to look for Carlos from Nicaragua.  Didn't see him, so I drove down one of the alleys off Hooper St.  There was a man there from last week with two other men.  Last week he had on a cap that said "Hebrew" across the front of it.  I told him a joke about "Hebrew" (ask me how it goes the next time you see me--it's funny).  This Saturday he didn't have the cap on and I didn't recognize him as being the same guy from last week although he did look familiar. Anyway, he recognized me and commented about the joke from the week before.  Well, with three men there and only four burgers  I handed him the bag and said, "I'll leave it up to you as to how to give these out."  And with that, I left for home.  I was pretty tired by this point, I had been up at 4:30 am and driven over 400 miles.  But as brief as the trip through downtown was, I still brought the Kingdom to over a half a dozen people.  --Until next time.  John  

Downtown 5-17-15

"Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.  Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.  And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for he was going to pass that way.  And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.'  So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they (scribes and Pharisees) all complained, saying, 'He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.'  Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.'  And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.' "         ------Luke 19:1-10

It happened in an alley near 9th and Central.  It was one of those stops where you weren't expecting anything special and then the Kingdom just broke through and twenty minutes later you drove away amazed at what just happened.  In fact, I drove through this alley to get to 9th, not even thinking I was going to run into anyone.  At this point I hadn't even given out any food (except some crackers I gave to a pit bull guard dog I named Rocky).  So as I was driving down this alley looking towards 9th St and a place where I had a very memorable encounter a couple of years ago, I saw a man and a woman sitting on the ground in the shade of a building.  There were a three or four other men nearby on both sides of the alley.  One side was a parking lot and I'm not sure but there may be homeless people living in cars there.  Anyway, after I backed the car up to get even with the man and woman the man called out to me and said, "Where have you been?  I haven't seen you in a long time."  I'm sure I've seen this guy before, but it's been so long I really didn't recognize him.  He said he goes by the name of Red and the woman's name was Debbie.  I had passed some food to Red through the car window when he came up, but I got out when they expressed an interest in going through the clothes in the back of the car.  At this point all the other men who were standing around came over too.

So a very diminutive man came over named Shorty (for obvious reasons) and Gustavo and Amari. Gustavo needed a blanket and he was really happy to get one.  The other men looked through the clothes and I know they took some, but I was concerned because I mostly had women's clothes.  Oh well, no one seemed to complain.  While the others went through the clothes Red and Debbie an I got to know each other.  They were surprised that I live so far away and come down there.  Debbie thought I was a pastor, but I told her that I was just a regular guy.  Red thought I was part of a larger group, but I told him it was just me out here alone.  So Gustavo, Shorty, Debbie and Red and I gathered together and put our arms around each other and I prayed for them.  That's when it happened.  First Debbie prayed and then Shorty (in voice you could barely hear) and then Red prayed.  I have had others pray after me, but I don't think I've ever had that many join in and pray too. Debbie prayed like she had done that before.  Afterwards, she even asked me if the blood of Jesus was the only atonement for our sins.  When I said yes, she seemed relieved.  After that it was a natural progression to be able to speak about Jesus.  I talked a little about the passage quoted above. There are a lot of subtle points about this story of Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus, but one of the more poignant ones is that unlike a lot of churches, Jesus didn't insist on belief before fellowship. Most churches would have you believe what they believe before you can belong, but Jesus on numerous occasions invited people in without their changing anything, knowing that through a relationship with him and the truth of his teaching would ultimately change them.  The most obvious example being the twelve disciples who started out not having a clue as to who Jesus was.  In fact, only after his resurrection did they really understand who Jesus was.  So here I am in a small group of homeless folks where the Kingdom has broken through and they are seeing what a Christian really is in action and they want to keep the moment going by talking to me.  They were actually vying for my attention and kept trying to interrupt each other to tell me something.  It was very humbling.  Debbie asked me if I'd pray for her again, but before I did she wanted to sing me a song about the Jordan River!  The last thing she said to me as I drove away was, "Thank you so much for coming by." What a day!  I'm looking forward to next time. --John      

Downtown 5/3/15

"...we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always  seek to do good to one another and to all.  Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise the words of the prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22


I had to move this week's trip up a couple of hours and it had an impact early on in that I had a little trouble finding folks.  After the last two trips I wanted to avoid big groups of people and just concentrate on loners.  The plan worked out OK, although early on it was a little difficult.  I finally met a couple of men on 18th St who were each by themselves.  The first man, Sergio, was a lot more receptive than the second man, Frank.  In fact, I kind of doubt that was the name of the second guy. He, Frank, seemed to be either wary of me or just didn't want to be bothered, although he didn't mind taking the food.  Sometimes you don't always get the happy positive reaction you might have expected...

Here is what I saw when I drove up to Frank (Sergio was back down the street the other way). You'd have thought Frank would have been a little more receptive.

I met a couple of other men in different alleys for the first time. One man's name was Guillermo and he spoke only Spanish...and a lot of it.  I have no idea what he was trying to tell me, but it went on and on and he kept pointing to the sky.  He didn't seem to be in a panic, so I guess he was OK.  The other guy Nassau was in one of the BBQ alleys and wasn't too talkative at all.  This alley was close to one of the other BBQ alleys and in that one someone started a fire that the fire department had to respond to with all the accompanying emergency vehicles.  A lot of trash builds up in these alleys so there is a lot of debris that can catch on fire.  The last time I was in that alley I was told that one of the people I helped had a tendency to start fires.  This was a pretty big one, because you could see black smoke from several blocks away.

I was starting to become a little disappointed since I hadn't had a good encounter with anyone yet.  I helped another man in another alley and even had a guy in one alley not get out of his 'shelter' but told me to leave the food on the blanket outside.  I declined his request and drove on.  I started praying again.

I drove over to the Jack in the Box, not to take a break, but sometimes there are homeless folks walking around there (and sometimes not).  This time, as I drove in the parking lot, I immediately saw two shopping carts and a homeless man standing a couple of feet away from one of them.  His name turned out to be Thomas Davis.  He was 62 years old from New Orleans.  As I drove passed him with my window down he said he was "hoping to get something to eat".  I guess no one had offered him any help.  Well, I parked and got out of the car so he could go through the clothes in the back too.  He told me he had come out here forty years ago seeking fortune and fame in the music industry, but nothing materialized and he never went back home. His mother lived in Galveston, Texas.  I reminded him of the old Glen Campbell song by that name and he remembered it well and said it always reminded him of his Mom, whom he never saw again after he left home.  Here's his picture.

Thomas was really happy I stopped.  He got some food and water, a change of clothes, even some shoes and socks and probably what really helped his morale was some conversation with someone. Yes I prayed with him too.  It was the best stop of the day.

Well, I said earlier that I didn't want to stop where there were a lot of people, yet I headed over to where I know there is a large congregation of homeless folks, but was just driving by when I saw two people on a street adjacent to where that location is.  I drove around and stopped where the two people were.  They turned out to be Beverly and Miguel.  Now Beverly was at the BBQ last summer. Miguel was a friend of hers who at one time worked at either the gas station or a recycling center around the corner.  I'm not sure why he was there Sunday.  I had three burgers left that I gave to them. Miguel might be a new homeless person because Beverly was warning him about the white T-shirts I had (they show dirt quickly).  Here's their picture..

    
While I was praying with them, another man walked up and wanted to look through the clothes (luckily that was all he wanted because I was out of food).  Anyway, I opened up the back of the car again and he picked out a few things, then said he had something for me.  He said they were brand new and urged me to look inside the bag that he had left in my car.  I looked and had to smile.  He said he couldn't pass up a new pair of boots, but obviously couldn't wear them.  I think he thought he might be able to trade them for something.  I always try to be gracious when someone homeless wants to give me something.  Now what do you think I'm going to do with these?????

I don't think these "boots were made for walkin'"

Until next time. --John