Nice reminder
Mar. 15th, 2006 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neebsYesterday I had a nice reminder of why I do what I do. Sometimes I think I get so caught up in the planning and behind the scenes part that I forget who it is I am serving and why I am so passionate about doing this.
I had a service project flake out on me on Monday (for Tuesday) so I had to come up with something. We do this thing called "Bread for the Journey" where we used bag lunches as ice breakers to talk to homeless people. Basically, the lunches allow us to approach people with a purpose and even if the person is not interested in talking, we are still helping them out. The group leader was really uncomfortable with the idea of her leading the group to do this, so I offered to go out with them. Initially, I was happy because I would be out of my office for a couple hours in the afternoon and out in the sunshine. I mean, what's not to like about that, right?
As we were in the park distributing the lunches, though, it became so much more than just "getting out of my office." We talked to a man who said that we were the first people to make eye contact with him all day. I tried to give a lunch to one man who said "Nah, I'm ok, but you should take it over to that guy under the tree--he needs it worse." Another girl gave a lunch to a man waiting for a bus who said he was going to take it home to his daughter, if that was ok. The students were all really surprised at how kind and compassionate and caring these men on the street were, which made me SO HAPPY, since that's really the message we want people to take home from here. That everyone on the street is just the same as you and I and still has value and worth as a human being.
The most moving part of the afternoon, though, was when we were out of lunches and we came accross two more men, Eddie and Robbie. Even though we didn't have a lunch to give them, Eddie and Robbie asked if we would join hands and pray with them, because they felt we were "truly a blessing from God." I never in a million years would have thought that you would find me in the middle of Layfayette Square in downtown Washington, DC, holding hands with a homeless man and reciting the Lord's Prayer. But it just felt right in the moment. And to have someone praying for me, in the situation that Eddie and Robbie are in, was just incredibly moving.
I had a service project flake out on me on Monday (for Tuesday) so I had to come up with something. We do this thing called "Bread for the Journey" where we used bag lunches as ice breakers to talk to homeless people. Basically, the lunches allow us to approach people with a purpose and even if the person is not interested in talking, we are still helping them out. The group leader was really uncomfortable with the idea of her leading the group to do this, so I offered to go out with them. Initially, I was happy because I would be out of my office for a couple hours in the afternoon and out in the sunshine. I mean, what's not to like about that, right?
As we were in the park distributing the lunches, though, it became so much more than just "getting out of my office." We talked to a man who said that we were the first people to make eye contact with him all day. I tried to give a lunch to one man who said "Nah, I'm ok, but you should take it over to that guy under the tree--he needs it worse." Another girl gave a lunch to a man waiting for a bus who said he was going to take it home to his daughter, if that was ok. The students were all really surprised at how kind and compassionate and caring these men on the street were, which made me SO HAPPY, since that's really the message we want people to take home from here. That everyone on the street is just the same as you and I and still has value and worth as a human being.
The most moving part of the afternoon, though, was when we were out of lunches and we came accross two more men, Eddie and Robbie. Even though we didn't have a lunch to give them, Eddie and Robbie asked if we would join hands and pray with them, because they felt we were "truly a blessing from God." I never in a million years would have thought that you would find me in the middle of Layfayette Square in downtown Washington, DC, holding hands with a homeless man and reciting the Lord's Prayer. But it just felt right in the moment. And to have someone praying for me, in the situation that Eddie and Robbie are in, was just incredibly moving.
