San Diego: Day Four

In our morning meeting we discussed Matthew 25 and James 2. My team went to the warehouse up the street and cleaned and organized. I didn't end up doing too much because the jobs that needed done were taken by other people. We were there for a while, though. We left for lunch and then came back to finish up. 

After we finished at the warehouse, we packed up food and went to Sara Frances, an apartment complex (I think) nearby, to do another food line. This time we were in the lobby of the building. There were mostly older people in line. There were so many characters! 

The first lady was in a wheelchair, and we later found out that her spine was metal. I don't recall what her story was exactly, because I never talked to her, but I believe she's been paralyzed for a while. Her name was Ruth. 

One man that came through the line stopped at the girl next to me, exclaimed that she was beautiful, and stared at her, open mouthed, for a good thirty seconds. He did stop for a second to tell me I was decent looking, but apparently I was nothing compared with her! It was quite entertaining :)

Another man that came through the line was short, had long-ish silvery hair, pink heart shaped sunglasses, gnarled feet stuffed into sandals, a tie-dye shirt, and a disco ball necklace. He wandered around the lobby performing hymns for anyone that would pay attention. The rumor was that if you looked at him, he'd start flirting with you. To be honest, this made me a little nervous (I was remembering the creepy guys from day three). He came by the line later and thanked me for helping out, and asked me to thank the rest of the team. Maybe he was the flirting type, but I was ashamed of withholding my love from him to avoid a potentially uncomfortable situation. 

As people continued to go through the line, a friend came up and was talking to me. He had a boot on his foot and he was complaining about it. I told him (essentially) that there were other people around that were hurting worse than him, so he should go talk to them and hear their stories rather than accomplish nothing by complaining about his foot. (Note: That's the idea of what I said to him - I made my point a lot more nicely, though). I realized, though, that I was just standing there in the food line - I wasn't actually getting anything done. I should be out there talking to people! 

So I left the food line and went to talk to a lady in the corner. I was walking toward a lady with huge red glasses, who was sitting in a wheelchair. However, I got distracted by the lady behind her. She was wearing all purple and her name was Sheryl. I sat and talked with her for a little bit. She told me she didn't live at Sara Frances, but across the street. She came by so she could see everyone, and maybe take some food if there was any leftover. Mostly she just wanted to visit, though. She said she'd been friends with David (leader person of City of Refuge) for years. I asked her to tell me some about her life - I wanted to hear her stories! But she pointed me toward Sweet Pea, the lady with the red glasses. 

I had heard about her from the C.o.R. team - Sweet Pea wanted hugs from everyone. She even counted how many people came in our group so she could keep count and make sure she didn't miss anyone. Periodically, she would interrupt her story telling to count everyone in the group and make sure no one left without giving her a hug. It was so precious! 

I sat with her for a while and she told me that she likes Jeopardy and House, and another show that I didn't recognize. She told me that she broke a tooth when she was ten because she kept telling her twin brother to push her higher and higher on the swings and then she fell off. She told me how her twin brother died - he drowned, and so did the man who went in after him. 

We left before I could hear enough of Sweet Pea's stories. When we got back, we just hung out until dinner. 

After dinner we went to the warehouse for worship. Malorie sang, and told us that it didn't matter if you knew the words to the songs or not - you didn't have to to worship. 

 Afterward, we went back to the City of Refuge and hung out, and I was able to talk with one of the students for nearly an hour. It was really great to talk about different things about City of Refuge, service, and college. (And I'd like to talk more!) 

San Diego: Day Three, part 2

Later I joined team three and we went to a warehouse to load up food for a food line. We went to a sidewalk near a school and quickly set up tables with boxes of groceries and produce. A lot of the produce was in bad condition, at least according to what I'm used to. I had never realized how picky I am about food (like how I want to pick the yellowest banana, or the apple with no brown spots) until I saw these people taking bunches of bananas that I would probably have thrown away.

We stood behind the tables, monitoring how much of each item people took.There were so many people there, most of them Asian. There were a lot of little kids with their parents, too. I got a high five from one of them :) I wondered what they would think as they grew up and realized their poverty. Would people judge them for it? Would they assume they were being judged for it? Would they resent their family for it? Would they work harder because of it? Would they learn to be content and trust God?
As we were watching all of the people go by, I started humming a song: Phil Wickham's Beautiful. I didn't really know the words, so I just kept repeating one line: "I see your face, you're beautiful". I also thought of Matthew 25, where Jesus talks about serving "the least of these". Every one of the people that came by for food was "the least of these". It was His face, and they were beautiful.

We had to set limits on things so everyone would get some. Some of the people tried to take more than we said, because they were so scared of not having enough. They would horde food just so they wouldn't run out. Towards the end, when everyone was packing up, I was giving out the rest of the bananas to people who had come back for seconds. I told one lady that came for seconds how many bananas she could have, then turned around to see people were doing to clean up, so I could help them. When I turned toward the lady again, she had a mountain of bananas in her arms. She would never eat that many bananas, but she was so desperate to have enough that she took more than she needed.

I do this, too. Not with bananas, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I don't like bananas than anything else. But I do horde things. I take extra and plan for things - just in case. Just in case what? In case God fails? My family is not rich. We count how much money we spend when we go grocery shopping. We limit some things and sometimes we have to go without.
But I have never been without something I need.

One of the things this trip has inspired me to do is get rid of some of the excess in my life. One of the first things I did Sunday night when we got back was clean out my clothes. They are still sitting in a pile in my floor, but I'm going to give them to the thrift store when I can. I'm trying to get rid of some distractions so I can focus on God and allow him to work, rather than always trying to provide for myself.

I hope I have the courage to let go.

- Scout

San Diego: Day Three

This was the first morning that we had a morning meeting. We went to the living room and met with most of the people that work with City of Refuge. They each came in and sat by a team member and prayed for us. Then we all introduced ourselves - my team and the City of Refuge team. Several of them have lived on the streets before, but now live and serve with CoR. When we finished with introductions and a small Bible study, we went outside to divide into smaller teams. This was so we could divvy up the work easier, and to help with the food prep/clean up schedule. I was put on team three, but I was pulled off to work with someone else for the morning.

This part will take a bit of explaining. City of Refuge lives on donations. They have a clothing garage (that also has miscellaneous other items, like some toys and bedding) and a food storage room, and they take what is donated and give it out to people. In the front of their main house, they fill large bins with clothes, then they sort them by category: men's clothes, women's clothes, toiletries, diapers, toys, etc. If someone needs something, they knock on the front door and tell you what they want, and you hand them the appropriate bin(s). When those bins start to empty, they get refilled from whatever is in the storage room.
When someone comes by and wants food, they ask someone who is available, and wait at a picnic table in the middle of the community. Then they are given a sandwich, a drink or two, chips, and a sweet snack, like cookies.

I ended up working with Beth, from my team, and Jenny, from City of Refuge. We sorted out donated clothes and gave out clothes to a lady that came by the community. I also gave some sandwiches to some men that came by. This was actually one of my favorite things to do all week - I met some really cool people and enjoyed the conversations we had. The first two guys I gave food to, however, made me feel a bit uneasy. However, after they left, another man came by. I was kind of leery about giving out more sandwiches, after the first two guys, but I did it anyway - I was there to serve, regardless of who it was. Anyway, I gave them an his food and asked his name. He said it was Michael. I sat and talked with him for a little while. I don't remember much of what he said, but I do know he came back the next two days, and the last time I saw him I had walked out by the picnic table just in time to hear him ask where I was :)

My unofficial team got done sorting and organizing and had some free time before lunch. We went inside the main house and hung out while we waited. Lunch time came, and so did a huge crowd. We all gathered in a big circle in the dining room/living room area and held hands. Then we shared a few announcements and prayed together and lined up for food. One thing I really appreciated was that at every meal, the men allowed the women to go first. I mean, I really love to eat, so it was awesome to not have to wait, but it was very kind of them to go last every time so they could love us in little ways. Anyway. I don't remember all of the meals, but I do know every one of them was amazing.

Saying grace. One of my favorite parts of the day. Photo by Sarah Becker.

- Scout