I don't know if any of you have ever taken one of your Saturday mornings and feed those who haven't eaten in days. When you hear about the closing of some churches and non profits, I believe most people don't let it bother them. But for me it hurts my soul. I have no problem telling the world that I use to work for a non profit company ; Planned Parenthood to be exact! Now you may look down at me for working there but I take it as a learning experience. Luckily, I didn't work at the abortion site but we did receive the nasty phone calls and letters. Being there at that non profit organization have taught me so much. You don't know how much stress happens behind closed doors because the company is trying to stay a float.
This same stress can be applied towards these churches and organizations who help those who can't afford or do for themselves. This particular church I volunteered at was located in uptown DC, right in the heart of what you consider the upper class community. The community was surrounded with embassies, mowed lawn, healthy dogs running free and nice cars parked in 2 car drive way. It was a little bit of a shock to see once you walk into the churches dining room area to see the sadness on those peoples faces. They were so humble, so helpless, so hungry.
My job in the kitchen was to separate and plate the bread. As I fellow shipped with other men and women in the kitchen, I was humbling myself yet again. God always seem to put me in these situations where he needs to remind me of how blessed I actually am. Once we plated the food, it was time to serve the people. I held the tray while one of the other volunteers passed out the plates. You should have seen how some of the most humbled homeless people can become a vicious animal in a matter of seconds. They lose all sense of logical thinking, sense of control and respect. Hunger is the only thing that is leading their conscience.
We didn't even have enough to feed them all a second time around. I felt bad to see the look on their faces. I wanted to sincerely go out to purchase them all something to eat, drink and wear. Some of these people smelled so harsh, that it took my stomach back to an unwanted feeling of nausea. That's one thing that I don't understand, how can you smell like urine and not musk only? Do you simply urinate on yourself and then lay in it? That still bothers me. Once the lunch was over, one of the volunteers managed to make over 200 goodie bags for them. She requested from her friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and even strangers for donations to give to the homeless. This noble act was duly noted as the homeless humbly accepted the bags. Some was just grateful for what they received, some was being greedy and others wanted some other bag.
No matter what the reaction was, they loved they idea that they got some food and other goodies to take along the way. While standing there, passing out these goodie bags, you can clearly see the reaction on their faces. It hurts and humbles you all in the same breathe. I kept thinking what would I do if I was in their position? How did they get there? Why didn't their family help them? Simply why are you homeless? It pierced my soul with meekness.
I've been volunteering ever since high school. I've done numerous amount of activies such as mentor, teachers assistant, youth mentor, habitat for humanity, donations for families, suicide hot line counselor and the list goes on. But its always most important when you can actually reach out and physically touch that person. Everyone has a purpose to help one another. Pay it forward but many choose not to. But on Saturday I had to give to those that had little or nothing compared to me.
While driving home, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough money for my upcoming bills because I just brought a brand new car. But then I had to stop that line of thinking because I'm rich. Yes I'm actually very rich. Even on my worst day, I still have more than others. I have a clean bill of health, a job, a new car, a dog, a house, bank accounts, clothes and shoes. Just those little bit of blessings go a mighty long way. I can compare myself to celebrities but then I wouldn't be who I am today; HUMBLE.
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