Last night we had our homeless experience. I have to say it was pretty awesome!
First, we set up our boxes, aka "Hooverville", for the night and prepped a fire. We were going to make things as hard as possible for the youth, but a congregation member gave them a lighter to start a fire. Lucky ducks...
Then we all shared stories, mostly told by the adults, of people we had come across personally or heard through others and the hardships they've had to face.
Our congregation is awesome! We were only surviving on whatever was donated to us. We were given hobo beans, cornbread, bananas, applesauce, soda, marshmallows, homemade buns, more homemade buns and meatloaf. We were also donated plastic wear, cups and plates. The adults decided what we would eat (hobo buns, cornbread, banana, homemade buns and meatloaf) and what we would donate to the local homeless shelter (everything else). Since we were donating our plastic wear, cups and plates, we would need to barter with a local resident to get utensils to eat dinner. We decided the marshmallows would be our item of most value and we set out to find someone to trade with.
Here is a picture of the youth bartering their marshmallows for plastic wear and plates.
Our view for the night. Life is rough...
We allowed the youth to bring the clothes on their back, a coat, and a blanket OR sleeping bag. No cellphones, iPods, electronics, pillows, etc. Everyone had only a box for shelter. We did have a fire for warmth. We were outside for about 20 hours. No technology, no connection to the outside world. Just each other. And it was great!
We were also donated hot water and hot chocolate mix. We didn't have any way to keep it hot, but minor details. Our minister for the day slept out with us and used that in her children's sermon. The hot water was a good thing. It was a gift that we really needed. It warmed us up after we had been outside for about 6 hours. It was a good thing. But sometimes good things can become bad things. All of the little individual good things in our lives can turn into one big crazy distraction. A mess of signals and emotions distracting us from God. There was another minister in town for the weekend who stopped over to see us last night. He told us his subject to preach on this weekend: worship. His topic for the sermon was how humans were created for worship. The devil isn't trying to get us to not worship - he just wants us to not worship God. This pastor said: "if you don't think you have adultery in your life, then turn off ESPN." [context: he said this to a congregation in western Pennsylvania, aka the Steeler Nation; not to mention college football, namely PSU and PITT.] Football is kindof a big deal here. Where Church attendance, and attire, is a reflection of the football schedule. A good, harmless thing that can end up dragging us down spiritually.
Since I've been getting rid of things for the past year, this is something that is comfortable to me. An area where I know I can push myself out of my comfort zone, without losing too much comfort in the end. Last night as I was laying in my box. With only the most basic needs of shelter met, I was thinking about the stuff that is still in my room. The "could, should, would"s. My friend referenced the 90 day rule to me and it just has stuck in the back of my mind. I've gotten rid of lots of things. So I should be more available to focus on what's left, right? I have a lot of books, for one, that I haven't read still sitting on my bookshelf because it's a book, classic or otherwise, that I "should" read. I have a few miscellaneous items that I "could" use. But is "would" ever going to become "will" or "do"? And even if it's a classic, even if it's a Christian book, if it's ultimately distracting me from the Bible, how good is it really?
Thankfully, tomorrow is yet another day off. It will be another relaxed day. Some more cleaning. Attacking the bookshelf. And hopefully lots of quiet time to reflect. Our Bible discussed a reading plan tonight, so I hope to start that tomorrow as well. I'm pretty sure there was at least one other thing I wanted to discuss, but inhaling all of the smoke from the fire last night must have effected me because I cannot remember what it was at all... Either way my little man, of the feline persuasion, is still miffed at me for not coming home last night. Apparently I have to go to bed, so he can relax and go to bed. Silly (yet adoringly devoted) animals!
No comments:
Post a Comment