Christmas Eve

Every year it seems Jared and I talk about helping the homeless in some way, but for some reason it has never come together.  I was determined this year to do something to bring my children face to face with those who struggle with the blessings we take for granted. Charlottesville is not a big enough city to have the kind of homelessness that larger more metropolitan areas do, like Minneapolis for example.  It was there I learned where to reach the people who were struggling and asking for help in the shelters, the food banks or simply on the streets.  I have given in all those settings to those in need, but Charlottesville has proved to be a little trickier.  I know the streets where individuals tend to stop passerby's asking for food, money, any kind of help.  I have seen mostly men, some young enough to make me wonder why they have given up at such a young age assuming that their youth should be enough to keep them off  the streets. But I remind myself of what I truly believe, that is it's not my place to judge why they are there, my job to to simply give, no questions or strings attached. I have also seen a young woman missing both of her legs standing in shorts revealing two prosthetics and another woman who in addition to thanking me for the money I gave her, engaged me in a conversation about where she lived.  She had a tent down the road where she slept with two blankets underneath her body and three to cover her and keep the cold out.  It poured rain the night before and she woke up cold and sopping wet.  She only had a few teeth but talked rapidly as she described her living situation and like most people signed off with "God bless you". I can't really forget these faces or these conversations so I considered packing a meal with money and driving around until we found enough of them again, but in the back of my mind I was wanting the boys to have a little more face time with those in need that the 30 seconds at the  red light would allow.  I searched until I found a shelter that served daily meals to the homeless and signed our family up for Christmas Eve lunch.  The shelter was 50 minutes from our house, and was providing shelter for 12 children, about 25 women, and 38 men.  They also provide these meals to anyone in the community who is hungry, not just those staying in the shelter. Before our scheduled time to serve, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up everything from diapers, and laundry detergent to fresh fruit and vegetables to a few games the boys wanted to buy. When we showed up we found that another family had donated Dominos Pizzas and cakes, so we got busy with learning the how-to's from the two women who were assigned the be servers that week.  We learned that the residents are assigned a new job every two weeks as part of the contract to stay in the shelter. The boys kept asking me who was homeless among these kitchen workers and when I told them they all were, I could see the surprise in their eyes and watched the wheels turning in their head. Outside of the missing or decaying teeth, the boys saw in these faces nothing that would indicate that these people didn't have a home. Once the doors opened the dining hall filled with roughly 50 people, including men, women, young children and one teenager who happened to be the same age as Caleb. While I was helping a little girl blow up her balloon for Jesus' birthday a woman gave me a little pssssst letting me know there was a prayer being offered. Oops! With amen, the serving began.  C., L. and G. did a great job smiling and making eye contact and wishing each person they served a merry Christmas, while Jared and Jonah delivered waters with equal interest. This was something we had talked with them about on the way over, reminding that sometimes the best gift you can give to someone is your attention. In the end as we were helping to clean up and bringing the bags of food and supplies in we received a handful of hugs, words of gratitude and as expected a "God bless you". I think we all felt that this was the perfect way to start off the eve of our Saviors birth.

This photo is from Mission Home's website of the dining hall.