Giving Back and Learning from the Past

So Golden is kicking Lent’s butt and doing all kinds of awesome for other people. I’m crazy proud of her. She’s always been a super awesome person that does very thoughtful amazing things for other people. Like when we went to DragonCon she not only did her “Geek Drops” which were themed back of geeky fun for random people to find she also made a personalized bag for the people in our crew. Each bag had something that would make the DragonCon experience more fun. She loved watching us go through our bags and be all excited about this or that and truly had as much fun watching us as we did going through the bags. That’s the kind of person she is. She’d literally give you the shirt off her back, unless it’s her Goonies Never Die shirt cause well that’s just you being selfish trying to take her stuff at that point.
 

While I’m not actively participating in Lent on in 40 Acts I did spend my day helping out at the church for what we call Safe Haven. Basically several churches in our area take a Saturday and host a group of homeless ladies who can’t stay at the facility they sleep in during the day. For most of the week these ladies have jobs or other activities during the day but during the weekend many of them had no where to go and would end up just “hanging out” downtown. During this downtime some of them would get into trouble or encounter other problems. These ladies literally travel with everything they own so safety was definitely a problem for them as they wandered around downtown. So several churches in the area were contacted so that if each church took a Saturday once every 3 or 4 months then these ladies would have somewhere safe to go. Today was our day.

Many of these ladies just want a safe place to sleep, others want someone to talk to, and the rest are happy just to not be outside, especially when it’s cold or on the other side of that table crazy hot as summers in the South can sometimes be. They arrive around 7:30, and then have breakfast, a devotional, then we play bingo (where they win prizes (jewelry mostly)), visit the boutique (a room where they visit and pick clothing of their choice donated or bought by the congregation), then we have quiet time until lunch. This is usually my favorite time cause we get to sit around and really talk to the ladies and learn about them, their situation, and it always amazes me that they are really the happiest, smartest, and aware ladies you’ll ever meet.

After lunch they have a bible study led by one of the leaders of our church, sometimes our pastor, other times a Sunday school teacher. Then usually they join our choir director for some music, which seems to be their favorite part (except for the Bingo), then they watch a movie or two for the afternoon. Often times they will read instead of watching the movie, especially if it’s a movie they aren’t interested in.

They usually leave around 4:30 or 5 depending on when the bus comes and picks them up. These ladies give everyone a hug, and thank us for our time. It’s fascinating to me how upbeat and happy they are and how positive they are about life. Yes there are a couple that definitely don’t fit that description but the majority of them definitely do. It also fascinates me to realize that a lot of them are not much older than me, which also kind of freaks me out.

I’m glad the churches in our area do this and I’m even more grateful that I was asked to participate. It really makes you think that yeah it sucks that you don’t get to go to lunch some days, but at least you get a good dinner that night. It really puts your little problems in perspective but none of these ladies want your pitty they really want you to learn from their experiences. Lord knows I have been a good student.

Marcy