Serendipitous Meeting

So, back in November, one week before Thanksgiving, my small group had a Thanksgiving dinner, which was both fun and quite tasty. In order to avoid having to make turkey, we purchased four rotisserie chickens. We ate roughly two of them. Also, roughly six pounds of mashed potatoes turned out to be too much.

All that to say we had a good amount of leftovers, almost none of which we could convince our group to take home with them. So what does one do with several pounds of leftovers one week before Thanksgiving when one's fridge is roughly the size of a shoebox?

That's right; it's time to pay a visit to the homeless folks that sleep outdoors about a few blocks away on the other side of the freeway. My wife and I also had several very plush blankets laying around that we had got for cheap at Big Lots. I threw the leftovers in an old bookbag I'd got at the thrift store for 2ish dollars. Then I stuffed as many blankets in as I could, which was two, I think.

I biked over to the freeway exit where the homeless folks usually stand (the same one where this guy got discovered). Sadly, no one was there. Fortunately, I had been told previously where they usually camp. I biked over, and again, found no one. But I did find some milk crates and cardboard to show where they camped. After some significant waffling about whether to just leave the bookbag unaccompanied, I eventually decided that whoever picked it up would probably need it, even if it wasn't the people I intended.

I'd had no contact with any of them until yesterday. As I was headed home, I saw one of the homeless ladies out by the freeway exit. I must confess that at first I was not too excited about the prospect of going home and biking something out to her, as I felt I should. Thankfully, I realized that I had in my car a bag with a granola bar, crackers and some other snacks. I pulled it out and waved her over.

When she got to my car, I handed her the bag.

Her: Oh, you're the one with the care packages! Thank you so much.

Me: You're very welcome. About a month ago I dropped off some blankets over on the other side of the freeway. Did you get them?

Her: Two fuzzy ones? Brown and green? Yes. Thank you.

Me: I'm glad you got them, because I couldn't find anyone when I was coming to drop them off.

Her: Yes I have them. Everyone else is too tall for them but they're just right for me.

Thank you, Lord.

Mike, etc.

I know it's been forever since my last post. That's partially because I haven't had many opportunities to stop for people since I moved to the campus area and am not driving half an hour every day. But I have had a few.

Over the summer sometime, I had the opportunity to drive a man home. Even though we had dinner plans with my family, and I wasn't sure whether I'd be on time, my wife agreed for me to go. I am so blessed to have a wife who supports my helping people even when she's not thrilled about it (though as it turned out, I ended up being on time to dinner because he lived not far from the restaurant).

The morning of the Sunday before last, I prayed that God would give me opportunities to bless people. I went and ran some errands, and when I was almost home, I saw a woman asking for help. I didn't happen to have a bag of food in my car (sometimes I do, for just such occasions), so I hurried home and packed some food and biked it out to her, and she was still there (at other times when I've done this, they were gone by the time I got back). She was extremely appreciative.

Then, that night, my wife and I saw someone else standing on the same corner with a sign. It was pretty cold out. Even though my wife was starving (she gets a little impatient when she's hungry), she took the time to help me warm up a slice of left-over lasagna and pack some other food for him. I grabbed a pair of knit gloves and some hand warmers, and biked everything out to him. His name is Mike. Both of those on the same day! So that was a really cool answer to prayer.

Then the exact same thing happened this sunday (including the lasagna and hand warmers). When I got out there, he thanked me for the veggie lasagna I gave him the week before! I told him he now had himself another portion. He said he had accidently left the gloves I gave him behind at the garage where he is staying, and I told him that it was ok, because there was another pair in the bag.

All that to say, I feel tremendously blessed. Especially by having a wife who is so supportive even when it costs her.