The Blind Beggar

As many of you know, every third Saturday we go down and minister to the homeless. Other Saturdays are taken care of by other teams. We were down today and what a blessing it is and, alternatively, what a painful time. Painful because you can’t help more.

It has been cool and very wet for weeks now and over half of these people have no shelter at night. They are cold and wet and have no place to go. We provide them with a hot meal, socks, companionship, small talk, a listen ear, and often other useful items. Last month I was asking a number of them what kind of things they needed and tarps came up. So I was able to get 10 high quality plastic tarps and take them along today. I wasn’t a dozen feet out of my car when I gave away the last one. They were desperate for some type of shelter from the rain.

I took a couple of pictures today, because they often tell a better story. But I’ll admit that I don’t like doing so because I feel like I’m somehow exploiting their pain and need.

Right after I took these it started raining again, but not too badly.

We can have from 35 to 100 people on any given Saturday. They really are a wonderful group of people.

One of my dreams is to have a day time drop in center for the homeless. This would give them a place to go during the day to stay dry and warm and be safe. Right now it is just that, a dream and it would take a miracle to ever pull it off.

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