A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go down to Monument and spend the weekend with my Squad Coaches again, and while I was there (and one of the reasons I went down to see them) I got to go with them and their church to downtown Colorado Springs and do a homeless outreach. We were split up into 4 teams, and each team was given money and then told to go ask the homeless what they wanted for Christmas. The following are three stories from that day that impacted me.
A Can Opener – As we were winding down our morning and getting ready to go purchase the items that each person had requested, we got a text from the leader of the outreach saying that he still had the reserve money (incase someone wanted something that was outside the budget we had for each person) because no one had requested to use it. So we promptly said we would find some more people that we could bless, so as we were driving around we spotted these two men walking along and knew that those were the men we were supposed to bless with this extra money. When we asked these men what they wanted, the first guy said he could use a can opener (that was literally the only thing he wanted) but we prodded some more and found out that he could really use a sleeping bag – when he told us this he said “that’s probably outside of your budget, so it’s ok if you can’t get it” but we told him “done! We will get you a sleeping bag and can opener!” It was what he said as we were telling him where to meet us later to get a hot meal and his gift that caught us off guard… he said “We will be there, even if the gifts aren’t there we will be” to which we promptly told him that the gifts would be there – it broke my heart a little to hear him say that because it made me think of how many times before had he been told he would receive something, only to have it not come true?? The best part was when these two guys showed up later and I got to give them the gifts they had asked for, and they had the biggest smiles on their faces as they got to open the gifts they didn’t expect to be there.
A Lighter – We knew going into this that there would be some homeless who we wouldn’t be to bless with the gifts they wanted for Christmas, so in order to be able to bless them in a small way, we made care packages filled with essentials. There was one man who upon receiving his care package was so happy to have gotten a lighter in it. He was telling us as he received the package that just the other day his lighter had broken and wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to replace it. He then told us that the lighter was the best gift he could’ve gotten that day, and then told us that he firmly believed God had sent us that day to bless him with the one thing he needed more than anything.
A Thankful Heart – There was a woman who as we were handing out the last of the gifts came up to me to thank me for being there and being a bright spot in her and her dad’s life. She told me that it meant the world to her to have us there and that she was beyond thankful to us for blessing everyone with gifts. As I was talking to her I could see in her eyes that she was so thankful to have been seen and heard that day, for probably the first time in a VERY long time.
Fundraising Update
I am currently at $11k funded and have $6,400 until I am Fully Funded!
My next deadline is $13k, so I am asking 39 more people to donate $50 (that is how much a day on The World Race costs) and adopt a day, if I can get 39 people to each adopt a day (or more than one day if you want) I will hit the $13k deadline!
