The Actual Starving Artist
There is no possible blog to do this month of ministry justice. Nothing I say, will explain it properly, no pictures I take can fully display it, no story I tell can make you feel what this month was like. However, I will attempt just a snip that might help you see a glimpse into my favorite time of the entire race.
First off you should probably know my ministry this month is a Christian Charity that supplies food to over 20 soup kitchens in the Area of Port Elizabeth (PE) and helps serve roughly 50,000 Meals every month through donations and monthly pop up markets. It is ran by the best of people who know how to work hard AND value resting hard as well. They get stuff done, and they get it done well. Everything they do is based on Luke 10:37 to go and love and help everyone with more than words, but also actions.
Tonight (3/15) we ran our second market event of the month. During clean up I was taking some trash outside and saw a guy from city feed (Where we serve a hot meal every night of the week) walking and drawing at the same time. I turned around and began having a great conversation with him about his art and his life.
His name is Ali and he is so so so talented. When I asked for his name he said, “people put me on Facebook as Ali the homeless man who doesn’t do crime, but does art.” (Of course I probably butchered his actual quote, but let me know if you find him.) I had seen him drawing before but never had the time to talk till this night. After talking about his skills and about Jesus (who he knows and loves already) I asked about how he got here. He was a victim of circumstances.
Ali grew up in Pretoria (17hr bus ride from PE). When he was younger his parents put him in a boarding school and on one of the drives to see him they were in a fatal car accident that left him as an orphan. And he ended up on the streets. However he continually finds hope in Jesus and thanks God for his artistic ability. He knows he was blessed with the gift and mind to draw. He is saving for a really nice sketch pad right now so he can draw portraits on the boardwalk again and sell them. He said his stuff keeps getting stolen or ruined so it’s pretty difficult to really keep things going. Due to the constant theft of his stuff, he showed me that he writes about and to Jesus on the front of his pads so that people can read the Gospel if they take anything. We laughed at his sneaky and brilliant evangelism tool.
If I had met him sooner I would have done more. It breaks my heart that someone so talented could be struggling so much. I can see how God is using such an awesome gift though. Someone recently told him they wanted to help put his stuff in an exhibit, but the problem is keeping his stuff safe. So be praying for some kind of awesome discovery or sweet break that allows him to better display his gifts and touch lives with his story and hope that he has in Jesus even through homelessness.
You never really know a story till you ask it, so I challenge you to grab a friend and sit and actually talk with a homeless person. Maybe they are crazy or on drugs or whatever, but maybe life just didn’t turn out. And why not fill a current need as well. Please let me know if you actually do this or consider it.
