Feeding The Homeless
Blog post written by Roberta Keenan
Village Church of Irvine, CA
First trip to El Salvador
After a full day and a tasty dinner for 20 prepared by our hosts at the Mission House John and Judy, our team started the process of preparing meals for the homeless. After doing this for many years, the organizers have this process down pat. An assembly line was created and 150 sack meals were prepared in about 1/2 hour. Many hands make light work. These bags were loaded into the back of Kurt's truck along with as many people as possible, and we set out to bless those much less fortunate than us.
We were only on the road for a couple of minutes when we made our first stop. Kurt honked his horn to alert us that he spotted a homeless person, and the guys on the back of the truck jump out to hand out the sacks. My grandson Stephen was one of the guys in the back. It was such a joy to watch him approach people with bags of food. He wasn't shy at all. He was not only blessing them with food, but gave many of them big bear hugs. They weren't the most pleasant looking or smelling people, but it didn't matter. He still approached them and placed his arms around them with a shout of "Dios the bendiga." We were all there to be Jesus' hand and feet to bless these hurting, struggling people and it felt incredible.
We continued this process for the next 30 minutes until all of our sacks were delivered. One stop was at an abandoned train station. Everyone in the back of the truck was able to get out and deliver the meals personally to people who were sleeping on cardboard boxes. This was an eye opening experience, especially for first timers like me. The people were so grateful and expressed their love and appreciation over and over again. I'm so glad that I finally had the privilege of being part of such an amazing ministry after hearing about it for so many years.
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me." - Matthew 25:35,40