A Sobering Evening

As most people that read this consistently know, one year ago this week, I went with the Penn State Navigators on a spring break missions trip to Atlanta, GA to serve (more like, to be served) the homeless. I wrote more about that experience and how it really affected my life, here.

I often find it funny how God chooses to answer prayer. Very shortly after moving to Harrisburg I noticed a surprisingly large homeless population downtown. Given my experience in Atlanta I felt called do something to serve these people. I prayed that God would give me the boldness to meet the homeless in my neighborhood, and that he would guide me in doing so (especially in finding them and for a mission partner). Long story short, it has been 196 days since I moved here, and this evening I had my first interaction with the homeless living only a few blocks from my upscale loft apartment (the contrast in that makes me feel a slight bit guilty).

This evening I got coffee with a friend, who lives just a few blocks from me. Later in our conversation he mentioned that he had been going out to get to know, bring food to, and care for the homeless. I was convicted by much of what he had to say about how we live our lives with little faith and compensate with our wall of money for protection. I doubt that God could have ordained this any better than he did. My friend asked if I would be interested in heading downtown with him to give a homeless man who had developed a pretty nasty cough, named Chuck, some cough drops and water. Having prayed for someone to do this with I agreed and we headed to the location that he knew many of the homeless would be.

We never found Chuck; a few of the regulars indicated that he had another location that he often stayed when it was really cold. Please pray for his health. We were also looking for a woman named Jenifer. A man named Keith informed us that Jenifer had passed away the night before. It rained hard for the entirety of the previous day and turned to sleet and snow later in the night. My friend had talked to this woman the evening before. What struck him the most was that all that Jenifer wanted from him is for my friend to simply sit and talk with her for 5 minutes. It sure is sobering when you go out to meet a homeless friend and you find out that she passed away due to the cold/snow the night before.

We also met an 18 year old couple, Mike and Brandy who had been living with Mike's parents, but had since been kicked out because of their dislike of his wife. Please pray for their protection, soft hearts seeking the gospel, and for my boldness to share what I have been given with them.