A Trip to the Other Side of Town

I'm coming to realize that the weeks leading up to and involving the holidays are pretty much the most jam packed, craziest, busiest weeks of the whole year. The next season is right around the corner which means my days (and often my nights) are a mad scramble to get everything together so that the year can go as smoothly as possible. When I'd really like to be enjoying the gift giving and receiving, the dumb lights and decorations, the smells, the food, and everything else that goes along with the season, I generally spend most of my time thinking about how to get more volunteers for basketball or how many kids I can get on each team.

This was the state I found myself in to begin this week. The next 10 days will be the most important days of the entire off season and my plate is absolutely full. My To-Do-List is in that awful state where things continue to be added and it doesn't feel like anything is getting checked off. I'm sure a lot of others are experiencing the same things right now. So when the powers-that-be within the church told us we were going to have a staff outing to take stuff to the homeless, I have to say I wasn't exactly thrilled. I needed to be working and when I wasn't working, I needed to be shopping and getting ready for both Lindsey's and my sister's birthday and that big event that happens toward the end of this month (not Kwanzaa).

On Tuesday morning a bus rolled up and the entire staff of Richland Hills Church of Christ piled in. Seriously, almost every single staff member got on board. If the best criminals of the Mid-Cities area would have known about this, they could have taken every valuable item in the building. Only Matt Junge and Miss Dee Dee would have been there to stop them. We crammed in, two or three to a seat and still some standing in the aisle (safety first, kiddos), and headed to Camp Bowie.

The ride was rough but nostalgic. My bus buddy, LB, and I commented on how these benches that we spent so much time in on mission trips and retreats could suddenly feel so small. Someone played the guitar while half the bus tried to sing along. David Fraze sat in the laps of those around him. It had the feel of a mission trip, missing only the goth kid sitting in the corner complaining about only being here because his parents made him come. We even had a "near death experience," a must on a Richland Hills youth group trip.

We parked in an abandoned lot and by the time we'd all gotten off the bus, people we already lining up. The staff spread out across the block and each department was in charge of a particular item. One group handed out breakfast burritos, another juice and fruit. One gave out socks, another Bible. The Children's Ministry (of which I am the only male representative) handed out gloves and hats. Chris Hatchett told us to just wait, word would get out. Sure enough, within about 3 minutes people were coming from all over.

It's been a long time since I've been a part of a homeless-outreach event. It was, as always, a humbling experience. The things you see when you're in this setting never cease to amaze me. There was the guy who'd lost fingers to an overzealous guard dog. A woman who bawled when we pointed her towards the socks, saying all of hers had been stolen. The man who told us he had everything he needed, he just wanted to come and thank us for our generosity. A hooker carrying a Bible. The man who went from person to person just to be hugged. The kids who should have been in school but instead lived in a car.

I also got to take in the images of the amazing care and out pour of generosity from my fellow staff members. There was the minister with his arm around a hooker. A group of grungy, dirty men crowded around a staff member in prayer. Another minister whipped out a Zippo and lit the cigarettes of the men in line. A member of my team gave up her shoes to a woman, while another helped put socks on her as the woman wept.

I don't know how many people came through in our short time in the area and I guess I'm not really sure how much good we really did in the grand scheme of things. We probably got breakfast and warm clothing to about 2% of the people who were within a mile radius. But I know it made a difference to that 2% and maybe more importantly, it made a difference to the 70 or so of us. How can you not be moved, and moved to change, by seeing a man cry because you gave him a pair of 3 dollar gloves and a pair of socks? Or the dad who didn't want anything for himself, he just wanted something for his 4 kids?

I accomplished absolutely nothing at work on Tuesday. Nothing. Not a single thing got marked off my to-do-list and in fact more was added to it. But the time lost from work was more than made up for by the experience that I took away from a few short minutes on The Other Side of Town. I am extremely proud to work in church that truly does place the desire to serve over everything else.