Serving the Least - The Lost and the Hurting
Jesus called us in the good Samaritan to help those that were hurting.
Jesus called us to feed those who were hungry in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
I get the opportunity each day to serve lunch to up to fifty such people.
At nine thirty I arrive at work.
That means I get up at 8 am each morning and at 8'45am head off to work.
I normally have a good book for the train journey and even though I am on a government disability pension, I look like an ordinary worker going to work as I travel 20 minutes on the train.
I get of the train and it's a ten minute walk up hill to where I serve in a Salvation Army community centre that has food distribution for poor people and a soup kitchen five days a week.
On my walk up the hill most days I see a group of four or five drunks drinking on the steps of the same building each day.
One of them asked me what the time was one day when my watch band wasn't broken like it is today.
That day I interacted with him and told him the time with a smile.
The next day as he saw me, I looked down at my watch and I shouted out the time and he laughed remembering that he had asked the day before.
I look at those guys each day with pity.
Hardened alcoholics, drunk at 9:20 am in the morning with their beers in brown paper bags as they sip from them.
Today as people lined up for a meal my heart was warmed as my friend who asked me for the time lined up for a meal.
He was so drunk I don't think he recognized me as I passed him a spaghetti bolognaise, a chocolate cake and a glass of cordial.
This morning I has spent time reading Isaiah 58 about the acceptable fast of the Lord and by lunch time I was feeding one of the least, lost and hurting.
It was a nice teasing meal also as I had it later on for lunch.
A lot of people I know from church and from the community centre have commented to my pastor who is a woman, that I am so much better and a real encouragement since I started working in the kitchen in the community centre.
Three years ago I quit washing up dishes for $16.
50 an hour because it made me feel so depressed washing dishes and pots and pans.
Now three years later I am doing the same thing with a smile on my face for nothing! Today as I served my chronic alcoholic friend I really felt that I was doing what the Lord asked me as an acceptable fast in Isaiah 58.
Let me quote a portion of it here for those of you that don't remember what it says.
Isaiah 58:6-8 (New International Version) 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness [a] will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
I am happy to say our centre accepts 15 requests for welfare each day of its operation and people are given food vouchers or clothing vouchers.
The food vouchers are then taken to our own shop that we run with food that is close to it's expiry date which is one quarter of the price it would cost in a shop.
So a fifteen dollar voucher in our shop with careful shopping can have a person go out with close to sixty dollars worth of food.
For one dollar a person can get a main meal, a dessert and a drink.
The first three meals can be got on credit and then the person has to pay the three dollars back to get more on credit.
This allows a person on the day of their social security payment to come in and clear their debt and then eat three days of the week when they have no money because of their addictions.
We have two men that come in most days with containers and buy three meals.
They simply pay three dollars a day to eat and take their food home and re-heat it and eat it at their leisure.
What a simple way to live if you like having the same meal for three meals a day.
I get a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction from my voluntary work.
I enjoy working with the staff in the centre, all of which a wonderful giving and loving people.
Not all the workers in our centre are Christians but all of them are great.
I get so much joy out of being loved and accepted.
When we serve, I collect the main meal that is served up by the cook and I collect the desert that is stacked together in containers and I collect the drink which in under the counter where I serve from.
Each day I am able to greet the regulars with a smile and a quick hello, how are you? If you have a spare night, can I encourage you to go and serve in a soup kitchen? Have a good day!
Jesus called us to feed those who were hungry in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
I get the opportunity each day to serve lunch to up to fifty such people.
At nine thirty I arrive at work.
That means I get up at 8 am each morning and at 8'45am head off to work.
I normally have a good book for the train journey and even though I am on a government disability pension, I look like an ordinary worker going to work as I travel 20 minutes on the train.
I get of the train and it's a ten minute walk up hill to where I serve in a Salvation Army community centre that has food distribution for poor people and a soup kitchen five days a week.
On my walk up the hill most days I see a group of four or five drunks drinking on the steps of the same building each day.
One of them asked me what the time was one day when my watch band wasn't broken like it is today.
That day I interacted with him and told him the time with a smile.
The next day as he saw me, I looked down at my watch and I shouted out the time and he laughed remembering that he had asked the day before.
I look at those guys each day with pity.
Hardened alcoholics, drunk at 9:20 am in the morning with their beers in brown paper bags as they sip from them.
Today as people lined up for a meal my heart was warmed as my friend who asked me for the time lined up for a meal.
He was so drunk I don't think he recognized me as I passed him a spaghetti bolognaise, a chocolate cake and a glass of cordial.
This morning I has spent time reading Isaiah 58 about the acceptable fast of the Lord and by lunch time I was feeding one of the least, lost and hurting.
It was a nice teasing meal also as I had it later on for lunch.
A lot of people I know from church and from the community centre have commented to my pastor who is a woman, that I am so much better and a real encouragement since I started working in the kitchen in the community centre.
Three years ago I quit washing up dishes for $16.
50 an hour because it made me feel so depressed washing dishes and pots and pans.
Now three years later I am doing the same thing with a smile on my face for nothing! Today as I served my chronic alcoholic friend I really felt that I was doing what the Lord asked me as an acceptable fast in Isaiah 58.
Let me quote a portion of it here for those of you that don't remember what it says.
Isaiah 58:6-8 (New International Version) 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness [a] will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
I am happy to say our centre accepts 15 requests for welfare each day of its operation and people are given food vouchers or clothing vouchers.
The food vouchers are then taken to our own shop that we run with food that is close to it's expiry date which is one quarter of the price it would cost in a shop.
So a fifteen dollar voucher in our shop with careful shopping can have a person go out with close to sixty dollars worth of food.
For one dollar a person can get a main meal, a dessert and a drink.
The first three meals can be got on credit and then the person has to pay the three dollars back to get more on credit.
This allows a person on the day of their social security payment to come in and clear their debt and then eat three days of the week when they have no money because of their addictions.
We have two men that come in most days with containers and buy three meals.
They simply pay three dollars a day to eat and take their food home and re-heat it and eat it at their leisure.
What a simple way to live if you like having the same meal for three meals a day.
I get a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction from my voluntary work.
I enjoy working with the staff in the centre, all of which a wonderful giving and loving people.
Not all the workers in our centre are Christians but all of them are great.
I get so much joy out of being loved and accepted.
When we serve, I collect the main meal that is served up by the cook and I collect the desert that is stacked together in containers and I collect the drink which in under the counter where I serve from.
Each day I am able to greet the regulars with a smile and a quick hello, how are you? If you have a spare night, can I encourage you to go and serve in a soup kitchen? Have a good day!
Source...