The past few days have been so filled with busyness and excitement, but my experience on Saturday has stuck with me like no other lately and the feeling at the end of the day won't leave. You see, the wonderful church I have be blessed by the Lord to be a part of has an awesome ministry that I was able to participate in this weekend. It is called Mission 615 and it has a dual purpose in which the love of God is shared. First on Saturday mornings buses go into the inner city housing developments in downtown Nashville and pick up kids. The kids are given breakfast, experience a great worship service and the have the chance to visit a clothing closet. Once the kids are dropped back off at home, the buses go to different point in Nashville to bus in members of Nashville's homeless community.
This week my experience was new. I drove a bus to pick up and drop off both groups. Previously, I had worked with the kids' service and kids' class for each group, but today I got behind the wheel and did the pick-ups and drop offs. It was so exciting picking up the children and my bus alone had a total of 35 inner city kids. Dropping the kids back home wasn't so bad, they were going home to a place to lay their heads. Then came the next group pick up...... it seemed like they just kept coming and coming. I believe my bus had a total of 43 homeless including a number of children and 2 infants. My heart sank a little when I realized this. The day went great I had a chance to fellowship and meet some of the group, and watched a baby dedication! Then, after, they got their bellies full with a great smelling barbecue meal and bags of clothes, it was time to take them home. Loaded back up all was well. Suddenly I heard a sweet lady talking to someone about the houses we were passing and dreaming of having a yard or fence etc. like that one day. That began to stir my heart, but little did I know it was only going to get harder as my task went on. As I pulled up to the drop off point, I realized I was letting these men, women, children, families... out on the streets that they call home. I watched a mother cradled a sleeping baby while the daddy loaded all of their belongings back into the stroller to help keep a hold of the other children. I watched as 3 little children,probably no older that 6 or 7, sat on the concrete and played in the dirt under the grate around a tree and then wave at me and say "Thank you! See you next week!" Happy as they could be.
You see I listen and watch as people have so much, but complain about all they have. I myself forget that I am truly blessed above what I deserve some days. Just the night before Michael and I had been looking up houses because our lease is coming up and there are things we don't like. My heart broke as I drove away and knew these people had no where soft to lay there heads for bed that night. As I heard a child ask if someone could play with them and the mom says "Maybe later, we have to try to find food for later." I can not express the feelings that have sat with me since Saturday and won't leave. I truly enjoyed myself and loved interacting with the people, but can't help thinking there has to be a way to provide a suitable shelter. With all the empty foreclosed homes, million dollar convention centers being built and such, why can't we have a bigger rescue mission or even furnished homes that are available for a limited time to help someone get back on their feet. Maybe, I'm just dreaming, but Sunday night it got worse as CNN is doing a series on homeless kids and a little girl was sick and in pain at school and couldn't go home, because there was no gas money. What is wrong with America??? We can send millions to other countries, provide other countries with war weapons, but can't get our homeless off the streets? I pray that one day this will change and no child in America has to live on the streets.
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