A Recap of our New Orleans Homeless Ministry

Amen. Thank the Lord for that good choir today. We're not going to do Children's

Church today. I talked to Miss Angeline before church since we're going to talk about our

mission trip yesterday. We're going to show a few photos. That might be something the kids

care about seeing and hearing this morning. And so not so much a sermon today. I'm not going to

preach too much to you, but we are going to take a minute just to share with you what the Lord

has done and thank the Lord that we're able to be part of that. So let's open up with a prayer and

then we'll get started. Dear Lord, we come to you. We thank you that we have the freedom and the

privilege to come. We thank you as a body of believers, as brothers and sisters in Christ,

that you call us to do your work and you give us the privilege to do your work, to be able to serve

others. And we thank you for blessing us in so many ways. And I pray, God, that you would help

us always to be faithful to take what you bless us with, to bless others, to share your love,

to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who need to hear it. So we thank you for this ministry

we're about to talk about today. And God, I pray for those that we saw yesterday and so many others

that we didn't have the opportunity to see that you would just continue to bless them and help

us to help in what little ways we can. In Jesus name, I pray it. Amen. We got a few pictures this

morning. We'll get to them in a second. But I was thinking as the choir was singing that maybe I'll

give you a little bit of a history of kind of what God has said at this point. You can leave that up,

big boy. It's fine. It's good. We in 2019, we got, I got an email from the New Orleans seminary

saying that they had a new program they were working on called Mission Lab. And they were

encouraging churches to come to the area. And one of the things they did was they sent us to a food

pantry to work. Several of you went on that trip with us. If you went on that first trip in 2019,

raise your hand. One one very many of us just a few of us that went. And we went to New Orleans,

and we worked in the food pantry, and we spent the night and the next day, we went to an underpass

where there were lots of homeless people, there was tents full of homeless people, it was probably

30 or 40, at least maybe more than that. We weren't very well organized, we had a cardboard

box full of some random snacks and other various items. We didn't even make bags of stuff before we

went. We made it that morning, whipped together a few sandwiches and handed out some some real simple

little basic bags of a few items. We didn't have enough stuff for maybe 10-15 bags. It wasn't much

to it. We didn't know what we were going to. We didn't know what to expect. We got there and it was,

to be honest with you, it was it was kind of rough. It was kind of scary. You know, you get there,

you see these people, some of them are are on drugs, and it just kind of a rough atmosphere.

But nonetheless, most of them were glad to see us, and we ministered and visited with them and prayed

with a few of them, the ones that would allow us to. And that was kind of the start of this minister.

We did that and we decided to go back the next year, and we did, or maybe a year after. It was

right in the middle of COVID. We missed a year there for COVID. But ultimately, we ended up going

back to that same underpass, and the next time, I asked questions to see what some needs might be.

And after talking to some folks, I discovered that perhaps one of those needs would be sleeping bags,

and that really is what kind of birthed the ministry that it has become. So I come back

and I told everybody, y'all bring some sleeping bags. And so we started gathering sleeping bags,

and every year we get around 80 to 100, give or take. And so we've been going down there for

years now. We found a park area that ended up being a really good place right there beside

the Superdome. There are a ton of homeless people there and all around the New Orleans area. And so

for the last few years, it's been a handful of you that's gone. We take our sleeping bags,

and no sooner than we get out of the van with them, we are bombarded with people who want a sleeping

bag. And we hand them things out as quick as you can hand them out. And our 80, 90 sleeping bags,

whatever we usually take, are gone. So we have continued to expand this ministry. And praise the

Lord this year, we were able to do a lot more than we've done in the past. Mr. Buddy, who lives next

door, he's not able to be here today, but he got up early, early yesterday in the morning,

and he started making a giant pot of jambalaya, fresh homemade jambalaya that was enough to feed

about 100 people, so we thought, or a little more. And he worked and got all that together for us.

Yesterday morning, we had 24 people that signed up, by far the biggest group, three times bigger

than any group that's gone in the past. Most from this church, we had one visitor from another

church. We gathered up here, we loaded up all our stuff. We decided we were gonna take a lot of

stuff this year. So y'all have been bringing sleeping bags for months. We ended up with 120

sleeping bags this year, praise the Lord. We handed out these little red bags a few months ago,

many of you have filled these up and brought them back. We ended up with 90 of these red bags that

were full of all kind of stuff, gloves and socks and bibles and all kind of stuff that might be

helpful to somebody who's living on the street. We got here yesterday, had a great group. I just

wanna commend our group that came yesterday, they worked so hard. We decided we were gonna load up

tables, we were gonna take tents, we've never done that before. We had ice chests full of water that

we took, we had the food that we took, we had all the bags. It was a big undertaking. I was a little

scared, I'll be honest with you. I've been praying hard for the last couple months, Lord, I don't know

how this is gonna work, we've never took this much stuff, I don't know what to expect. But

nonetheless, we have been in prayer for this. We prayed that God would give us good parking,

that we're not having to lug tables and a hundred pound pot of jambalaya all the way around New

Orleans. And the Lord let us get to a good spot to park and we loaded up and we headed off. And we

got to this little park area and here's our setup right here. We had three tents, we had a food tent,

we had a tent where they could get water and jambalaya. We had a tent right next to it where

they could get one of our bags of love, one of these red bags that was full of all the different

items and then they could move right on down past that and they could get us sleeping back. So we

got there and I don't know if you guys have ever experienced or seen a well-oiled machine before,

but that is what it was yesterday morning when we pulled up at that park. Everybody knew what they

were supposed to do before we left, everybody had their marching orders. Michelle and Macy were gonna

pay for the parking, some of the rest of them were gonna get the food, some of the rest were gonna

get the tents, some of the rest were gonna get the tables. And when I tell you we hit the ground

running, we hit the ground running. We pulled up there, we paid the parking meter at 1043 and I'm

telling you the ones who were running there, you need to be proud of this group that was there.

And I just sat there and watched because I didn't have a job. I told everybody else what to do.

I was just telling them to do that and I didn't do a whole lot. I'm sorry I didn't help more, but

these guys did a good job. 1043, we pull up, we get everything unloaded, we get the tent set up

in record time. I'm talking about 10 minutes tops. We had this whole setup ready to go.

We had people manning each station and there were some that began to scatter out. Sadie and I

went and made a loop around the park. It wasn't a very big park. There were a lot of people there,

a lot of homeless people. We went around, we made the loop, we told all the ones, come on, come on.

We was going into the highways and the hedges, the highways and the byways as Jesus said.

Tell the people to come to the banquet. So we go and we make the loop and we get back and I decide,

you know what, I'm going to make the block. And I went around the other block and found some people

over there and told them to come and come back through the park. Told a few that I missed or

new ones that were there and went all around to the other block. And I said, well, okay, I'm going

to go back now and I'm going to sit down and visit with the people that are there and get to see

everybody. I figured by then we'd have a big crowd that'd be congregated. And when I got back,

almost everybody was gone and all the stuff was gone. We parked and paid the meter at 1043

at 1127. We were out of everything that I just told you guys we brought. It was gone. The people

had come. There were a few, we took chairs. We took about 25 chairs and sit up out there in the park

and a lot of people had sit and eat, but they were all gone by the time I got back. But the rest of

our crew, while I was out trying to recruit people, I hate I didn't get more of an opportunity to

visit with folks, but the rest of our crew did. They got to meet some folks. They got to see some

folks. They got to experience some cool things. And so what I want to do this morning, for those

of you who went yesterday, I want to take a few minutes now. If you got anything you want to share,

maybe you had something that happened to you or an experience or just some way that God

kind of worked in your life yesterday, I'm going to sit down for a minute. And if any of y'all just

as you want to stand up and speak where you are, you can come up front and speak. If you've got

anything you want to share, I'm going to give y'all an opportunity. Anybody got anything they want to share?

I know we had one this morning that was they wanted to share.

I got a couple of memorable, the whole thing was memorable as all of y'all know. But there was a

couple of stand out. So after stuff got set up, I took off to try to round people up.

Because they were there weren't a lot of homeless folks in the park. I found out later that they

had been run off by police a lot. And so they were off. And so I'm walking over and there's this kind

of monument kind of thing. And these four guys over there drinking beer, they had just taught

Bud Light Tall Boys is lined up. And so I walked over to him and said, Hey, we got some

juggle out here. And so there's a guy standing here. Yeah, sit down in front of me sitting.

And he was kind of out of it. And a guy right here. And I'm just standing right here in the middle of

it. Yeah, we got sleeping bags all sudden. Boom, beer slashed on me. And this guy standing here

on this beer can down in a rage and was just furious. And I looked over like, well, he wasn't

studying on me. He and this guy was fixing to get into it. I just happened to sit.

So he's mad at him. And I'm kind of like, standing there with this guy sitting here,

he's kind of out of it. He kind of looks up and says, you probably ought to go along. You

know, you all get into trouble. I said, Okay, so I'll wander around. Well, later, I found fish and

we were going back around looking for people. And as we passed this guy, that guy who was

throwing the can down, he said, Hey, and I look over and said, I'm so sorry. He apologized.

How many times he would quit apologize. So we go there. He said, I just came over and that guy

has been trying to above my beer. He said, I already gave him a couple and he still wasn't

more. So he was so positive. And we spoke a little bit we want to go home. So we just I sat down and

we just talked his name is Steven Wheeler 67 born and raised in New Orleans. His father's from

Collins, Mississippi. He's no one. And now that I let fish fill the glass, he's not going to

get no and now that I let fish fill the rest of these connected with this guy, these other guys

learned some of their names and all this. So that just goes to show for me, the first perception,

bunch of thugs drinking beer, the last people I want to get around. But yeah, you know, regular

folks, the guy was sorry, he acted like and turned out to be a very neat encounter. And the other one

I'll mention and now I can speak to this one. But over across the street, there was this guy in a

wheelchair. And over in front of the library under some bushes and it's like this was his place like

he lived here. He had a little bit of stuff in this great marble hood just like his place. And

so I went over and said, Hey, we got some jumble lines, sleeping bags, and so he patted me and

so he patted the handles of this wheelchair. Like, yeah, what can you wheel me over there? Sure. So

off we go. It's a long way. Mad little kid. And I'm trying to talk to him, but I can't quite

understand him. How to mumble that. And then I heard his Spanish word. It's like, Oh, Spanish

speaker. And I know a little Spanish. So I asked him where he's from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico.

His phone Puerto Rico. And his one parent from Honduras, one from Puerto Rico. Of course,

you're Puerto Rican, you're an American citizen. And he, he talked about he had this little bitty

throat that's not as big as the one Anselm racks up in every day. That was his, that was his

protection against the rain. And he said, much rain much much or odd what you know, it just

right. He gets wet in a wheelchair. So now his place was in front of the library where there's

a ramp and they don't mind going in the bathroom. But anyway, we get over to the tables. And of

course, the crew there, that's like chance that they were on top of and they got him set up with

cold water, jambalaya sleeping bag in a bag of blood. And he's pouring that down. So that's

my other thing to pick up with some of these. But those are two of the encounters, I had many other

encounters with these folks. But oh, you got a wheelchair Jose Manuel, big philosophy. So

pray for the guy homeless in a wheelchair and can hardly speak English. Okay, man. So that's my

one. It's a great experience. I was kind of scared to go off get out of my comfort zone.

It's something to go down there and witness. It's no problem. I mean, I'm just like, that's very rare.

So I got a camera. I was showing pictures of my garden stuff. She was very interested in it.

We like that. I got away from this guy. I want to experience the crew that went to young people

and they were amazing. Got a lot of stuff. I was gonna take the junk line and log on.

It must have been really good. And the little love bags. I see a lot of people opening them

and they were so happy. Anybody else got anything you want to share?

So sweet. Somebody had obviously opened the bag and didn't want the new test.

So I picked it up and I said, do you want this? He said, yes. He was so happy to get it.

He was so sweet. All I could understand was he was Jose and his papa and his mama. He was such a sweet man.

He was so inspired to be positive in that situation. I felt like I was like, how spoiled I am.

I met one girl, I thought my girl was 24, her name was Remy. When I offered her a sleeping bag,

she said, oh I have a cardboard box. And I'm like, we will have a cardboard box with a sleeping bag.

And so we take a lot for granted. I know I do. I complain if the utilities go off.

I'm the first with the golf. Anybody else? Yes ma'am. I was one of the ones who was hesitant to go.

I was a little scared and I decided to go. I had a football game the night before and I was tired.

And I was in Vietnam and it was a blessing. We, she and Emma and Lainey worked together with the sleeping bags.

They were thankful. They were very, very thankful. I did not meet anybody who was rude. I did not feel okay.

God was with us. There was a man who walked up in a mask and he went to Dana and said, please complain for me.

And she held her hands out and all around, back her head. And he just wanted prayer.

Did he look a little scared with his mask? Yes, but he pulled it down. He asked for prayer.

They wanted prayer. They know the need. I met a 55 year old woman. Her name was Barbara.

She has been on the street 15 years. And what she brought up with, you try to get a job,

but you don't have the clothes other than what you have on. You don't have an ad-dress.

And it's a vicious cycle. And if you think about it, all of us are probably a step or two away from being homeless.

All these people didn't choose some choose some don't. Some are on drugs. Some aren't. They surely, nobody wants to end up homeless.

Another gentleman, he had a wheelchair and he must have felt safe by us because he got his sleeping bag and put it right behind where the food was and laid on the ground.

And before we left, I noticed him reach down in his boot bag and he got some nav crackers and he pulled them close in like to his stomach.

I need this. I'm safe here and I don't want anybody to take this from me. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience. I will definitely go back.

Anybody else got anything they want to share?

One more thing. If anybody knows me, they know I love to talk. So I was excited. I'm going to get to talk to people.

But actually, I volunteered to come with the food. So I was kind of in the back of the tent just dipping jumble up the whole time.

I said, what are you going to use me? What am I going to do? You know, I want to dip it. So the whole time I'm dipping, when I went talking to the staff, I just prayed.

I just prayed for the people. Like if that's the way you use me today, then let me, you know, just let me be here praying for people as they encounter our tent.

And so I did. And I received a blessing from that. It was really, I'll be home and I'll tell them I'm going to cook next time we go that you're off because I want you to go and see it too.

But we had a great time. It was a wonderful experience.

They really carried the real load. They really worked.

And not only did they work, I had, I guess the two youngest girls, me and Dina, they were handing out the water and they were just, how are you today?

You know, just talked to them, interacted. So, you know, it's great. It's just great.

I do have something to add.

So Mr. Jarrow was referring to the man that was in the sleeping bag that felt safe. He was so excited about a wrapped roll of paper towels.

He used that as his pillow. He put it down, he flipped the sleeping bag, that paper towel roll and laid down. He was just completely comfortable that he could not let anybody take his stuff or anything.

And then while I was working with the bags, and this man, he's standing in line waiting for his food and he's looking for his thing.

And he stops and I'm like, hmm. And so I didn't pay much attention. He stepped up and he's like, hey, extra.

And he just said it to himself. He was so excited about, I mean, I'm talking about like those Walmart bags, those thin little bags.

And he was like, it's out. And just to himself, he was just so excited. But the need is very miniscule in our eyes. We would never think like, let me throw a rag in this bag.

We need to keep these snacks and stuff. These people are so excited that this is a towel in their minds. So we just need to be aware.

I'm extremely blessed to be there. And your prayer is working because every time I saw those people, it's like, when's the food going to run out?

And God was like, more scoot, more scoot. And we never had like a line. We did not have to turn anybody away.

There was like 15 people standing there waiting for food. It was like, the Lord is being okay, here we go. And so it was just a ball of food all together.

Okay. Hey guys. Hi, my name's Chloe. You don't know. So my auntie didn't tell the story. I was really waiting on her to tell the story, but she didn't.

So yesterday, there was this really nice guy who was in like a wheelchair or whatever. I don't know what I thought about it. It was really sweet.

And he could like say poetry, like on the spot. And oh my goodness, his name was Mr. Ronald. He was in like this wheelchair and he had like the forearm and everything.

He just like, he was not in the best position at all. And it was really sweet because you could give him just a topic and he was able to spit out poetry like that.

And it was just so beautiful. And like as a teenage girl who went on this trip, you know, I was kind of scared. I was like, wow, there's going to be a lot of like people there.

I don't know. There's going to be a lot of stuff that's just like not normal to me personally. So I met this guy, his name is Mr. Ronald. He was in this wheelchair.

He told us a poetry about how like, like it's kind of like a reason that God created women and everything about how beautiful this society is with women in it and everything.

And it was just, it was a beautiful experience for just a teenage girl who just kind of like on a whim decided like let me go, you know, with my mammy and papi and do this.

So it's just a really good experience for to listen to that man like say his poetry and everything. And it was just, it was beautiful.

Anybody else? I don't want to leave anybody out.

All right. We didn't we didn't get many pictures yesterday because we were all busy. Praise the Lord. So we don't have much to show you.

But you saw the first picture that was our our our setup we had. This is a picture of the of the food tent. We had food and water there.

Mr. Buddy made that giant thing of jambalaya and it was hot and it was fresh. And he said, you'll be able to feed about 150 people with this.

Well, we gave really generous portions. We didn't feed that 83 people. I said, we'll have we'll have jambalaya lift at the end of it. We didn't. Praise the Lord.

That's good. We didn't run out. As somebody just said, I don't remember who I think Peyton. We didn't run out. We had enough to feed everybody.

But we used all we had. So that was good. And we had some good water passer outers there.

Betty, Grace and Lauren were in charge of the water. And so they did a good job with that. You can see our our sleeping bag table there as people are coming by and getting getting those sleeping bags.

That's a picture of the chairs we had set up out front for people to sit down. I almost didn't take those chairs.

I said, you know what? That's a lot of trouble to take chairs. Nobody's going to sit in those chairs. But they did. A lot of folks sit down and ate, which was good.

It gave some of our folks an opportunity to go out and visit and to see those people. And so that was a shot of that.

Here's Dane got a little work out of Dane yesterday. One of the gentlemen, his bike broke. And so Dane got his hands greasy.

When I tell you they were solid black when he got through working on that bike chain, they were. But he got it fixed.

And the guy was very grateful for Dane for taking the time to help him and to get his bike fixed. And so that was a good deal.

Now, you just heard about this guy. This is Ronald that Chloe just talked about. And I wasn't there to get to hear any of Ronald's poetry.

I hate that I missed it. However, Michelle did record him with some of his poetry. So we're going to watch a video of Ronald right now.

God, I give you thanks. Put me here in the presence of your blessings with ladies in my way. Showing me a better way.

God, I thank you for their mind and I thank you for their truth. And these are the words I see you are speaking as I speak because of a God like you.

And I see that hope is in your life today. And that hope is to go forward, ladies, the right way. Positive thinking is what you need to think all the time.

Don't let no confusion jump into the mind and destroy you with a lie. But you throw it out just like you came in. You said Christ took care of this and I'm going to win.

And as you speak and you speak the words of truth and as you speak, you will watch your legs and your feet do the thing that it's supposed to do.

So I acknowledge you as being strength today. I acknowledge you as being a powerful lady that God sent our way.

No, you're not standing over here or over there. You are what God put you at and you are here.

So I thank you for loving God, ladies, and I thank you for the truth. And I humble myself to your teachers to teach ladies like you.

God bless you. God keep you. But there's one more thing I have to say. Walk by faith and not by sight. Walk by faith and not by sight. And Christ will do the rest. God bless.

Amen. Thank you, Ronald.

Amen. Amen. So we like I said, we didn't get many pictures yesterday, but those are some of the ones that we that we got while we were there.

And after we left, we got a good, good group picture of us here all together. Everybody's in this picture, but Ernest, he was the one taking the picture.

But this was the group that did the work. And afterwards, we we went to Manshack to Mennon Dors and eight. So we did.

We did celebrate a little bit on the way home, but it was a really good experience. I certainly appreciate everybody that helped.

We had so many people that helped. Rebecca brought a ton of Bibles and gave to us.

A lot of you put Bibles in your bags when you brought them. Some of you did, at least.

And the ones that didn't, we took those Bibles that Rebecca bought. We put Bibles in every bag.

And Miss Julie's class at school, she had asked me about making color sheets to put in those in those bags.

And they they colored 100 color sheets that all said Jesus loves you.

And we put a color sheet in each bag. And as I was making the loop through the park, I saw a guy, he was sitting up on a wall and he had his sleeping bag beside him.

And he had his bag of love beside him. And in his hand, he was holding that picture that one of Miss Julie's students had colored that said Jesus loves you.

So everything that went into these bags, they had an impact. And, you know, we see these people on the street.

We don't we don't know their stories. We don't know where they come from.

There are hundreds, probably thousands of people in New Orleans. We only we only we only hit a smidgen of these people.

I mean, what we did in some way was was very trivial. I mean, these people, we give them a little food yesterday, but they got to eat today.

We give them a sleeping bag and it might last through the season and it may not.

But but I hope more than anything that we gave them the love of God. I hope they know that God loves them.

I hope they know that some people from Liberty, Mississippi, that they don't even know, loves them.

And I hope it gives them some hope. I hope they felt the warmth and the love of Jesus Christ yesterday with the with the work that was done.

And, you know, so many times people say, well, you know, these people ought to help their self or they ought to do something different.

Or they they wouldn't be in this shape if they had made better choices.

Well, maybe so. Maybe so. Maybe sometimes that's true. But that's not always true.

Some of these people are people that worked hard just like you and me.

And through circumstances beyond their control, they lose their job. They were working paycheck to paycheck.

And it does not take long that this could be you and I, just like this picture says of this homeless person.

Once I was like you, once I was like you, you know, we kind of take for granted what we have, how good we've got.

We just think that we'll always be OK. We'll always have our job. We'll always have our family.

We'll always have our home. But but we never know what's going to come our way in life.

And sometimes we make boneheaded and foolish choices that get us in bad places.

And other times, life just happens and it's hard.

And who's not to say that maybe one day it's not going to be you and I who are on the street?

And we may be so bold as to say it'll never be me. We don't know what the future holds for us.

I don't know what happened to those people, all the ones we saw yesterday.

I wasn't there to pass judgment. I was there to tell them that God loves them.

We were there to give them some food. We were there to give them some hope.

And they probably don't see much hope in this world.

It probably seems pretty hopeless and pretty dire for them on most days as they lay on the street,

as they sleep in the rain, as most people pass them by and don't even pay them any attention.

But praise the Lord, God calls us as brothers and sisters in Christ to serve these people.

God's word says in Proverbs, Chapter 19, Verse 17, kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord,

Proverbs 19:17

and he will give a reward to the lender. Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord.

What we did yesterday was serve the Lord. Now, we didn't do it because we wanted some reward.

We didn't do it because we thought, oh, if I do this, God's going to fill my bank account with money.

No, I don't think that that's what that verse means. I think that God does reward us,

and I think God did reward us yesterday.

Because I don't think you could ask a single person who went on this trip yesterday if they were blessed.

Not a single one of them would say no. Every single one of them would say yes, what a blessing.

That blessing that we get from going and serving and being part of that like we did yesterday,

that is the reward of the Lord. It is better to give than to receive.

And so I thank God that we were able to go yesterday.

Whatever you do to the least of these, Jesus says, you do it to me.

We were serving the Lord yesterday when we served these people, and this was a church-wide effort.

We could not have done this without you guys.

We gave out 83 plates of food, 90 bags of love, and 120 sleeping bags in 44 minutes.

And we couldn't have done any of that without you guys.

And Lord willing, we're going to continue this next year.

Maybe some of you are here today and you say, you know what, I kind of want to go,

but I wasn't sure maybe you want to go next year. Praise the Lord.

We've got ideas. We're going to keep growing. We're going to keep expanding.

We've got some different things that we're going to do different next year.

We're going to try to take more food next year.

We're going to try to take more sleeping bags because we only saw just a small portion

and helped just a small portion of the people there.

And what we did wasn't much. It wasn't big.

But we did it with the love of God in our heart.

And I believe that those people that we encountered yesterday, at least I hope and I pray

that they experience the love of Jesus Christ.

And who knows, maybe something that was said yesterday,

maybe it was a prayer that was said, maybe it was a hug that was given.

Maybe it was just somebody taking the time to sit down and talk with them.

You never know what kind of impact that might have on somebody's life.

So I would encourage you when you see people who have a need,

let us be those who help meet that need in any way we can.

And as a church, let us be those who strive to serve the poor and needy.

God's Word says repeatedly from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

It is so important that God calls His people to take care of those who are in need.

And I thank the Lord for you, brothers and sisters in Christ,

who helped that become a reality yesterday. Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word.

I thank you for everybody, dear Lord, the ones in this church that have given,

the ones who have prayed, Ms. Julie's class that gave the sheets, dear Lord, that they colored.

God, it was so many people. It was so much that was done.

And it all fell into place so good, dear Lord, and we praise you for that.

God, from stuff as simple as a good parking place to just the joy of getting to share your love with these people.

We thank you for blessing every aspect of this, dear Lord. Everything went so smooth, God.

And it's because it was bathed in prayers, because you blessed us.

It's because, God, I pray that you bless those people that we encountered, that we saw yesterday.

God, I thank you for these who have worked hard yesterday, the ones that went yesterday.

I thank you for their dedication and their love.

And I pray, God, that you would just let this be a blessing to us, that it be an eye-opener to us, dear Lord,

that we would not be those who try to judge and figure out why everybody is where they are when they're homeless,

but be those who try to just meet them where they are and love on them and help them to see you

through the midst of all that they are going through.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.