Thanksgiving in the Park
Last week Take It To The Streets had the pleasure of supporting Without Walls Ministry with their Thanksgiving Outreach. It was an incredible experience spending time on a holiday all about giving thanks, reaching out to those who are less fortunate and giving them a reason to be thankful. We helped to serve over 50 turkeys, 30 hams, and all the other traditional thanksgiving trimmings to many Charlestonians who had nowhere else to go on Thanksgiving day. By midday over 500 blankets and jackets had been distributed to the guests. It was heart touching to see how many people came out to willingly sacrifice time away from their families on a holiday to touch the lives those who had no family to spend it with.
As I walked around trying to capture the joyfulness of the occasion on film I felt a great peace in knowing that if Christ were present in the flesh that day that he would have been sitting at those very same tables giving hope to the "least of these". I can only hope that everyone who is a part of my life gets a chance during this holiday season to feel that same joy and peace. I know that in the act of serving pure of heart, that the server is blessed as much if not more so those than those being served. You may just find that in the act of changing the life of another it is you who are being changed.
To see all the pictures from the days events please visit http://photos.takeittothestreetsministry.org/
2 comments:
It was an awesome day, and I think the kids and the families from Dorchester Terrace really enjoyed themselves. A couple of the areas that were huge hits were the clothing, jacket and grocery area. It blows my mind still in the day and age how many families are struggling for the basics. One encounter that was very memorable to me was when I was praying and handing out bibles and I came across these two ladies in there 50's. I sat down with them they were very nice and were quite faltering to me. I signed there bibles and we started to chit chat they asked me about my bracelet which I got in Nicaragua on my missions trip. I told them the story about how it was made by a group of women that were once prostitutes and through the missionary group in Nicaragua they now have a skill of making jewelry. It was so cool to see the ladies responses to this, since both of them had a similar life story living on the street. God does amazing things with people and has such great testimonies from people you would least expect it. Thank you Jesus for allowing me to meet your daughters and thanks you for there story it was the highlight of my day! (Got a cool story please share it)
What can be said. As I was walking around the park at Hampton Park God showed me how Jesus sees the people. The people on the other side of the thanksgiving line are just like us-they have families, hopes, desires, and dreams just like us. So I began to talk to one guy who came to the park from Ranger Drive where we do outreach. I could see that the Holy Spirit was working on his heart and I could see the joy on the heart of June. It was so awesome. He was sharing some personal things with me, which allowed me to see that we had trust built. The trust was earned...God is so good and I could see that this man was feeling real joy and God got all the glory. Stay tuned because we expect to see a lot more of God working on hearts!
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