There are so many homeless people in Detroit. It is depressing. It is hard to walk around down town for class and NOT notice.
I want to do something for them. I want to reach out to them one person at a time. I am unable to reach out to all of them. I am unable to talk with each and every one of them on a daily basis. They need to know that God loves them. They need to know that, despite their current living conditions, there is love for them. They need to know that people care about them. They need to know that there are people that are willing to help even in the smallest ways.
I cannot convince myself that it is a good idea to go to other countries to do missionary work. I cannot convince myself that these people in other countries need our support. I know they do. I know they are suffering. I know they are poor and well beyond the poverty level that has been established in the USA.
On the same level, I cannot convince myself to go to these other countries when there is so much work that needs to be done on the home front. Detroit has so much promise and I want to do whatever I can in order to bring it back to the ravishing city it once was. I want people to WANT to come to Detroit. I want people to dream about living in Detroit like they dream about living in New York in California. Perhaps I am too much of an optimist but I will tell you one thing: I am NEVER going to give up on the city. I am never going to give up on Detroit. I know it is suffering. I know that it needs a lot of work. But I also know that if we all pulled together, we could get it to where it once used to be.
Here is where I started.
Last Sunday a friend and I started a little journey to make Detroit that much of a better place.
There is a homeless guy who stands on the corner of I94 and Moross. This is the exit we take when we attend weekly church service at his church. We wanted to reach out to this man. We had it in our heads to buy him a lunch but that was not enough. I bought some food from 7-11. He bought a coffee from Starbucks. We parked my car at his church. From there we walked to the corner where the homeless guy was standing, in desperation, for some fortune from God.
We presented him the food, coffee, and sugar for the coffee. We learned his name is Bill. His story goes as this: He was married for thirteen years and has children. (I forgot how many and I am unsure how old they are.) The wife found someone else of interest at the church and filed for divorce. She got all the money and the house. He was left with nothing. He was happy that she had the house and money because he knew his children would be taken care of.His plans are to get disability so he is able to get an apartment. He plans on attending church service next week at my friends church. I will not be there but I will keep you all updated.
We told him that God loves him. We chatted for about ten minutes or so. While we were sitting there another lady pulled up and gave him two bags of food which included bread, lunch meat, and fruit.
I could not help but watch around me as others drove by. I was surprised at some of reactions that I saw. I saw one lady shake her head. I do not know if she was shaking it at us talking to Bill, or if she thought he was taking advantage of us. Obviously that was not the case. We went to talk to him because we wanted to. We also knew that God had our back despite whatever happens. I saw several people staring. This bugged me. I hate being stared at. I felt as though they were judging us and the situation. This is not their job. It is God's job to set judgement and no one else's. (Just saying)
From this day forward, whenever I go downtown I am going to intentionally carry some sort of snack food item with me so that I will have something to give when I see a homeless man or woman on the corner. I will even sit down and chat with them as long as I have the time. They are just people. They are not homeless by choice.
