CITY GATE

A while back the pastor at my church brought up a new ministry that we have been talking about doing for a long while. He finally made the decision to get it started and asked if someone would want to take over leading this ministry. Knowing full well how much I love going down to serve at the homeless shelters, I couldn't help but say I would love to take over this ministry. He quickly acknowledged that he was hoping I would be the one to want to do it.

We started filling out applications to make sure everyone who had a wanted to serve there had a background check done, and planned a starting date of the end of May. Pastor Bob wanted me to go see how they operate and meet the guy in charge of the volunteers who serve the food on the days they are open. So yesterday I took my first trip downtown to see how things work down there. It was supposed to just be a meeting with everyone but it turned out to be much more.

Pastor Bob was running behind so I waited in town and checked out some stores while waiting for him to show up. Once he called me to say he was getting close to being there, I headed over to park and wait for him to show up. Knowing I'm not really a person who likes the city, much less when its getting dark, and being on the "inner city" side of town, didn't make me feel any more secure, but I got out and started looking for an entrance to go inside.


Once I walked around the corner from where I parked, I saw a line already growing for those waiting to get inside to eat. I tried to find out where I needed to get in but quickly found that door locked. One of the guys waiting outside told me to go to the side door, but it was a screen door that was locked also, so I just walked back around to wait for Pastor Bob to show up.


I didn't see him anywhere so I decided to just start small talk to those in line waiting and started talking about the warmer weather we were having and how it must be nice for them not to be in the cold and snow anymore. It didn't take much for a few of them to start talking. One said he was from Alaska and how it was much colder there than in Washington, so I replied that I was from Montana and understood true meaning of cold winters. The another gentleman told me he was from Montana too, in the town my brother lives in, and that he had family there. I told him my brother lived there and that it was a beautiful place to be. In the meantime, there was this young boy about 19 or so that said he wanted to show us the address on his drivers license since he didn't think anyone had ever seen an address like that. It was something to the sort of "3 roads past the fire department", I can't really remember, but one of those places that doesn't really have a name or a specific location, so they identify it by a "marker point" of some sorts so they at least know where to start. This kid called me ma'am in a very thick accent so I asked him if he was from West Virginia or someplace East. He said "no" he was from Texas. He came up this way trying to go to Canada, but that they wouldn't let him across the border, because he didn't have enough money. I asked him what that meant exactly, and another man there explained to me that they want you to have a minimum amount of money available, in case something happens and you can't get back across, so you have money to survive on if that happens. I said that makes sense I guess. Then this kid told me he came back through our city and had family here that he had been staying with, but that the cousin stole his money, and basically the transportation that he had to get around with, and now he was stuck here on the streets trying to survive. You could see he was a good kid, and I felt sad for his situation. He seemed very Naive, and probably just wanted to be anywhere but here. I sure wish I could help the kid get home, because it just seemed so sad to see him so lost.

Very shortly after that the Pastor showed up and we were able to get inside. I think he was a little worried about me being out there by myself, but I wasn't too worried once I got to talking to them. They saw that I was OK, and they opened right up, so it made me less worried about being there. We went inside and met the other church group that was working that night, and found out they came from a town about 30 miles north of where we were from, which is a long ways, considering we were already that far north of the place we were serving. It would be a long night for them. This was the group we would be taking over for in the summer while they took a break. It sounds like we will have at least June, July, and August as a time frame, and then God will open up doors from there if He wants them open.


The man that runs the volunteer groups is the brother of our worship leader, as I found out later, so that helped. He didn't think there would be a spot for us to serve when Pastor Bob originally started checking it out, but God opened up the door for us. Now we just needed to wait to see what else God has in mind down the road. I get the feeling door's will open, and so did the guy leading the groups. Doors had been opening up slowly since last fall, and I believed they will continue as much as God wants us to be there.

After the initial meeting of the group working there, we decided to stay a while and check things out, so I just jumped right in, grabbing food and serving it to those at the tables. It was hard for me to just sit and observe because this is a place where my heart really wants to serve, so I was up and going before Pastor Bob had even figured out what to do.

I have served at other Mission groups before in Portland Oregon, but this one was set up differently. The others had long lines and the food was served from a counter where they got there food and went to sit down in the large rooms with tables everywhere. This place was a small room, and they got to eat as soon as a seat opened up. And we, the volunteers, took them their food, and could sit down and talk with them and perhaps minister to them if the chance came along. This kind of situation made serving them very personal. You had to get down on their level and have eye contact and talk to them, and acknowledge them. What a way to serve God and give back to him. Most people hesitate to look into the eyes of a homeless person, much less get close to their face and acknowledge that they are human. There is so much you can learn from doing something like this, and your heart can really be opened up, especially if it's a hardened heart. If you let God reveal His heart to you in this place, you quickly realize how small of a person you really are, and how insignificant the things in your world can really be. Most of us have so much, and need so little, but we are greedy and therefor expect more as we go along. These people are grateful for having a meal in front of them, no matter what the food is.

My past, and the road God has taken me down, has allowed me to see both sides of the fence. I have survived with nothing, and yet always had enough, and I have had enough and yet have had nothing. It all depends on the situation and how we choose to use what God gives us. Lately He has been showing me that I have a lot, and yet am living paycheck to paycheck. Much of it is the economy and the cost of everything going up, but not all of it is. I started taking the bus to work to cut down on my spending, but there are still a lot of things that i do that I don't need to. And we live very modestly, I don't spend money on new things, nor do I over spend, and yet, I still need to cut down. God is showing me that even buying things second hand can be too much if you don't really need to be spending the money.

Anyways I spent the rest of the night helping to serve food and clean up after they shut down. It was a very well spent evening, and I look forward to being able to do this again in the near future. I hope that we are able to be a bit more organized, because the chaos last night was very exhausting, but it still went well. The man who runs the volunteers walked me out when I was ready to leave because of the area, and we had a chance to chat for a minute about our church and the future of our ministry volunteering there. He said the same thing I did, which was He thinks God is up to something, and that if we were meant to be there more than the summer time, the door would open up. It was encouraging to know that someone else felt the same way as Pastor Bob and I did, so hopefully we will see the doors opening up in the near future.

In the mean time, summer is here, and its a chance for me to start gathering coats and blankets while I'm out yard saling. This is the perfect time to buy them and if I start collecting now, I should have a good start by the time fall and winter gets here. God is Good!!!!!