Homegroup Serves

Sunday was a full day for the Heppner family. In fact, the whole weekend was busy. We went to the English service, after a short and interrupted night, and stayed for the Spanish service because Joel and Kezia were singing with the preschool. I wish I would have brought my camera to capture Joel's passionate rendition of I Have a Friend Who Loves Me. Kezia just stood there and smiled and then waved and then smiled again....she said she forgot she was suppose to sing!

For lunch, our homegroup met for a potluck. Asha was feeling tired since she was up frequently with her parents.....so she went for a sleep right after the meal. The kids jumped on the trampoline and some of the adults played Chronology, which is a very fun game, while one adult (Carl) snored on the couch!

At 3:30 we packed up into three vehicles and headed downtown to the Fresno Rescue Mission. One of the guys in our homegroup has connections with the Mission and thought it would be a good idea for us all to go and serve supper.

We arrived at 4:00 and all met in the parking lot before we went inside. I have to admit, I was feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing. Well, we took a walk around the parking lot and down the sidewalk to the Mission. It was troubling to see that there were about 40 homeless people sitting on the sidewalk around the entrance; in fact there were homeless people standing around for the entire block. We went in to the entrance and I became less tense. A few of the staff members showed us where the men have chapel, where they have classes, and the dining room where meals were served.

After the 30 minute tour, we went across the street to see the shelter for the women and children. We met the lady that ran the place with her husband and heard stories of how people end up at the shelter. She took us to one of the family rooms that they have for married couples and their children; she told us that if the parents aren't married, the dad has to go across the street with the men.

As I stood in the family room, I was overcome with sorrow to think that a mom, dad, and their children would be so down and out that they would have to come to a shelter. How scary and stressful it would be for the parents. How hard it would be for them to be strong for their kids in light of their situation. How upsetting to think that some children don't have the basics that we take for granted.

While we walked out of the room, Kezia wanted to know why the room was full of toys and games and towels. I explained to her that people donate things so that the kids who don't have any toys can have something special. She smiled, "That's really nice Mom...so when are we going to feed the poor people?". Ummmm...

Okay, so I tactfully explained to our kids again what we were doing, in light of some of the things they had already seen and our group made our way back to the Dining Hall across the street. We split up into two groups. Carl and Joel plus a few others went to serve the spaghetti and bread and Kezia and I, with Asha on my back, went with the rest to serve dessert.

We passed out desserts to each person that came by, Kezia was thrilled to give out the cupcakes. It was so awesome to see the kids happily serving and smiling just to make someone's day. After a while, standing 3 inches from all the goodies, Kezia was tempted to sneak a taste. But she didn't and I was very proud of her. She somehow understood that the treats were for those that don't have much at all.

I gazed across the crowd of people, my heart ached. I was feeling ashamed that I hadn't done this more often. It's so easy to hide in your comfortable neighbourhood and not look people in the eye and acknowledge their poverty. In light of what I was seeing, how can I ever say that I don't have enough? How will this effect the way that I live? MCC has a poster that says, Live simply so that others may simply live.

And then I saw the girl who was about 6 months pregnant and I had to fight back tears. I had a baby on my back, a baby who has a safe place to sleep. When I was pregnant I was able to get prenatal care and have enough to eat. And when my baby was born, she was welcomed into a stable and happy home. I wondered about this woman, and so though it would have been safer to stay behind the table, I went over to talk to her.

After we served the supper and the room was cleared, the staff offered the kids corndogs. Kezia and Joel were thrilled and thought it was the best supper ever! Then we walked out front (we could have walked out the back and avoided the sidewalk), passed all the men that were waiting to get into the shelter for the night. Instead of averting my eyes and shuffling uncomfortably passed, I looked at them and tried to give a smile.

We packed up in the vans and went for a drive past Tent City, a make-shift homeless community under the old 99 freeway. I was troubled when I saw the pregnant girl standing in front of her tent, in front of her home under the freeway.

Then we drove home and we unpacked our kids and all our food from the potluck into our comfortable apartment....