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Packing a Bag for the Homeless
Here’s a lesson I learned about ways to give to others without breaking the budget.
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He shuffled over to the line of women waiting to enter the arena for the first night of Women of Faith in Washington, DC.
He asked us for food. I rifled through my bag because I had fully intended to pack snacks for just such an occasion.
I had nothing.
He asked for money. I had none to give.
He walked away.
I was angry at myself, frustrated that I had failed to prepare for compassion and service. I had good intentions and no follow-through.
Hadn’t I just read a book I had discovered on the shelves of our church library called Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America?
A young college student chronicled the six months he and a friend lived as homeless men on the streets of America’s cities. They played their guitars to earn money for food and went days without a single meal and weeks without a shower. They had no access to running water or even a bathroom at night. People avoided them and glared at them and they felt shame and knew they were unwanted.
Hadn’t I just finished Kelly Minter’s study, Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break and been reminded continually that “the Lord always has the poor on His mind, often paired with the widow, alien, and fatherless in Scripture’s pages”? She wrote that “tangibly involving ourselves for the sake of justice is a biblical command” (p. 69).
After all, Isaiah 1:17 says:
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
It can’t get much clearer than that.
And before I studied Nehemiah, hadn’t I completed Beth Moore’s study: James: Mercy Triumphs? If ever there was a Biblical writer who echoed Christ’s heart for the poor and oppressed it was his half-brother James.
James asked:
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? (James 2:15-16).
James summed our faith up this way:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27).
God cares passionately about the poor, the homeless, the oppressed, the overlooked, the widow, the orphan, the lost and the lonely.
He expects us to do the same, even if we’re not rich . .. yes, even if we’re swamped by bills and mortgage payments ourselves.
I knew it. I had read about it in book after book, study after study all year long. I meant to bring food for the homeless to the streets of Washington, DC .
I forgot.
So the homeless man in faded clothes and a dusty face shuffled past me to another woman in line and another.
The day after I arrived home, I took my oldest daughter to the dollar store and we tossed soap and wash cloths into the cart. We grabbed a box of small bottled waters, two packs of peanut butter crackers, and some canned peaches.
We packed our bags for a family vacation. Then I packed some bags for the homeless. I didn’t know if anyone else would shuffle over to me and ask for food, but I wanted to be ready.
I carried those Ziplock bags in a backpack all through our family vacation and it seemed like unnecessary weight. We didn’t hand out a single one.
Until we were driving home, that is. We stopped at a traffic light and I was busy thinking about the end of our vacation and the drive home and what happens next. My husband saw the man with the sign: “Homeless. Please help.”
He grabbed one of our bags, motioned the man over and handed it out through the window.
The best part is that I now have a tangible reminder to pray for one particular man in need.
I have a lot to learn still. My prayer is that God will open my eyes (clearly I need His vision) and prod my heart to prepare for ministry to “the least of these.” But at least I’m learning that even those of us who don’t have a lot, at least have something we can give.
Do you have ideas on how to minister to the poor and needy?
What I Want to Do Differently Next Time:
I had this brainstorm for the bags for the homeless and put it together based on ideas we picked up at the dollar store. Then, I read a book that week called Cleaning House about a mom who lives in Dallas and encounters the homeless regularly while driving her kids around town. She makes up bags of care items for the homeless, too! I felt so excited that we had the same idea.
I loved some of the other items she adds, though. Based on her thoughts and some of the ideas in the book Under the Overpass, my new care packages would look like this:
- Wash cloth
- Bar of Soap
- Peanut Butter Crackers
- Bottled Water
- Other nonperishable food item
- $5 gift card to a place like Subway, Wendy’s, McDonald’s or even an area grocery store
- Pocket Bible or maybe a personal note with a Scripture verse
- Information on a local homeless ministry
Copyright © 2008-2015 Heather King
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