March 10, 2012
Today, I began my self-appointed ministry work with the homeless. I cleaned out one of the closets and folded all of the clothes I could not fit into or no longer wore. The weather here has been cold and it has been raining for several days. So, I wanted to begin my ministry with the homeless by donating clothes. I drove to the downtown area when there is a Salvation Army to distribute the clothes to the people I may see hanging out by the Salvations Army or the Austin Regional Center for the Homeless (ARCH). As I drive to 7th. Street, I see a large crowd of people under the bridge at 7th. St. & IH 35. I know they are homeless by the way there are dress. They are gathered under the bridge in a parking lot where a volunteer group is already distributing clothes and shoes. As I pull into the parking, I roll down my care window and stop to ask a group of ladies if they need clothes. They all say yes. I park the car, open the back door, and begin to distribute the clothes and shoes. I was surprised at how many people there were, mostly women. I could tell they were used to standing in line to select clothes because one of the ladies took charge and told everyone to make one orderly line. She was a Hispanic woman in the late 50's. She was surrounded by two other women who looked like they could be related to her because of the strong resemblance. I start holding up the pieces of clothing one by one and letting people choose what they need. The group was orderly and passed items of clothes to others in line. All of the clothes were gone in less than five minutes. I had long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shorts, slacks, jackets, and shoes. The one thing many in line asked for was bags ir backpacks to keep their belongings safe. I have a few bags in the back of the car that I was going to use when I went to the grocery store but knew they needed them more the me. I distributed the bags. Someone in line asked me if I would bring more bags tomorrow. I told them I would.
As I sit and reminisce about my childhood, I realize that I may have grown up in a dysfunctional home but we were never homeless. My parents saw to it that we had a warm home with three meal a day, and clothes on our backs. When my parents were growing up, that’s all they were promised by their parents. At the time, children were not seen so much as a joy to treasure but as another mouth to feed. So, they were sent to work at an early age to help support the family. My parents were no exception. Love and affection were not expressed in their home, nor was it in ours. I was a child who wanted love and affection. I needed attention all of the time. I wanted to feel wanted, loved, and treasured. I always felt like a burden to my parents. I was a small, frail child who was not very bright. I was the kind of child who had to be shown how to do just about everything with a hand-on teaching approach. I needed things explained to me. I was that type of learner. My father would always say to my mother, "What’s wrong with that child? When I was her age, I learned how to do more than she knows now. He never realized that he had his mother an siblings to teach him how to do those things. I did not. He did learn things on his own.
That’s how people helped each other back then. Immigrants relied on family members to show them how to find housing, get jobs, find a church, find a social group to become a part of to help them survive and thrive in a new country. Families taught their children what they needed to know in order to help support the family. No one learned in isolation of one another. That’s how families survived. That’s how their children survived. If you don’t teach your children, don’t assume they should know how to do things. Children must be taught. They must be taught how to be responsible, how to take care of themselves, how to clean their rooms, how to clean the kitchen, how to mow the lawn, how to take care of their brothers and sisters, how to be successful in school, how to problem solve, how to use critical thinking skills, jobs skills, social skills, communication skills, how to love their neighbor, how to love Jesus, and how to pray.
I was taught none of these things growing up. I grew up without a purpose or goals in life. them.
Parents today, please take the time to teach your children. The wonderful thing about children is how eager they are to learn and please their parents. You can shape and mold a child into just about everything that is good , if your love them, cherish them, and value them. They will follow you to the end of the earth to learn from you and please you. Parents have the power of creating the most successful, humble, creative, responsible, God fearing, Jesus loving children in all the world. If you were not raised in a loving, warm, kind home, don’t make the mistake of raising your children a similar home. Raise then the way you wanted to be raised. Love them. Cherish them. Teach them. Do onto others as you would have them do unto you. In doing so, you raise much happier, healthy children who will love you and in turn raise their own children to love you. Then, in you most dire time of need you will never be alone. You will have Jesus and your children with you. There is no better combination of a support group that I can think of. Be good to one another, love one another, and above all love the Lord Jesus with all of your heart.
Tomorrow I will be handing out more clothes, shoes, and bags under the 7th.St bridge. My mission has just begun.
