Last nights Street Reach for the Homeless Dinner and Duds featured slow roasted pulled pork (thank you,Blue Stack Smokehouse for the previous donation) on a open face sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy for those men, women and children who joined me under the stars. Each was also able to select one side (though a few had the selective hearing on one lol) which include creamy mac n cheese (which there is simply never enough of and so next time will not be put out until at least 50 have been served so the back of the line has equal opportunity), fresh salad, potato salad, a full pan of dressing which also could and most often was covered in gravy and baked beans as time simply did not permit the planned sweet potatoes. Dessert featured cookies, sliced watermelon, grape and banana sections. 9 gallons of beverages (including a gallon and a half of milk which has not been seen for awhile due to temps) and a case of bottled water made the trip downtown. At the van it was pillows!! All pillows I brought down have new owners as more and more new faces continue to join the line and blankets/comforters and one sleeping bag followed. With the cooler night air all zip front hoodies were taken and we moved on to the available hooded sweatshirts next. T-shirts went to several and dozens of socks, again, went to most. Just as we were getting ready to begin to load the empty pans, filled trash bags, etc. back into the van one young gent gave a shout and said wait. He brought back a very young gal who I had never noticed in the dark was wearing only a pair of footie type socks....no shoes.....and ripped to holes and shreds on the bottom. New to the group, I told her to pull up a piece of sidewalk and the shoe dept. came into play. After trying on two pairs of the womens shoes I had in the van and deciding they were just not quite right, we went to one pair of gents shoes which she still deemed snug at an 8 1/2.....the fourth pair was like slipping on the glass slipper except, of course, it was a mans tennis shoe - work with me here lol - and a smile spread across her face. Put the old socks into one of the trash bags and gave her a new pair before she walked away and slid into the darkness. How far did she walk? How far on that day? .... the day before?? ... the day before that?? .....and only a holey pair of socks - it breaks my heart - and yet, how blessed that a young man from the group would notice ..... a young man from the group would care enough about the dear stranger and bring her back to the van which in all likelihood she never had any idea of the boutique aka piles of stuff inside!! This is heart! This one total stranger watching out for one he considered, last night, the least of these in his world. This is family!! This is Fort Wayne. God bless.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 22:11:51 +0000
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