Ea- A- -oe's

A friend of ours who had recently been released from prison had spotted a homeless guy somewhere in the area. They had known each other during the time that they were both living on the street, but Joe had a place of his own now and could tell that his friend didn’t. So Joe decided to give him a ride; and knowing all too well what it was like to be homeless, he offered his friend a place to stay for the night. While Joe could fulfill his friend’s need for a roof over his head that night, he didn’t have much to give him in the way of food or clothing. But due to his friendship with us at 1304, he knew he could bring his friend by the house to see if we had anything to offer.

The man at first seemed a bit unsure of himself among a group of energetic, smiling, clean-cut college kids. I could see behind his foggy, tired eyes that he was baffled that we wanted to help him. He said he had been on the street since last June and looked like he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since. He couldn’t quite understand why we would offer to take the time to cook him a warm meal or to find him clothing and food for the road. I’ve been thanked a lot of times in my life—at Jack in the Box they invariably tell me “thank you” and “have a nice day”, or someone might thank me for holding the door for them—but I have rarely seen anyone so genuinely grateful as this man was. (Maybe if we had so little we would appreciate God’s provision a bit more as well?)

It was also inspiring to see that the time we had spent with Joe had planted a seed for God to work with, and it came to fruit when God moved him to compassion for his friend. Joe wasn’t just responding to the things that we had done for him but was continuing God’s work because he had seen the power of God’s love. Perhaps one day Joe’s friend will respond to God’s work in a similar way.