Meeting the homeless

On Saturday we met some people that serve with Kingdom Causes. They have an amazing homeless ministry. We found out that on Tuesdays they make up bag lunches and go out into the streets and pass them out. Their mission isn't how many bags of lunches they can pass out but developing a one on one relationship with the people on the street. Since we are on a break from Life Group we decided to check it out.

We met at their resource center and started making the bag lunches. Rene made up 18 sandwiches and I filled the bags with water, apples, and cookies. The boys played with the ping pong table. While we were making up the bags, a few people came in looking for food, so we handed out bags to them.

We broke up into groups and we were blessed to have Heidi as our guide.

Our first spot was by Hardtimes (next door from where Sturdy Furniture was) and we met two people, Ernie and Keira. Ernie has been on the streets a long time. I'm not sure how long Keira has been on the streets. They were both really nice and made sure that we took a bag over to Jimbo who was around the corner.

Jimbo wasn't feeling well. He wanted to go to the hospital later tonight. He wasn't in the mood to talk so we left him a lunch. Heidi told us later that he is suffering from congestive heart failure.

We drove over to another part of Bellflower and met up with a group of homeless. Heidi knows most of them and we hung out and talked for a little bit. A man named Stevey was amusing the boys with all his jokes. Matthew wants to bring his joke book next time to share. I noticed one woman who was very sunburned. I'm going to try and remember to get some sunblock for her next time.

With two bags left we headed over to a bar called Stagger. We found a van filled with stuff but the man wasn't there. He was a friend of Heidi's so we left a bag in his van.

Heidi wanted to look for her friend Cooksie and give him our last bag. He usually hangs out by the dumpster near the bar. We go over there and don't see him.

We start to drive away when we notice candles on the ground and signs taped up.

Heidi and I get out of the car to take a look. That's when we notice the signs were in memory of Cooksie.

Kenny came out and told us that he found Cooksie's body on Sunday. He was really upset. Cooksie was a very caring man that everyone liked. Kenny was upset because he didn't know how to look for Cooksie's son. Just by watching their reactions, you could tell that Cooksie was an amazing man. I wish I could have met him.

They will be having a memorial for Cooksie tomorrow night from 4:00 - 7:00 by the dumpster.

What a way to end the evening.