Was scheduled to help pack foodstuffs for low income families tonight with folks from Redeemer Church where I'm visiting this Sunday. The distribution point was the NY Rescue mission.
Then this afternoon got a reply by email to an enquiry of some days ago asking if I could also help out in the Mission diner serving meals. I had to hotfoot it downtown - my first subway journey - and get stuck in. Cleaning walls, moving supplies, setting up tables, preparing cups containing napkin, fork and spoon etc Naturally I had to wear a hat and apron.
And then they came... In the end 170, plus the inmates (their term). Men, women, even a five year old child. Old and young; black, white and asiatic; hungry and not so hungry. Each clutching their plate with it's turkey, veg and mash. Wondering why tonight there was no cornbread. Virtually all unfailingly polite and well ordered and yet each carrying the haunted expession of those who knew themselves to be at the bottom of the barrel. Profoundly moving.
Before we served out we prayed as a team that the food would be a sacrament of God's love. May it have been so for each one of them.
I'm back there Tuesday
Afterthought: my OT bible reading this morning included these words
...let right be done in the public place... (Amos 5.15 BBE). As Christians we can't hide from our responsibilities to others. How easy it is to do so even, or perhaps especially, in the name of religion
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment