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| Watching the army of YMCA Turkey Trotters. |
So "Operation: ThanksBibling" is officially in the record books. And we learned a lot about people's behavior, cold weather ministry and downtown in general. It's good to learn things. Keeps the brain from turning into Jell-O. (Or so we hear...)
Picture it. Downtown Dallas. Windy. A bit of a drizzle. About 45 degrees. Brrr! This is "nobody weather" because nobody likes to be in it. Well, aside from the hundreds of YMCA Turkey Trotters. We saw alot of shorts. Shorts. In that Jack Frost-nipping-at-your-nose freeze out weather. We rocked layers. We like layers.
We learned that the downtown homeless apparently do not like: 1. Going out unnecessarily into blizzards; and, 2. Large crowds of people overtaking city blocks by storm.
But, hey, the YMCA Turkey Trot is supergreat. Go them! We are down for any cause that lifts up those in need. We just now know to pick days to venture out into the world when craziness is not already ensuing...so we can stir up the craziness ourselves!
Speaking of which, we are implementing another part of our master plan that has yet to be, well, implemented. Passing out our stuff during the normal days of our lives. You just thought of that soap opera, didn't you?
This whole outreach idea began when I saw someone on the corner at a light, going from car to car, getting nothing. So we are gonna fix that. From this moment on, we will have bucks and Bibles on hand - 24/7 - just in case. This is in addition to our ventures into the streets that will happen randomly. Because not all the homeless, have downtown addresses.
Even though the weather was low and the human population was high, any time even one person is given the Word when they need it, we deem it a successful venture. Sowing the seeds. Going to market and trying to add to the flock.
There was this one cool moment...well, April thinks it's cool. Here ya go. I was wearing the backpack o' Bibles and asked for April to hand me some because I was empty handed. For some reason I said, "Give me three...so I can just hand them out boom, boom, boom." (This was accompanied by hand motions. Picture that for a visual effect.) Anyhoo...
Then she told me maybe I should pray to ask God to guide us where we need to go, but I told her He already is, because we are walking around downtown without a destination in mind. Simply being led by Him.
I saw some back stairs of the Downtown Library across the street and we crossed. We went up the stairs and walked around to the front where we saw...three homeless men. Not two, not four...three.
I approached the first man. "A couple bucks and a Bible?"
He tugged on a leather cross hanging from his neck, "Already have one."
I repeated, "No...I mean, here, a couple bucks and a Bible."
He smiled and took it, thanking us and wishing us "Happy Thanksgiving to you both." He meant he had Jesus already. I didn't get it. April clued me in.
Annnd...then we moved on to the other two men, both of which were very happy to be given the Bibles - and I'm sure the $2 didn't upset them either. And as we walked away, we could see the three men gathering together, looking at their new Bibles, talking amongst themselves. We like to think they are forever changed in Christ.
Those three men made our trip, and our day.
Hey! Check out April during "Operation: ThanksBibling":
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