My (beautiful-huge-hearted-works-a-zillion-hours-for-no-money-to-help-at-risk-kids) sister works full time at a homeless outreach center in the City. So, sometimes we get opportunities to help out. This year all four of us headed down on Thanksgiving morning and it was wonderful to get to serve there!
Here's my Facebook status from right before we started...
"Extremely
thankful as I sit in my car and look in the rear view mirror and see
Sadie asleep in her carseat and homeless people huddling near the door
of the shelter we're about to go into to serve food. Seeing both in the
same mirror is sobering"
Chris got to hang out in the dining room where they were serving food for 4 hours. He emptied trays for people as they headed out the door.
Ella and I worked in "The Marketplace." She sorted through donations while I worked in the free store as a personal shopper. I SO enjoyed it! I got to hold a shopping bag and spend 10 minutes with each person helping them find the right sizes for whatever they were looking for. Since it was a holiday there were no limits on how many items each person could choose which made it extra fun! I was willing to serve in whatever capacity but doing this really confirmed that I LOVE people. It would have been tough for me to have a job where I didn't get to talk with, love on, hug, touch, help the people! Love, Love, Loved it.
There was one other kid there helping with her parents so she and Ella became buddies and worked together the whole time :-)
Did I mention this was a family affair? Chris' Dad played the keyboard for the entire dinner service in the dining room!
Certainly hope to make this a tradition on Thanksgiving and help out down there at other times as well. Ella's heart is so open to serving and giving right now so we're enjoying giving her (and our whole family) opportunities to live it out!
