The hot summer night brought more homeless out on the streets and over to our cars as we pulled up this past Monday during our monthly outreach. We had our usual hot soup, water bottles, sweet treats and clothing, but this time we also had some canned goods, bakery cookies from Fiona (Haig's friend).  We also had with us four newbies - Greg, Marina, Gary, and his son Marco.  But there was something missing -- SUZIE!  Before I go on, I wanted to say that we missed hearing Suzie's laughter and feeling the joy that she brings to our outreach. 

It was warm on the streets, but I felt that this month, people tended to be in good spirits.  Sure, there were the difficulties, but we didn't experience (at least I didn't), the little aggressive outbursts that sometimes happen.  Susan and Varouj worked distributing clothing, canned goods out of their car.  Nancy and Marina worked on water and clothing.  Koko had his usual soup duty, Nareg distrubuted treats.  It was warm out.  And people were thirsty.  I had purchased 5 cases of water, and we ran out by our 5th or 6th stop!  But our homeless brothers and sisters were grateful for what we had brought to them.  We kept hearing, at each stop, "Thank you for coming here."  "God Bless You."  That makes it all worth it!

I'll share something that was so simple and basic but made me feel good.  At one of our stops, I was greeted by a smiley faced, Hispanic man with a thick accent.  He was so happy to see us.  Came right up to me "Hey!  How you been?  I haven't seen you in long time!  You okay?  Nice to see you."  I mean, it was sweet.  He recognized me from previous times and came up to just talk and see how things were going.  It's the little things.

At that same stop, there was a man named Alan.  When we were packing up, he came up and thanked many of us personally.  Shaking our hands.  Introducing himself.  Thanking us again for coming out.  As we pulled out of that site, we had people waving goodbye and blessing us. 

I didn't see my friend Tara, though I asked about her.  If you remember from last month, word was that she had been badly pistol-whipped.  I asked another woman, Terri, if she had heard from her/about her.  She said she hadn't seen her, but that everyone knew about her fate last month.  She said it was pretty bad.  Please continue to pray for Tara.

We were like a well-oiled machine.  Greg had never been out with us.  I asked Greg if he'd help Koko distribute the soup.  I noticed that in the beginning, things were moving slow....but by the end of the evening, Greg had gotten the system down and was working like a veteran.  I was very proud of Marco, who must be only about 11 or 12?  not sure.  But he was distributing water bottles with his dad, Gary.

I felt proud of our group.  I know that God was smiling just as we were.  I am honored to be part of such an amazing group of people, and our In His Shoes ministry.