Homeless Ministry

5:15 am on a Saturday morning and my alarm reminds me to sacrifice a little. Myself and my two roommates roll out of bed and drive through the gray marine layer that has settled thick over the city. We head for the office to start making coffee. In a slight state of grogginess I prayerfully go about the task of making pot after pot of coffee. Eventually we fill a ten gallon cooler with coffee, pile into the vans and head downtown to Harbor Drive where the homeless are beginning to wake up for the day. Some of us end up on the street across from the Convention Center where the homeless crowd is a little older and reserved while the rest of us end up on the other side of Petco Park with the rowdier party crowd. As most people start to wake up they are really grateful to wake up to a cup of coffee and a muffin they don't need to go looking for. And everyone is looking forward to just having someone to chat with. I spend quite a bit of time talking with a guy named Chris who's always been on the street. If I had run into him anywhere else in the city I wouldn't have had a clue he was homeless. Nice guy, articulate, well kept pretty balanced sort of person. Somehow the coming DTS outreach to Thailand came up and he asked all kinds of question that opened the door for me to share why we would go half way across the world or even come downtown to help people. The love of Jesus. So it was the beginning of one of many new relationships made again this past weekend. A chance to step outside of my comfort and sit in someone else's living room (sidewalk) for a bit. One of many