Feeding the Homeless

The Church Under the Bridge

Several weeks ago my stepmother Kathy forwarded an evite to me about feeding the homeless in downtown. From what I could see it looked like it was right under 45 right in front of my apartment so I said I would go.

She picked me up last tuesday and it turned out it was on the other side of 59 where it crosses 45 but just a few blocks from where i thought it would be. We parked under the bridge and we ran into some of her friends. They are part of a group that is the professional division of campus crusade for Christ, the name slips my mind. I found it ironic that we pulled up to help the homeless in her Corvette and so glad that nothing happened to it while it was parked under there.

When we arrived not that many homeless were there and we didnt know what we were doing or what to expect. Turns out we were helping with the "Church under the bridge". They used to have services under the bridge where i originally thought the event was taking place. We met one of the men who run the place and he explained to us that the organization has like 12 churches ( something like that) and they do about 77 services a week at bridges around houston. He was a recovered alcoholic and they only people allowed to run their ministry are people who have once been drug addicts, alcoholics, on the streets etc as they feel it adds to their ministry.

they played some worship songs off a computer on a loud speaker and we talked to some of the people who had come early.


We talked to these 2 lesbian girls who were telling us about their struggles living on the streets. They had been homeless about a year and told us that they always made fun of homeless people and found it ironic that now they were homeless. They had gone to Social Security that day to get their SS cards. Apparently it is common for homeless people to have their ids confiscated or stolen which makes it even harder to get a job because you dont just need a drivers license, you also need a SS card or voter registration etc.

My stepmom asked them if they had every considered staying at the Star of Hope downtown and they informed us that its not as pretty of a picture as the organization likes to put on. they didnt go into much detail other than they dont feed them much and all the money goes to their employees. I'm sure had we pressed they would have given more info on why they feel that way.

They then told us about a place in downtown called the Beacon where they volunteer 4 days a week for 12 hours and help make bread and clean and do other things because the Beacon will feed them, help provide clothes and well "keep them out of trouble"

We heard stories about them waking up with men on top of them... she of course said she beat the crap out of him and the following day she had to serve him dinner at the beacon... with his black eye.

The most interesting thing she said was, "we cant wait to get our ids so we can take whatever work we can get and get off the streets..... i'll tell you one thing i dont ever want to live another winter on the streets. My fingers and toes were blue it was miserable..... I'll admit though, we got a little lazy and comfortable for awhile which only hurts us in the end"

The service started and the guy who preached did a sermon on journeys and spoke on 3 journeys in the Bible. I wont go into it because thats not the point, however, i did think while the message was good, he talked WAY WAY WAY too long and those poor people probably lost interest halfway through the first journey. Not to mention he talked to philosophically and metaphorically. Half those people were doped on something or have some mental issues that they were with us but they werent with us if you know what i mean.

So at the end of it they asked us volunteers to go to the front and that we would pray with anyone who wanted or needed help. Yikes... i was NOT prepared for that. This man we had met setting up a few minutes prior, Ricky, came over to myself and 2 other ladies in the group and told us that he hadnt seen his family in awhile and that he wanted to pray that he would soon and for steady work (really nice guy)

When the prayer was over we went to the long table and set up the food. after it was set up they women went first and then the men, then they got back in line with the number they had been given on a card earlier in the day. after that they could come back over and over again. there were probably 120-150 people by this point.

What we served them made me SAD! A catering company cooked the main dish and the rest of the food was donated from stores and restaurants and it was food that had to be sold or expired that day. some of it i had to throw away because it had mold on it.

So when they went through the line they got a pasta dish ( a tiny bit) with some meat in it, then they got two pieces of bread or a roll, then a piece of banana nut cake or a muffin, then a choice of a cookie, donut, cinnamon roll or danish. Pretty much no nutrition for them at all. I think its awesome that those people cooked or donated food but man something besides sugar or starch would have been good for them.

Some of those people went through so many times. One girl was pregnant and omg my heart went out to her. Some of them didnt talk much ( some told us they dont because they are embarrassed), some were very appreciative, some guys almost got in a fight..... needless to say it was interesting and very rewarding. I would like to do it again actually. That man Ricky helped us clean the whole thing up and was so appreciative to us for helping and apparently he is there every night.

At the end they had the people write prayer requests while they waited in line on the back of their cards with their number on it. we split them up and i meant to bring it to work so i could include what some of them wrote. Some prayed specifically for people, one many prayed for his wife who was pregnant and their baby, some just put " i pray for the whole world", one guy listed any and everything in this world including hitler on his list. My stepmom asked me to give her some of my cards as i got a lot with requests on it and she didnt. She was ok with me giving her that one. I wasnt sure how to approach that one. maybe i'll add some of the things they asked or said on here later. Some were really sweet....

So that was my homeless adventure. we took a group shot at the end. i think its great people do things for other people. I was glad to do something philanthropic since i wanted to get more involved. I found a charity website through a magazine the other night that will hopefully get me more involved!

:)