Helping at the Homeless Drop-in Center

This day was one of the best BTC days for me and I’ll always remember….

Sometimes things just feel right in the heart…and I always wanna be everywhere at once. I wanted to go to Downtown Women’s Center on Sunday also…to see Pizza being served to the ladies that I got to help make…(just cutting tomatoes and onions-sob sob) the night before with the DWC crew in Carson.

I was happy to be at the 1st Cong. Church with Sonali in Lonnnnng Beeeach this last Sunday.

Some things that I absolutely loved about the day:

1. I got to sit by Sonali’s son, Ethan and help him hand out oranges to those we served. He got such special compliments. A lot of people said to him, “Thanks, buddy!” or “You’re a mighty young volunteer!”. He’s four years old. I won’t say only four…this kid is beyond his years…one man even said to Ethan…”You look like that Grant celebrity..” and I’m thinking…Cary Grant? And the man said, “Hugh Grant…do u know who Hugh Grant is?” and what was sooo sweet is he added: “you have a special heart, young man..I can tell.” or something of that nature. :) People were sooo inspired to see this boy serving…they said such precious things to him. And Ethan and I had fun too seeing who our next customer was going to be…I kinda felt like I was at a lemonade stand or something.

2. I loved handing out the cosmetic/toiletry kits to people. WE DO NEED MORE THOUGH!! Not everyone got one :-( But what was so wonderful is that people were understanding and we said that we’d be back again…Sonali, Cheryl, and I…along with another boy named Ethan (about 12)that we called: Ethan 2…scrambled to put kits together when we ran out of the ready made ones. If anyone would like to go buy some travel size items and put in a large ziplock bag with a small towel, please feel free. Sonali can give you more details.

3. This one lady was asking for dessert. I said it would be coming to the tables after dinner. Just for that bit of information, she gave me a hug.

4. I spoke to a few people about how they were doing…one man has been having joint problems. His knees have been hurting because of sleeping outside in the cold. But he still went up to Sonali and said: How are u boisterously…and told me later that it’s so great to see people smiling. Another man named Joaquin…said he doesn’t like his name. He knows a tremendous amount about Hollywood and movies. I told him that there’s a famous actor named, Joaquin Phoenix and that his name is cool. He still didn’t believe it but proceeded to tell me about some of his favorite movies. There was a guy volunteering with us at the church hall named, Antonio…and I said something to Joaquin like…there’s Antonio Banderas! Joaquin came up to my car before I left the church. Cheryl and I were talking in the car a bit because I hadn’t seen her for a long time. Joaquin let she and I know that we are both kindergarten girls…I thought…what the heck?? But then he intelligently told us all these things about how someone who’s 70 is really 200 light years or something of the like…and even though his telling of stuff was a little off kilter, it felt like he was describing what some would term: young souls and old souls…I feel I’m an old soul…but am very young at heart. So some of his describing of things was making sense. His other friend came up and talked to us…but almost in nonsensical language and we politely said goodbye for now.

5. I feel going to this drop-in center and serving like this is so special. We did this on Thanksgiving day too. If anyone who’s wanting to go to Change of Heart weekend gets a chance to help out and serve at this church before that weekend, it would be great…because you really get to observe and really speak in such down to earth conversations with people…and there’s such a gratitude…it really almost made me cry a few times over…

With love! Thank you, Sonali for putting this day together…