11-16-11

Dear Family of faith,
Thank you, thank you, for all the blankets that you have been bringing! You can stop for now; I have quite a supply of them (but we now know that some warm stocking caps and gloves would be appreciated). Last Friday night I made my first trip down to the streets of Tampa to distribute them to the people sleeping on the street. Ray Gomez and Ben Shinn went along. We passed out 11 blankets, 1 to a woman and the rest to men. For the most part we unrolled them and covered the guys. They were appreciative. It was one of the coldest nights of this season, so the timing was good. One man had even built a cardboard barricade between two trash containers to protect himself from the wind. I couldn't but help think about how little those people lived with in this world-- only what they could carry around with them. I wondered what it would be like to have so little and yet still have the will to go on. I have known a lot of people who have so much more and find life difficult. In this season of Thanksgiving, it gives us a reason to pause and be grateful for what we have. What's ultimately important is not the things of life, but life itself. If you are reading this, you are alive-- what a wonderful gift!