All Saints’ Youth
“They hide in plain
site.” As we walked and distributed more
blankets today, it was amazing how even we, who were looking for people in
need, completely missed some of the folks camping out under trees or on benches
in the park. But when they’re seen and
recognized and honored with a simple “Good Morning” they respond. It’s been amazing to us how many people we
pass on the way from our home-away-from-home to the mission site. And we say “Hello” to everyone we meet. You know who responds? Not the people rushing to get to work, the
well-dressed folks with cell-phones and worries. The homeless people not only offer a “Good
Morning” back, often times they strike up a conversation.
We met our new friends from
yesterday, the tourists. Seeing us in
our t-shirts, smelly as they have become, they offered us hugs for the
important work we are doing. They were
on their way from Mass when we saw them.
Once again our blankets were
a big hit. We could have given many more
out today so easily. It was difficult to
have to say they were all gone as we got closer to the center.
Our gifts of power tools and
prayer shawls were so powerful today bringing tears to the eyes of our
mentors. What a blessing they are. They truly love to do what they do. One of our mentors said that he would be
giving his prayer shawl away to a friend of his who is experiencing some
difficulties. So we gave him a second shawl. Now he decided that one was going to his
friend and one to his sister. You see
this blessing couldn’t just stop with him.
He wanted to share with others the deep sense of blessing that he felt.
The shelves went together
much quicker today. We finished four
shelves, three for a pantry room, installed and braced. One for a storage room. What a sense of accomplishment! As we worked, the plans for the pantry
cupboard changed a couple of different times.
We, like them, are all about completion and so rather than leave the
changes to the next group of volunteers, we worked a little bit longer and
finished it up.
Some of us discovered new
gifts. One of us, “The engineer” as he
has been dubbed, discovered an incredible ability to go from concept to plan to
building. Not only could he do that, he
also could act as a mentor to the others as he was mentored! The blessings that we have received have come
to us on their way to someone else.
After all of our work was
finished we had a chance to tour the building.
In the basement stands the statue of a poster that we have photographed. There is a man and a woman sitting next to an
infant in a box. The statue sits on a
grate. Today we learned the story of how
that statue came to be. An artist was
commissioned with the task to draw or photograph the homeless. Every time he tried his rendition was
rejected. One day he came across this
family, man, woman and child living on a heating grate. So he carefully sketched what he saw and
proceeded to make a plaster cast of the scene.
That night the steam heat was turned off at that grate and they found
the woman and child dead. The next day
the artist smashed his plaster scene. It
has since been remade and the grate that they died on was removed. Today the plaster scene sits on that original
grate with the words, “Still no more room at the inn.”
The drawing was powerful
when we saw it painted on the wall in the room where we were working. The story about where that drawing came from
brought tears to our eyes. For so many
there is still no room – and not just no room. They are transparent, hiding in plain
view. Thanks be
to God that God continues to reach out to the invisible through all of us,
bringing God’s love to the world.
Tomorrow we will be packing
up and heading out. We will be returning
with much to think about. We have been
blessed by our time in
Love and God’s Blessings,
All Saints 2007
July 6, 2007