4th Annual Homeless for a Night

Saturday, 06 December 2008 00:00

Well, last night was the 4th annual Homeless for a Night event. The youth from our church raise funds and blankets/jackets/jeans for the area's homeless centers. Then, they bring a cardboard box and willingly "become homeless" for one night. All the kids gather on the church property with nothing but short-sleeve shirts. Depending on the amount of money they raise, they are allowed to borrow a blanket and a jacket from the pile being donated. They do not get to choose what they get.

Sometime around midnight, a "meal" is given...Ramen noodles and hot chocolate. That's it. Then they have to bundle up in their boxes and sleep for the night outside in the elements. Some years it's rained; some years it's been freezing...this year was relatively mild with random sprinkles to help turn the boxes to mush.

Approximately 70 youth raised $13,000 and a landscaping trailer full of blankets, jeans and coats. They did great! There was only one glitch last night. Somewhere around 9:30, during worship, the sprinklers came on....everywhere. Parents dove to cover the sprinkler heads with everything from planters to buckets to bare hands as boxes and children were soaked. One parent even dashed in front of the stream of water herself to protect my husband's DJ equipment, being used as a PA system. The best part of all, the sprinklers aren't even set to go off on Friday night. nice.

At some point during the night, there was a shooting at a nearby high-end residential development. One of the parents is a police officer, so we all got to follow what was happening. How random and yet almost poetically justified that on the same night that so many youth stand up to raise awareness and make a difference in the lives of the unfortunate in our area, yet at the same time, something so senseless, irresponsible and callous as a shooting is underway.

This made me stop and think about the battle that is being fought on this earth, in our communities...good vs. evil. It's the polarizing opposites that give us a snapshot into the condition of the world we live in; the world we're raising our children in. Teaching them to stand up for what matters now hopefully helps to insure that when they are out in the real world, they too will make the decision to stand for Christ instead of standing for the things of the world.

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4th Annual Homeless for a Night

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