Summer's Roller Coaster Ride

Nancy received our 25,000th sack lunch (and other gifts)
at our Aug. 14 outreach.

HIGHS AND LOWS FROM HELPING

The emotional aspect of getting so close to so many certainly has its ups and downs. To be completely candid, our sixth summer of helping others was exciting and sobering all at the same time.

On the upside, we served our 25,000th sack lunch at our Friday outreach in Tulsa on Aug. 14. It’s a journey that began, of course, back in 2003.

The recipient was a lady named Nancy, who was accompanied by three of her grandchildren. Volunteer Brock King served up the special bag.

We’ve seen higher turnouts for lunches in Tulsa again, too, where we had typically served more than 160 people per week before we changed the day and location of our outreaches last Fall.

It’s great to see our crowds officially come back, with 104 on Aug. 21 and 115 on Aug. 28. Based on how we’ve grown before, we should be back to 150 per week sometime in 2010.

Denver remains a bright spot, too. We’ve had almost 25 outreaches there so far this year, and the volunteer base continues to expand and get more experience.

Sadly, we’ve also seen stories about homeless men we knew who passed away this summer. Their bodies were found near the OSU-Tulsa campus and on the 16th St. mall in Denver.

We’ve also wrestled with seeing our upstart mentoring program hit a snag. Both men we were working with quit cold turkey.

Another man we’ve served for years also told us he was finally ready to get off the streets and into housing. He made the appointments to proceed, then missed them.

Given our fondness for those we serve, we don’t take their struggles lightly. Despite their challenges, we know God can tackle tough situations. He can heal all the brokenness we see.

So we’ll keep praying. We’ll keep persevering. We’ll keep expecting miracles. Will you pray, too?