Saturday, July 19, 2008 11:37:20 PM
Today we fed well over 200 people. Some were familiar faces, but there were a lot of new faces. I talked with a young man who really appreciated the food for him and some left over dogs for his dog. He was traveling with a young boxer mutt pup as a companion. Originally from Kentucky, he was back in Asheville for the second time after being gone for 3 months. He said he was back because of the receptiveness of the people here in town. He has a guitar now and is learning to play it – “it’s a great place to hang out and learn to play music”, he said. If you ever spend much time down town you will notice that there are plenty of new music venues and street performers around. With them there is definitely a lot of culture in town. Alternative music. Drumming session on the square. Drugs. Hippies, new agers, pagans, gays. And if you look closely a few followers of Christ handing out a hot meal, bottle of water, and a message of restoration & hope.
Some other folks I talked to had been living in tents, but they were “evicted” by APD and lost the few belongings that they had. One older fellow was associated with an outlaw biker club near Daytona FL. He had been up here a while and since losing his few belongings he really appreciated the food. On fellow said he had not eaten in three days he said "The hot dogs are fantastic!".
All of these folks, some homeless, some physically disabled, some mentally disabled, some just swirling through difficult circumstances, some just choosing to be wanderers, and maybe a few with homes, jobs, and transportation are all part of the culture here in Asheville. The culture has some dark parts. It also has some bright parts.
I know folks who haven’t spent much time in downtime. They think it’s a very dark place. You know what I’ve come to liken it to – a night sky. Yeah it’s dark, but there is a sprinkling of light from the stars and the moon. They are radiating and reflecting the light of the Son. Remember, the light of day comes after the night.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Sunday, June 22, 2008 12:28:35 AM
It's been a long day, but a good one. We grilled burgers for the folk’s downtown in the street feed. We grilled 180 burgers and still ran out. As we arrived a church dropped off 50 or 60 sausage and egg biscuits. Not sure who they were. They left quickly, but we and the recipients of their efforts appreciated it. Thanks to Gene Dickernson for topping us off with two bags of double cheese burgers he picked when we ran out of burgers. They were for a couple with four wonderful, and very polite, little kids that arrived just a little too late to get one of the grilled burgers.
This I think was our biggest turn out. It was likely the wafting of the all the smoke, some of which is still in my eyes, that drew the crowd. It called them in from as far as Prichard Park. As soon as we would get to what looked the like the end of the line another wave of hungry souls were drawn in by the smell. It wasn’t the normal aroma they were used to. There was one fellow who made a point to tell me that it had been more than a year since he had partaken of a grilled burger. Believe it or not it, he wasn’t far from some teary emotion as he expressed his thanks. There were several other folks who expressed sincere gratitude for that meal. They were not used to being served a meal cooked on the spot. It was just a grilled patty! It was a cheap patty - certainly not prime. When you are on hard times, maybe don’t have a place of your own, grilling is a luxury. Some of these folks hadn’t had that in a while.
That picture is what our lives should be. There should be an aroma. It should waft out through our homes, down our streets, around our jobs. It should appeal to the folks around us. It should stir an appetite in them for something they’ve not had in a while, maybe ever. They should have a desire to get some of what were cooking, what were being nourished by, what makes us different from the rest of world around us.
What are you cooking? Don’t take those grilled burgers for granted!
12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Deuteronomy 32:12-14 (King James Version)