Sometimes its the simple things. The is a young lady at LifeXchange named Andrea. She is late teens, young twenties. She has a young little boy name Carlo, age 4-5. Sorry that I am vague on the details, you will understand a little why, later. Andrea has always struck me as a hard person to talk to. A tough girl. Very selective about who she let into her world. Any and all of our conversations to date have been, Hi, hello, how are you. She is actually one of our success stories. Working mother, trying to make her way and doing very well, just a little difficult for me to break the ice with. Because she works, I don't see her at the office much, but she is a regular at our Wednesday night Bible studies that we do. We drive into Ocean View (the hood) to pick up whoever wants to come to the Bible study. Sometimes we walk around and gather up people that we see and know. Next to where we park, there is a tuc shop. A tuc shop is basically a store that someone opens in their house, garage, or shed. Its a small connivence store. I know the young man that runs the tuc shop so I try to spend my pocket change while I am there, plus I am usually ready for a little snack. I saw Andrea and Carlo running around so I bought an extra bag of Nik Naks. Its a small bag that cost R1. Thats equivalent to about 0.15 cents I guess. Nik Naks are the closest thing we have to cheetos, but they are not as crunchy.
So I was really using the Nik Naks to try and make friends with Carlo. I love kids and he usually accompanies Andrea anytime she is around at the office. I go over and give the bag to Carlo and then go sit down with some of the guys and enjoy my Nik Naks. I look over and Carlo gives his to his mom, evidently, Nik Naks are not his thing. To my surprise Andrea comes over and sits down next to me on the curb and begins to eat Carlo's nik naks. Even more surprising, she began to talk with me and we had a brilliant conversation about work and where she stays, etc., etc for a good 15-20 minutes until it was time to go to study.
Who knew a 0.15 bag of bad Cheetos would be a door opener? Just goes to show don't ever forsake the little things. Maybe I should keep a few bag of Nik Naks in the car.
Seriously I don't know who reads this, and experts would say I should probably write another blog here, but I am just going to keep going down a little rabbit trail.
We forget, I forget and I live here, that there are still people in the world that don't eat. Often times you will see men going to work with a loaf of bread, cost around a dollar. Most of these men are lucky if they are making $20-25 dollars a day. That bread will be their breakfast, snack, lunch, and snack again. There are 100's of children who go to school each day with out breakfast.
Another Wednesday night I was again walking around Ocean View looking for some of our guys. I ran into Joker (nickname). Joker is one of our fringe guys. He's been in and out of jail for drug dealing, but its the only living he knows. I would guess he is around 25. He has 2 kids from 2 different women. My first South African experience with the courthouse was taking Joker there. He has dreams. Dreams of being an electrician. When I see him I always try to encourage him to come see us at the office. We spoke about some activities we have coming up and that his mentor wanted to take him and 1 of his boys on a boat ride. His friends joked about his fear of the water, but he said he would do it for his boy. As I was getting ready to leave, for some reason I said Joker, is there anything you need? Grown man, father of 2, and pretty hardcore guy by any hood standards says I need to eat Mr. Shelby. Not completely sure what to do I said all right I make a plan to drop by this week with some food. We say are goodbyes and as I am walking away I remembered Andrea (my wife) had asked me to pick up a few things from the store. Loaf of bread, milk, and juice I think. I am still trying to figure out if he was serious or not or just wanting something to sell. Other guys have asked me straight up for cash but none of them have ever asked me for food. I went back and said if your serious I have some bread in the car you can have. He was that serious and evidently that hungry.
Another day recently I was in Fish Hoek meeting a missionary friend, Dave, on a Saturday. I see 3 of our guys walking. I stop and chatted as they had met Dave before. I asked what they were doing. It was around 4 and they said they had been at frisbee practice all morning and they took the train back and were waiting on a taxi to go home. I told them I was leaving in about 30 minutes and just to meet me at my car and I would give them a lift. They show up at the car and they had bought a big bag of chips and a 2 liter of soda and were sharing it all. As we were driving I jokingly said is that your lunch? They all said yea and breakfast too. They had gone all day, with nothing. Even working out running for hours playing ultimate frisbee, which if you have ever played you know is no joke. They used the taxi fare that I saved them by giving them a lift to go and buy chips and cool drink. That would have been R18 which is like $2 and some change.
So each of these 3 different stories are 20+ year olds. Imagine what its like for the kids. This is why we are looking to help with some kind of Breakfast Club, where we can pass out vitamin enriched porridge. Please keep this in your prayers as we look for a venue and for someone to donate the porridge.
This is also why 2 days a week when the guys come into the office for skills/educational training, Lucinda, has added a nutritional class where they learn about food, make food, and eat food. (and it is good, they are usually nice enough to share. Like today was Panera Bread good)
Look I know there are hungry people everywhere. That's why the church needs to step up and be part of the solution. Forget the church, christians we are the solution. There is no government food program that is the answer for the world food shortage. Its Christians like you and like me, meeting needs as we see needs. Look I have 1000 excuses not to give the guy on the corner my change. I know those people are in TN, IN, and FL and you probably have some of the same excuses I do, but we are without excuse. When I walked away from Joker, I was thinking, I need that bread, my family needs that bread, thats tomorrow's lunch.
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
That's all that popped in my head. Thats why I turned around. Someone told me this idea while living in TN because none of us want to give our cash to the guy on the street with the cardboard sign. Carry around a book of McD's coupons. Or better yet a bag of apples, or a loaf of bread. Just think through some things that you could have in your car that you could give instead of cash. Maybe they will be ungrateful, so what, you did what you were supposed to and you gave. What do you think is going to happen if you give the same guy an apple every day. Who knows, try it and see, I dare you. Maybe you will learn his name? There are needs out there. God is not asking us to meet them all. Just do your part. After all, sharing is caring. Remember, its the simple things.
Sorry for the long post, just needed to download.
Shelby
PS my missionary friend Dave, knows the street guys so good, they come to his door looking for food. When I went to the store he knew the parking guy (yes we have people here to help you park your car and "look" after it while your shopping) by name. I don't have it all down, yet, but God is teaching thru guys like Dave.
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