I have discussed the start of our family’s efforts to feed homeless people previously. Within a few months, we had a dozen people from our church going with us to minister to people on Sunday afternoons. Even then, I never would have dreamed that we would be having a man off the street as a house guest.
For several years, we had hosted a home group one night a week at our house. When we told them about what we had been doing, they all wanted to come and join us. It was particularly exciting for me because I was able to see the effect that doing this work had on the hearts of the people from our church.
We had learned to become much bolder in our approach. Nancy was a bit timid when we started. But within a few weeks, she was going down back alleys looking for people to talk with and feed. We got to know some of the people by name and took some of them to church.
I became friends with a man in his twenties named Darrell. He had been recently released from a short stay in prison. His family had given up on him and he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t seem to find any work other than day labor and those jobs were pretty bad. He became a regular at our church and even was attending our home group. It was about fifteen miles to downtown from where we lived, so someone, usually me, would go and get him.
Thanksgiving was approaching and Nancy and I thought about trying to include Darrell in our family celebration. After much thought and prayer, I invited Darrell to spend the night at our home and celebrate Thanksgiving with us the next day. Everyone in the family knew Darrell and felt good about it. We had previously had a man stay with us for a week that had been furloughed from a federal prison, but this was the first homeless person to stay at the house overnight.
Everything went well. Some of our extended family came over for Thanksgiving lunch. I told them that we were having a friend from our church as a guest. The highlight of the meal occurred when an uncle asked Darrell where he lived. Darrell replied that he was currently sleeping in the underground city hall parking lot. He added that he knew the night watchman.
After I had taken Darrell home, we discovered that he had stolen a small gold ring that my son had left in the bathroom. Our months of serving Darrell had not changed his heart. I hear from Darrell every now and then. He continues to be in and out of jail.
Once again, we had been nudged closer to the realization that we were best suited to raising children that needed a home.