Churches United in Ministry

If one spends any time among the homeless and "underhoused" in the CHUM shelter,
one cannot help but notice the small, quiet but significant acts of generosity that are
amazingly commonplace there. A young man, bare-ankled and with duct-taped toes
on his shoes, incredulously receives the gift of a pair of socks from a scruffy-looking
stranger. A tired looking man in the lunch line asks for a second plate to bring to "that
lady in the wheelchair." An older man with a small disability income gives a shelter
worker a handful of bus tokens to give to someone who may need them. An elderly
woman who uses a walker to get around brings cookies to the center and cheerily
claims "we all need a smile!" An incredibly bad-smelling man pulls a filthy, but
wrapped, candy out of a tattered pocket and hands it to a grateful shelter worker.

The opportunities to document such acts of generosity are endless at a homeless
shelter. To be sure, there are predatory folks looking to prey on the vulnerable, but
they really are few and don't last long. When one sits quietly in the center the
generosity (often in the face of great need) is immediately evident.

Of course the community at large gives great gifts of money, time and goods to keep
the shelter going. These are critical gifts to the life of the program. However, it is the
seemingly small gifts between the homeless themselves that is the spirit of the
center. It becomes apparent that when one has very little, one is more willing to give
greatly - be it a pair of socks, a smoke or a smile....

One early winter day I went shopping with my daughter. Shopping is not one of my favorite things to do -- the parking lot is always full, the aisles are too
narrow. My shopping experience is always the same: up one aisle, down the other, throwing things in my cart that I think I need. Finally, after what seems like
an eternity, I'm done and out the door.

As I was walking toward the parking lot I noticed two elderly gentlemen from the Drop-In Center sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. The minute they
recognized me they began waving and shouting my name.

They appeared excited and happy. One gentleman was changing his old worn out shoes for a new pair of boots. He was so excited about his new boots he
could not wait to show me.

The other gentleman followed us to our truck showing us what he had bought. In his small bag he had new gloves and a pair of long johns. While we were
loading up the truck, he was telling us how worried he had been about the cold weather and now he didn't have to worry any more. He was so excited that his
smile went from ear to ear.

After we were done loading the truck, the gentleman offered to put our carts away. I thanked him. Just as he started to push the carts away he stopped, turned
around and looked me in the eye. "God is good," he said.

When I got into the truck a great sadness fell over me and I turned to my daughter and asked her, "When was it that I forgot how to be thankful? When did I
lose the feeling of joy over the simple things in life?"

My daughter replied, "We forget how fortunate we are! I can't imagine getting that excited over a pair of gloves and a pair of long johns or, for that matter, a pair
of warm boots. Maybe we are the ones who are poor and they are the ones who are rich."

I glanced over at the men on the bench and noticed that the warm jackets they were wearing came from the donations at CHUM. I said to myself, "Yes, God is
good."