Streets of Laredo- summer 2012

We all notice the guys who stand at the highway off-ramp, with the "Please Help" sign. We ignore them and look away, or maybe give them a little smile and nod, but really, we don't know what to do. It's easy to miss many of the people on the streets, until you start looking. One night last week our job was to look. For the second year, we helped to distribute food to the homeless and indigent of Laredo, Texas.

We went out with Randy Leyendecker, giving meals and water or a soda, offering new and clean t-shirts to folks on the street. We met all kinds of people. There were guys that work at a tire shop, who live outside out back. There were people who live under the highway overpass, laundry hanging on fences. There was a lady who hopped several lanes of evening traffic to get to our bus.

There were characters- the 88 year old man who insisted on lying down and touching his feet over his back for us. There was a sweet old lady who wanted to give me a dollar for taking her picture. (we refused, of course!) There was a man in a hurry to get somewhere, but who took the meal with a smile and kept on. There was the man who buttoned up his shirt and with a sparkle in his eye, put on his best pose for the camera.

And there were people hurting. There was the group of young men, full of bravado and swagger. But individually, two came back to the bus, crying, asking for prayer. They told us of being tired of life on the street, tired of the pull of addiction. One man didn't want his picture taken. "Not today," he told me, "I'm not feeling good."

I met a mom and adult son, whose house recently was destroyed in an electrical fire. They are sleeping in their car in the driveway. I asked the son, "do you know Jesus?" "No, I don't know that man," he told me. "Ahh, but he knows you," I reminded him.
He asked why I took pictures, refusing to have his own taken.

That's a good question.
I take the pictures because every single one of those faces has a story.
I take the pictures because we need to be reminded. It's easy for us to drive by and think "Man that guy has problems" and figure he doesn't really want to change and judge how pathetic is that life under the bridge.
And yet, every single one of those people was created in the image of God.

Ann Voskamp recently wrote, "Who isn’t nothing but a skeleton in the valley of the dry bones — unless they actually pull some skin onto the Word and let suffering make your valleys into sheltered places to light a match and see the face of God."

Randy started offering a meal to the homeless in Laredo because his wife told him a story. She had been homeless as a child, living on the streets. She couldn't remember anyone being nice to her. That story broke Randy's heart. "We'll go be nice to people," he told her. He is. And I'm thankful we had the opportunity to join him again this year.

Once you start looking, you might see similar faces in your own community. We know that throughout the entire world, there is suffering and hurting. The reality of living in this fallen world takes my breath away. Yet, I believe that one person beginning to act in just small ways can make a difference, can be the hands and feet and face of Christ. Voskamp gives some ideas in this article- 10 Real Ways You Could Really Be The Change In The World.

For a full gallery of the faces we met that night in Laredo, go to the web album Streets of Laredo 2012.