Helping The Homeless Now

UPDATE ON MARCIE: Marcie, who also has a broken leg from getting hit by a car, is coming along well. She arrived at the truck pushing her wheelchair saying she was sore from sitting in it. As Eddie and I were leaving we noticed Marcie pushing her wheelchair along the side of the road back toward her camp. I wish I could have gotten a picture of this. Earlier we had given her a very large woven basket she wanted for laundry. The basket was in the wheelchair as Marcie slowly limped along the isolated road, the cast on her foot against a back drop of dark gray clouds and open fields. There was wind in her hair. What struck me was the expression on her face. She looked as though she was enjoying herself, observing in awe the sky and the beautiful, natural show it offered. I thought, thank God there are opportunities for the homeless people to enjoy something. In this case Marcie was able to enjoy just by looking. She looked at peace. It was a memorable scene.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Jan, Carol and Jamie from the Shepherd of the Valley Methodist Church in Indio were helping again yesterday. Jan is in charge of gathering donations that we receive every month from the Church. Carol and Jamie brought Peanut and Jelly sandwiches (that are a big hit) frozen bottles of water and other goodies. Thank you!

Message from Chris: Hello Everyone,

Myrna, who has helped us often and has been a client of our services for some time, is getting more involved in helping us help others. Saturday she assisted with the shopping and stocking the truck which was a real benefit in this hot weather. Rather than doing the shopping on Saturday and stocking the truck early Sunday morning, with her help, we were able to stock the truck quickly as we went from store to store. Myrna also came up with some good ideas how to streamline the shopping to speed things up even more. She wants to start doing this regularly and we're thankful for her help.

Spending time together like this we were able to talk. This was an opportunity to get to know Myrna better and see just how determined she is to help the homeless. She told me that, "these are my people," and how she has made a conscience decision to help them.