Coffee, Camps, and the Kingdom of God
Early Wednesday morning this week, we got up and went out on the streets of Portland to bring coffee, hot chocolate, and some simple snacks to our friends. This has been something we have done at HOMEpdx for a while. In most of the places our friends outside sleep, they get woken up around 7 am by the police, and told to get up and get moving. Even though some of the officers are nice about it, it is still not a fun wake up call (and not all of the officers are nice). So bringing coffee as they are waking up is a small way we can bless those sleeping outside as they wake up.
It was cold as we headed out with our supplies, colder than it has been since last Spring. With gloves, hats, and coats around us, Bruce and I headed up to a camp we knew about, with some folks Bruce had connected with the day before. Our friends inviting us to their camp takes some degree of trust. After all, this is their home. And while we are on the streets of Portland, and especially when we are at someones camp, we are guests.
So as guests this morning, we found their tent and gave them some hot coffee and food. But we didn’t just give them coffee and some food. We stayed for a while and talked. As we did so, I saw some beautiful things.
I saw hospitality. Here was a group of people that invited the two of us to their homes. They introduced us to their neighbors, who we also shared coffee and stories with. They were so welcoming to us, as two people who slept indoors the previous night. It was just a patch of sidewalk, but I felt blessed to be invited to stand their, and thankful for my new friends.
I saw community. I saw people who knew each other and stood up for each other. As we were talking with our friends, another neighbor came up and wanted to know if our friend had any pants, as he had torn a huge hole in the ones he had. Our friend said all he had were rain pants, but he could have those. Here was someone whose possessions could all fit inside a tent willing to help his neighbor. How many of us even know all our neighbors names? I am always amazed by the beauty of community I see amongst my friends living outside. I am pretty sure churches desiring to do community well could learn a lot from my friends.
And I saw something beautiful in myself. I saw myself forget where I was. As I stood there and listened to the stories and met new people and laughed, I forgot I was standing there at 7 am in the cold as a HOMEpdx staff member. As someone who spends a lot of time downtown with HOMEpdx related things, it is easy to be always “on.” Always in work mode or pastor mode or some other mode, depending on the situation. Sometimes a fun lunch, good conversations, and laughter are all a part of this, but there is still an element of being “on” as someone who does that stuff for “work.” But as I was standing there laughing, I forgot that stuff. These folks who just a minute ago were my friends who lived outside became, just, my friends.
As someone who follows Jesus, and tries to do my best to live in line with the story of God in the world, these are beautiful moments, when the walls that our society puts up break down, and the labels we use to qualify our friends fall away. I still have so much to learn, both as a leader at HOMEpdx and as a follower of Jesus, but I never want to forget how powerful a small thing like laughing over coffee in the freezing early morning can be to the Kingdom of God.
Blessings to you my friend. Anytime I see or hear of anyone reaching out to help others it helps mend my broken heart one lash at a time. We are all Gods children and should always be treated as such. The problem with society and people in leadership today is they are lazy and un-caring. Its much easier to turn a blind eye to what is happening in our world today than to reach out and give a hand up to those in need. Its heart breaking and sinful yet it is happening everywhere, so I thank you for trying to make a difference one person at a time. God knows what is in our hearts and when the Spirit moves us we must act. Blessings my friend.
Beautiful Luke. Your experiences remind me of my own in my world, only for me, it’s hanging out with the amazing volunteers who work in our thrift store that insures we can come alongside pregnant and parenting folks in need of care. Whenever I find myself onsite there, I am blown away by the generous welcome of these folks who spend many hours of their week serving their community at the thrift store – some of them come in every day because of the sense of community that is present. There is always lunch prepared by someone to share with all – and these folks who give so much already are far from wealthy. I have watched them in their dignified responses, for example, telling a man who needed his new-found pants hemmed, that he could come back in a couple hours and they’d be ready. (No charge, of course.)
I am so humbled to sit with these folks and be cared for – and it is there that I am reminded that to give is to receive. I love what you are doing – I love reading about ways that you are present to others who are in need of noticing.
Thanks Donna. It sounds like you have a wonderful community there. I hope your work is going well.
[…] We’ve written before about our trips to hand out coffee, but something happened last Wednesday that made this week is a little different. The coffee, the banana or pop-tarts aren’t really the point of it for us and there weeks we don’t hand out half of the stuff we bring downtown because we’ve started talking to friends we meet. We listen to stories, sometimes talk about favorite books and on occasion field the question “Why the hell are you out here?” Last week under the Morrison Bridge we got to meet a wonderful man named Michael, with whom we sat and chatted for about 20 mins and I left that conversation genuinely looking forward to the next time I’d run into him. But I won’t be meeting up with Michael again anytime soon. […]