As told by Phyllis, one of the Christian HELP team members:
Today
I was coming back from lunch, and as I
was getting out of my car, I heard this little boy crying loudly.
His
mom was holding him and his dad was close by. I went in the office and grabbed
him a Mickey Mouse plush toy, and thought that may calm him down. I
walked up to the family and
asked if I could give him it, the little boy was maybe about 2 or 3 years old would
not take it so I handed it to mom.
She
said he’s hungry, I said oh he hasn’t had lunch yet? Mom said no, he hasn’t
eaten today; I gave him a glass of juice. She
was holding a food ticket, and had a few families in front of her waiting, so I
walked into the food pantry and got a pretzel and cheese snack and an individual
bag of cookies. I walked back to the family and asked the parents, is
this ok for him to have, to hold him over till your food order is
processed? She said yes, Thank you so much for treating us kindly and
like human beings. I went to give him the bag of cookies; he grabbed them
so fast from me, at that moment I knew this little boy has known hunger. No
child ever should. It’s was
heartbreaking.
I am just thankful that I heard his cries and responded,
if only in a small way. It made me think, differently about what we do
here at Christian HELP and why. It must be so demeaning and humbling to
come to a food pantry, fear of being judged or belittled. Our words, and
expressions, have an impact on our clients; we try hard to be aware of that
often. We can get so busy, we miss the opportunities right before our
eyes, if we just take that moment to stop, listen and see. Everyone
has a story and theirs was they have never been in this situation before and
are just numb.
Lord I thank you for meeting this families needs today, through
us. Allow God to use us more daily, and listening for those cries and
unspoken words, the face reveals so much more than words sometimes.
