Two more days and I will be home to see my family and home congregation! This semester has flown by. When we get back from Thanksgiving we only have three weeks left in this semester. Wow! We have a Greek test Tuesday night that we are studying. Kind of feels like the holidays are approaching up here due to the weather. We have been about 50 degrees that last few days and it has been rainy yesterday and today.

6 of us went down to help pass out hot dogs and chips to the homeless Saturday. I saw many of the same faces that we saw when we went down to the coffee ministry several weeks ago. This was probably 12-14 blocks from the coffee ministry. They had about 90 people show up. The church that puts this on every Saturday had plenty of people this weekend because The University of South Carolina is on a bye week and little league football is over. There was also another church that comes out sometimes that had clothing to pass out. Blankets must be a real valuable thing because you had to have a picture ID to get one, if they still had one when you got to the table. We passed out a LOT of food. Hot dogs, chips, chili, sweets, bananas and soda. Some people went through 2, 3, 4 times. I couldn’t eat that much, but then again they may not have eaten that day or even last night. It was good to do this. The bad thing we realized on Sunday when it was 50 and raining, heavy at times, is that these same people have to go out in this to find food today and every day. They need to stay dry and warm, yet even if they find a place that fits those needs, they have to get out, probably carrying everything with them, and go find food. Rain or shine. It can get to you if you think about it much. Of course, some people there we not homeless, they just don’t have any money for food once they pay their rent, utilities, and for a car. This allows them to get some food and yet keep their place so that they don’t become homeless also. This is a good thing. I talked to one guy out there that said he can stay at his mother’s house whenever he wants, he just prefers to be out with his friends. Some are out there because they choose to be, some have been out there so long they don’t really know anything else, some would give anything to get back into society. It seems to me what keeps most of the ones that want out but can’t get out is an addiction or some sort of mental illness. They can’t qualify for the programs to get them back on track because they are using or drinking. The ones with mental illness probably need someone full time as a caretaker to make sure they take medicine and don’t do anything harmful to themselves or others. That’s pretty hard when you can’t even earn an income to keep yourself off of the street.

As Thanksgiving approaches I hope we all take a moment to think about what we are thankful for and to thank those around us that we feel this way about. We don’t say or act it near enough. I am thankful for everyone in my life. I have gotten to the point where I don’t really dislike or hate anyone, I more feel sorry for what causes them to be the way they are. At least at this time I hope I am learning from everyone in my life. I was asked in Spiritual Direction what my “on one foot recital of the law” would sound like. Here goes; “to hand my life to God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and trust in him to lead me through it, and to understand everyone I meet from their perspective”. I will leave you with that thought.

Happy Thanksgiving!