6/19/2012

This is a story of One Shoe :-))!  The Right Shoe and the left one left over.

 :-))!

This is the left one.  The one left over.

Many times as we help those in need they respond well to our “treatment” of them like you would or maybe should to treatment from your Doctor.  In addition to that, many times Our Responsibility as a nonprofit and the responsibility of those in need we assist responds well.

Here is an example:

Last Friday 6/15/2012 i spoke to and assisted a disabled man in need who has lost half his left leg and is living on the streets in Clearwater, FL.  I spoke to him for about a half hour only as it was raining and he wanted to get cover and bed down for the evening.  You can read the blog from 6/15 here .

When asked what he needed he asked for some food as he was hungry, a toothbrush/toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant, a shaver, and a pair of or rather a shoe…..yep one shoe….as he only has his right foot.   The left foot he had amputated from a car/pedestrian accident.  I gave him all of what he asked for and more except we did not have his size shoe on board at the time.   We always ask what they need.  We do not simply hand out a bunch of stuff.   We ask what they need and give them that if i can and i also observe what i see they may need and ask if they want it.  If we do not have what they need, then we try to get it and come back with it within the next day depending on the urgency.  If it is urgent we go get the item and come right back.

I also gave him TWO (2) – 30 gallon trash bags.  I had asked him if all the trash i seen around his area was his.  He had admitted to me that yes it was his and two of his friends that stayed with him there.  (Sleeping on the concrete area by the way).   With our belief in Our Responsibility as a 501c3 Nonprofit and also our belief in teaching those in need who we assist that same Responsibility, i asked him that if he and his friends would gather all the trash from their area and place it in the large trash bags i gave him that we would pick it up the next day.  He told me he would.  So, i thought, ok…we will see.

Remember we did not have a shoe his size on board, so the next morning, last Saturday 6/16/2012, my wife and i went to Walmart with some Donation monies we had received from a generous donor in Texas.

We purchased a brand new pair of shoes for $9.00, a pack of socks, some decent Wilkerson Sword brand disposable razors and some trial sized deodorants for both men and women and Tasters Choice Single Serve Instant Coffee packets.

Bear with me….the story gets good  :-))!

Remember, we had already given a number of needed items to our new Friend In Need yesterday.  The main purpose of this trip to Walmart was to buy a shoe….well pair of shoes i guess.   They simply won’t sell you one shoe.  How silly eh?  LOL.  :-))!   So we found a pair of slip-ons and bought them.

With our treasures in hand we headed back to where we could find our disabled Friend In Need of one shoe.   Yep, one shoe.  :-))!

We were Following up on our “Treatment” of this disabled one in need.

So, there he was, doing a little panhandling and we pulled up on the sidewalk near him out of the way of busy traffic.

He came up to my wife Pat’s side of the van.  She was the one who had alerted me to him in the first place.  Jesus helped me locate him the night before.

*First, you could see he Had responded Well to “Treatment”.  He was smiling.

*Next, Pat noticed he was clean and clean shaven. (we had given the shaver and other toiletries the night before) Another major Response to “Treatment”

*He was in a great mood.  (Response to “Treatment”)

*Next Pat handed him one pair of new socks and one new razor.  In addition to that she handed him his ONE (1), yes one brand new slip on shoe!  He was beaming and laughing!  (Response to “Treatment”)Yes, the photo at left is the shoe that is left over, as he only needed the right shoe.  Now, i am more then confident, we will meet a disabled someone on the streets in need of a left shoe  :-))!

*****NEXT, and to me a MAJOR Response to “Treatment”.   I asked him if he and his friends had cleaned up the trash for me so my wife Pat and i could take it away and leave the area there “better then we found it”.  He stated with a huge smile,  in a strong uplifted and confident voice with a big bold……  ”Yes, i did it last night!”

I gave him a heartfelt, Thank You, and made sure he knew that i appreciated it.  And we told him we would go get it out of there for him right then.

We drove to his camp site on the vacant property where they sleep on concrete.  There they were, the two 30 gallon trash bags stuffed full of their trash.   I loaded them in the van and removed them from that site.

Friends, this is a huge huge deal.  Just one of them.  There are many actually.

By asking this disabled man living on the streets to clean up his trash, and by us at Straight Ahead Outreach helping him to discard of it.  Both of us as a nonprofit and this man living on the streets have held up Our Responsibility to the community.

Priceless.  How many Responses to “Treatment” can you find in the above?  There are numerous ones and all positive.   What does this tell me?   It tells me he is one of Jesus’s Sheep, who He wants off the streets and that wants to be off the streets.   What an opportunity for Jesus and His Father in Heaven to shine!  We will be seeing this man again very soon.  Maybe this time i will begin the process of helping him get another prosthetic leg which was lost when he had to go into the hospital after breaking that same leg.

We helped this man who wants to be clean and things to be clean around him “leave things better then he found them” as one of my blogger friends writes about in the blog link below.  Priceless.

http://mww1954.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/leave-things-better-than-you-found-them-everett-wiley-wilson-my-father/

Can You Help Us Help Others Today?

 Thank you,

Lance Greene/Founder