The Pee-Pee dance, Paninis and Jim?

Sooo..where to start this week? Yet another crazy week for the Laneys. My man Nick finished his spring flag football season at the Y. He did pretty well, scored 3 touchdowns last week. Nick is definitely my little sports maniac. Christian is picking up the golf thing and doing pretty well, I should say. Very awesome to know that if he sticks with it, we'll have something we can do together for life. That's the great thing about golf. I've played with older fellows on many occasions, and it seems the older some of these guys get, the straighter they hit 'em. We could all take a lesson from them. Christian and I played a delayed birthday round last Saturday. We were supposed to play a little golf on his birthday, but I woke up sick and we just didn't get to it. So we played last Saturday at a par 3 course just up the road a bit from our house. We pretty much had the course to ourselves. It didn't start off so well for Christian as he was spraying balls everywhere, but slowly we got his alignment right and I let him use my 5 wood and before you know it, he's hitting 'em long and straight. If you've ever golfed, you know that's all you need to keep going back. A few good drives in a round of 18 holes pretty much negates all the other bad shots. I'm blessed to have a couple of great sons. God has been so good to Robin and I. And Of course there's Erin. What more can a dad say about the most beautiful little girl he's ever seen? She's my sweetheart. Yesterday, after we finished our Sunday activities in the park, we decided to head down to the slides. They have a couple of huge slides at the opposite end of the park where we meet every Sunday and the kids are always begging us to go slide when we finish. Yesterday we gave in and walked the couple of blocks to the slides. As we got closer, Erin started doing the pee-pee dance. If you are a parent, you know that dance. And she's not real shy about it either. So she and I head to a Hilton Garden Inn a couple of blocks away to use their facilities. If you are a parent, you know the drill. The closer you get the more urgent the need. So by the time we get to the front door, I'm carrying her and we are almost in a slow jog. We get in, avert a disaster and everything is ok. As we are walking back to the play area, it dawns on me just how blessed I truly am. I'm walking along with a beautiful little creation of God and it is my responsibility to keep her safe, to raise her as God would have me raise her, and to be the best father that I can be. I'm not sure how I'm doing in that regard, but man is it scary when you break it down like that?! I mean, I try and never take my kids for granted. I know the responsibility is the most awesome one that God will ever place on me. To bless me with this little angel, or my boys, and to place upon me the responsibility of raising them in a Godly way? What does that mean? How do you know if you are setting them up for the rest of their life? Are you building their foundation? All thanks to the Lord that they have an awesome Mother!! She is the rock upon which they will always be able to lean.

Which brings me to this. Not a good lead-in, but...I make a feeble attempt to capture, on a weekly basis, a snippet in time of what actually happens for us on the corner of 14th and Douglas Street on Sundays. I usually try to throw my thoughts together early Monday morning after I've had time to actually digest what happened the previous day. If you've read any of my previous ramblings, you are probably vaguely aware of what it is we are doing on that corner on Sundays. We are simply trying to be the Hands and Feet of our Lord. Nothing more and nothing less. We try to be on that corner every Sunday at noon without fail. So far we've been very successful in our endeavors, depending of course on how one defines success. To me, one definition would have to go something like this. Listening to His call, acting upon that call, and doing so regardless of where it may take you. The results so far have been nothing short of amazing. I believe that is what we have attempted to do. We sometimes (or I should say I) feel the need to drive, but I usually am humbled rather quickly when that happens. I hope that I can honestly say that in this endeavor, I have been purposefully intentionally about stepping back and letting God drive. That is the only way we'll experience success for the greater good.

Yesterday, we had a big crowd. It seems that with the nicer weather, the numbers of folks showing up on a weekly basis have been growing. We usually plan for around 100-125 people. We rarely, if ever, go home with food, so the planning, along with His provisions, seems to be hitting the mark. As you would expect. We've not been real intentional about actually counting the number of meals served, because I just don't think it really matters. It's always nice to know, but not terribly important. I mean, we have to plan, so we try to get a good idea, but there are so many variables. Yesterday, however, Robin counted the number of plates before we left our house. After all was said and done, it seems as though we used 143 plates. Some had seconds. Turkey casserole! They always comment on how good the meals are. I guess the point here is that no matter what we do, He provides for all our needs. We get a bread donation from Panera every Saturday night. We noticed a couple of months ago as we were waiting for the bread that they were throwing away leftover panini sandwiches. So, now when we pick up the bread on Saturday nights, I wrap leftover panini sandwiches. Usually around 25 or 30 sandwiches. We try keeping them back until the very end in case someone shows up that hasn't eaten. But we normally have enough to "feed" whoever shows up. Again, the coolest thing about what we do is the simple, yet absolutely huge fact, that He continually provides everything we need right when we need it. Robin also has discovered that our great friend Sara at Heart Ministry Center is going to be able to provide us with yet more of our needs. Sara has been so great at helping us in so many ways. It now appears that she is going to help us even more with more food items and such. Success...

Yesterday, something really cool happened. Real briefly, here's how my time on Sundays goes. I try to have the van loaded by 11:00 or so. Usually takes a couple of hours to get all the sorting and loading complete. We try to be out of our house by 11:30ish. As soon as we pull up on the corner, we have lots of help unloading the goods. It only takes a few minutes to set everything up, give thanks for the many provisions we are blessed with and begin serving. At this point, as we usually have lots of people helping on the serving side, I try to go through the line of people waiting and meet, re-introduce, or just say hi to an old friend. I say old friend because we've known some of these guys for 6 months now. We go way back! Anyway, it's tough to keep all the names straight. When a fellow introduces himself as Bozak, well, that's an easy name to remember. Darwin? Menelik? Turbo? All easy names to remember. But give me a John, a Jim, a Bill...it gets a little harder. For some reason, I remember some more so than others. The memory just ain't what it used to be. Anyway, a few weeks back, I met a fellow named Jim. Robin asked me who he was? What does he look like? I don't know? He looks like a lot of the other faceless, nameless, homeless guys that we hang out with on that corner. Pretty tall guy. About 6' 2" or so. Kind of slightly built. Usually wears a pair of sunglasses and a hat. Pretty hard to pick out in a crowd actually. But for some reason, I remembered his name from the get go. Don't know why. But he was impressed that I remembered his name from the start. Seems that sometimes all these guys want is a friend. Someone who knows their name and who'll have a kind word for them. Maybe a prayer request. Maybe just a handshake. But, yesterday, as I was wrapping up in the Hygiene Distribution Center (or passing out bars of soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, etc. from the side of the van :)), Jim made a point to talk with me. He purposefully waited for me to finish up and just wanted to share something with me. Now I have to admit, lots of time when this sort of thing happens, it usually means the guy has a need. Needs a backpack, or a sleeping bag, or a pair of sneakers. And, honestly, I sometimes think "not again...not another need"...I hate to admit that, but it is sometimes how I feel. It gets a little overwhelming at times. Not this time, however. As I hesitantly invited Jim into a conversation, he actually had something really cool to share with me. This is why we do what we do. Jim said that what we were doing has made a difference in his situation. He said that watching what we were doing in the name of God has made a difference in his life. Now I don't know exactly what that means. He said that he was going to turn it around this time. You know what? I believe him. I have no reason not to. I don't know him well enough to know otherwise. All I know is that it mattered. It mattered to me and I thank God that Jim stopped by long enough to share that with me. And that I didn't turn him away by not listening. It's so hard down there sometimes, because there are so many of them and so few of us. Proportionally speaking, of course. We've had so many people lately step up and help out. It is so cool that while we are doing this, people like Jim are watching and maybe seeing that it really does matter. Who knows what'll happen with Jim? I have high hopes. He wants to know how he can give back when the time is right? I told him we'd get that figured out when the time was right. That is my hope here. That the good folks we serve will one day be able to give back. We are getting there. I'm sure of it. When things like this happen, I'm even more convinced. Jim is going to be a success story. And you know what? There are lots of Jims...

So, this week, good things. All weeks...good things. This ministry has taught me lots of things. Not the least of which is this - even when things seem to be tough, ya gotta keep going. It would be really easy to just one day decide we've had enough. Real easy. But the thing is, we've established a situation now where people depend on us for about one hour every Sunday. Now if we didn't show up, they'd find someplace else to go. But we do show up, so they do also. If it weren't a good thing, they wouldn't walk over. It's not like these guys hop in their cars and go through the drive-through. Some of them walk a few miles to get there. All because God continues to provide exactly what we need when we need it.

Sorry for the ramblings...I have no idea how I got from Erin's pee-pee dance to panini sandwiches to Jim's testimony yesterday. It all just kind of runs together. But it's all a part of the mission. Here's a verse from the book of James that I've been contemplating this past week. From James, chapter 2..."What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead". This verse kind of sums it up for me. We hope to put our faith into action every week. I think Jim sees it. I hope he does. That's why we do what we do. All praise to God!

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)