I started today assisting in our church's office. The Church Administrator met with me for about 45 minutes and then had to leave for an hour or so.
One of the things that needs to be done is to "buzz" people through the door to get into the church building. The church is downtown and has had some break ins and is careful about who is allowed in the building when there is no public activity going on. I of course know very few of the people so whenever someone came to the door I needed to identify them in some way.
A bearded man rode up to the church on a bicycle and walked to the door. When I opened the door I told him that I was new and asked him who he was. He promptly replied that he was homeless and wondered if the church was having lunch for the homeless today - the church shares a ministry with others in the city and has a kitchen that feeds the homeless on a routine basis.
I was somewhat startled by the man's demeanor, he seemed unabashed by having to admit his homelessness, but there was something else going on that I could not put my finger on.
I told him I didn't know for sure if they where having lunch but that there where people in the back unloading food and we could just go back and ask. Well it turned out that lunch was not being served that day (it would be evening instead).
As we started to walk back towards the door, we passed a table loaded with bread and the homeless man asked if he could have a loaf of bread to take with him. The response was not simply OK, but "SURE" and the person from the kitchen brought out a bag filled with fresh bread that they had just unloaded - and the smell was heavenly! The man selected a loaf of fresh bread and a large pastry to take and then the kitchen person gave him a nice cloth bag to carry the items in.
It's then that I realized what was going on. This man was comfortable because he knew the people in the kitchen would treat him with respect and dignity. What a great lesson and example for me on my first day.
