Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
Today we started our day out in Long Beach Island, New Jersey to see if there was anyone there that could use our help. We stopped and talked to the awesome people at the Red Cross and they told us that it seemed like most of the folks had gotten help from FEMA - which is great, but that meant there is not a lot of need for us here. They fed us a wonderful Turkey dinner.....ah, just like at home :)
So, since we were not really needed there, we stepped out to the Beach....barefoot and all. It was amazing!
After our little outing at the beach we headed to Atlantic City, NJ to do some mission work.....that was fun!!!!
We walked around and met a lady by the name of Ms. Bates....she was the sweetest woman ever. She told us all about how she used to take in children whose parents could not or did not want to care for them. But when the Hurricane hit, she was saddened that only one out of the many children she raised called to make sure she was ok. When we showed up, she was reluctant to allow us to help her because she has felt so rejected lately. After offering her food and a warm blanket, she ultimately agreed to allow us into her home and give her those items. Ms. Bates cried and said that Jesus sent 4 angels to her today when she felt rejected. I gave her a card from one of the Children at St. Annes along with a blanket.....she was so greatful :) While there, she said she needed some cleaning supplies too, but the distribution center was not open and she did not feel comfortable going there to take hand outs. We hugged her and told her goodbye....as we were driving, we felt like we really needed to help her out, so we headed to the store and bought her some cleaning supplies. We also bought her some flowers. I will never forget the look on Ms. Bates face when we returned.
We started out in an area that had several homeless people in the park and wanted to give them food that we had brought with and blankets if needed....we were barely there 5 minutes and a police officer arrived with his lights flashing and told us "you stick out like a sore thumb here....you all need to leave, this is not somewhere you want to be". That made my heart sad. Isn't our job in life to seek out the lost soles and give them hope. I was determined to do that even if I could not do it there.
We stopped a few blocks up and walked the streets. There were several people at the bus stop that prayed with us. We handed out several turkey dinners and blankets; The stories we heard today were heart wrenching....so many people have so many reasonst give up, but they don't! They keep going. I am glad to know we could help them today and put a ray of hope back in their day that God has not forgotten about them.
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