Outreach to the Homeless

Our church did an outreach to the poor and homeless people of Greenville. We have been collecting supplies to make "Blessing bags" for the past month.

Blessing bags are Ziploc Bags with travel sized toiletries, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, rain ponchos, cereal bars, and any other snacks. We went to Cripple Creek with all of the kids of our church, various adults, and Marcia, who runs the outreach project.

Our church gave out chili dogs, chips and coleslaw for lunch.

The amazing grill. :)

Bethany!

Rebecca and Caelan were picking flowers/weeds for everyone! :)

The kids used the weeds and little flowers they picked to make bouquets and gave them to some of the homeless people who were standing around. One lady started  crying and said it was the first time anyone had given her flowers.  She said those flowers were as precious to her as if they had been dozens of roses.

Arwen and Charlotte picked flowers too!

After Cripple Creek, we went under highway 183 to visit "Tent City." Tent City is a whole village of about a dozen tents where homeless people live. We gave the rest of our hotdogs to them, handed out blessing bags, and prayed with them.

It was really sad to see all of those people living off of basically nothing. They washed in a creek, and I don't know what they ate if they did eat. Some of the people didn't even live there. They were on their way to New Orleans. They rode on freight trains and hoped they didn't get caught. It made me feel very grateful for the house I live in, air conditioning, and indoor plumbing.

The kids were drawing in the dry, loose, dust.

There were a couple dogs there too.

After all of the outreaches, we went over to our friend's house and had a big back-to-school party with all the kids in our church, my 6 cousins (all siblings), and some kids that I didn't even know. Doughnuts, Chocolate Chip Pizza, a big inflatable waterside, and chicken chasing made our day complete!