Thanksgiving Turkey Visit
I thought I had seen how the poor lived and understood how I could help them. I thought I knew enough to make a difference in others lives who were less fortunate than me and my family. This all changed last week. I had an experience that opened my eyes to see the disadvantaged through the eyes of Christ.
Mark Stearns, director of LVM, asked me to go with him to deliver turkeys for Thanksgiving. Alex Shipman, Mark and I piled into my car and drove to neighborhoods that I didn’t know existed. We stopped in front of a rundown tired looking duplex that we were told someone had been living in until just recently.
Mark told me he wanted me to “see” it. So I agreed. I was curious. I thought I knew what to expect. As we walked through the door, the smell hit me immediately. It was overwhelming and disgusting and the thought that someone had to live with that day and night hit me like a freight train. There was no electricity and it was hard to see at first. I thought, “OK, I’ve seen it—It’s bad—let’s go.” Mark had other ideas….he wanted me to come ALL the way in!
We walked further into hell on earth. The floor was littered with belongings, garbage, broken furniture, and other pieces of someone’s life left behind. When we reached the bathroom you could see outside to the backyard from the missing pieces of drywall. I, of course, was trying to not touch anything, afraid of catching something. Not Mark, he went digging through the belongings on the floor and unearthed a bible and a daily devotional among other things. The smell continued to permeate the air. You couldn’t get a breath without experiencing the stench of the place. It was just unconceivable that someone had lived in those conditions. And most appalling to me was that someone paid for the privilege to live in those conditions! I never realized in my cozy little world, someone was suffering such an existence, within a few minutes drive from my home.
In the end, Mark was right. I couldn’t stand in the doorway and look around to understand—I had to go ALL the way in. I had to experience every horrid detail to really understand what the poor experience and how to best help them. That experience, as horrible as it was, motivated me to do more. As strange as it sounds, it filled me with hope and brought me closer to Christ and the work he wants me to do with this life I have been given. My wish is that everyone could smell what I smelled and see what I saw. It would change your life.