It snowed for the first time today! Knowing that I had to study for finals this week, I headed to the library to get some work down. As the snow accumulated onto the ground, I watched from the library window thinking how gorgeous it looked. Everyone gets so excited when the first snowfall hits..but..as I learned later that night, some people probably dread the snow.
In the afternoon my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Philly tonight. Last week we handed out coats to homeless people since her church did a coat drive..and it was awesome (even though we almost got arrested for giving out coats considering it's illegal to give anything out in Philly..but that's besides the poingt). Reluncantly, I said yes and went downstairs to sort out all of the coats. It was a long, slushy drive into the city and there were a couple points where I wondered if I actually should have gone. As we parked the car, I noticed the blue lights on the Christmas tree in Love Park. Even in the dark of the evening and the rain, that tree shined so brightly and seemed to give the night a glimpse of hope.
My three friends and I decided to head downstairs by the subway since we figured a lot of people would be down there for the night considering the weather conditions at the moment. And we were right, as soon as we opened the doors, we saw people eyeing up the trash bags. "What you got in there?" they asked. "Coats, you need one? Come on, come get one. We even have hats, scarves, gloves." Enough said. Men and women came and were grateful for the donations that we were offering to them. Caught up with telling a woman that she honestly did look nice in this one black coat, I noticed a friend that was preoccupied with another woman. All of the sudden Amber shouted at me to use my phone and as I turned I saw blood on the ladies hands. I walked towards them and she had a big gash on the side of her head, blood covering the side of her face. Quickly, I gave Amber my phone as she called 911 and I handed the lady a sweatshirt to stop the blood. A police man came after a few minutes and told everyone that a medic was coming and we should all just go away..I think he really just wanted one of the homeless guys to stop talking about how he was going to beat the person up who beat this woman up.
All of us grabbed the bags and scurried out of the room, hoping the policeman wouldn't ask about the contents of the black trashbags. We all laughed nervously and agreed that there always seemed to be an incident when we came here. As I pondered that thought, I realized that they may not be a bad thing though. Sure, last week we had 2 cop incidences, but we were able to give out a lot of coats to people and didn't get arrested or anything. This week, we just happened to be in a place at the right time..with a working cell phone on hand..to call 911 for this homeless lady who had just been beat up by a group of men. I am so grateful now that God placed us there at that moment. Who knows what would have happened to her. I feel like everytime I go and I talk to the homeless or interact with them, it just makes me so much more grateful for everything in life..I just hope God can help me shine as bright as that Christmas tree; bright lights gleaming into the dark, shouting out against the world that surrounds it.
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