On Christmas Eve two of the former homeless kids I took in years ago and slept on the pews of the church came and visited me. I love Jesse and Lois with all my heart. They have both made real successes of their lives. We all cried as we were so happy to see each other and be with each other again. For me the highlight of our Christmas Day free lunch for the poor needy and homeless was when I just sat randomly at a table. The woman sitting next to me was a child care worker and we began to talk. “I had to get divorced two or three years ago and it’s been really hard”. She told me that her children were with their father, she was estranged from the rest of her family members, was alone in life. She had been to our Christmas lunches twice previously and she said she would not know where she would cope if she didn’t have Christmas Lunch with us. She told me she was planning to live in Queensland from next year. We talked for quite a while and the sadness and pain on her face was haunting. As we were talking, I thought “I don’t care if no-one else really doesn’t need to be here, this woman actually does” and for me it made the whole day worthwhile.Of course after that someone else said exactly the same thing and then someone else. There were so so many people who really needed to be there. Just a few of the thousands who turned up.
John Singleton turned up and we have planned some new ventures....Watch this space… Down at our food van tonight in Woolloomooloo hundreds have turned up for a meal. We do it all again. We’ve got the Christmas lunch, the music, the hampers and the gifts.
I was able to give everyone a $25 supermarket card. With homeless people there is never any greed or grabbing, just gratitude. It stops me in my tracks.
