Jesus is for Liars by Tim Baker

Author:Tim Baker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan

CHAPTER

HERE’S A SANDWICH (CAN SOMEONE SNAP MY PICTURE?)

SEVEN

* * *

In the town where I grew up, we didn’t have any homeless people. Homelessness didn’t exist then— or, if it did exist, it existed somewhere else. Our town had plenty of bars, and it wasn’t unusual to see a drunk sleeping on the park bench in the middle of the day. But by late afternoon they’d disappeared. And there were poor people, of course, but they had homes, too. If there were any homeless people in our small town, their presence was a wellkept secret.

And that’s why I never really gave much thought to homelessness. Not really. I guess I knew there were people who lived on the streets, but I never thought about them. And if I had given it any thought, I’d probably have said they were homeless because they were stupid, bad with money, heavy drinkers, or on drugs. Being without a home was their own fault, and they were stupid to let themselves continue to be homeless.

But again, there were no homeless people back when I was younger. Homelessness just didn’t exist— at least, not where I grew up.

I didn’t really gain any awareness of homelessness until my first year of college when I went to work for the Salvation Army over Christmas break. I traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee, for what would be the first of six Christmas-break jobs with the Salvation Army.

The job was pretty simple, but it was also kind of grueling. You got up every day, dressed yourself warmly, and were carted off to a shopping mall, grocery store, or expensive clothing store. You’d stand outside the store all day, ringing a tiny bell, smiling, and saying “Merry Christmas” and “Thank you!” over and over. Every now and then I even let a “God bless you” slip out, which wasn’t really my style. (I’ve never really been a “God bless you” kind of person.)

I was 19 that first Christmas break, and I assumed the Salvation Army would take good care of me. When I agreed to do the work, I figured they’d have us staying at some hotel in the city. In fact, some of my friends did get bell-ringing jobs in other cities where they were housed in hotels. But we didn’t.

I remember arriving in town on a Greyhound bus and being taken immediately to the homeless shelter. “Okay,” I thought to myself. “Getting into work immediately. This is good. I’m ready.” And I was excited.

I’d been sitting in classrooms for months. A little hard work sounded fun. But my heart sank when our host said, “Grab your bags, and I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.” That’s how I found out I’d be living in a homeless shelter for the next couple of weeks.

We walked through an office area where we were greeted by both an attractive receptionist and a drooling man with a strange body odor. As the horrifying reality that we were actually going to live there began to sink

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.