“If I’m laden at all, I’m laden with sadness, that everyone’s heart isn’t filled with gladness, or love for one another”. Lyrics from song “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” by the Hollies

Today we had the privilege of serving 40 people.

• With the warm weather there have been many people around and it seems our friends’ desperation levels are a little higher than normal with some of them yelling and running when they see us driving around. We pulled into the local Dunkin Donuts parking lot when we saw our friend (Angel).  When she sees us, she always starts praising God.  We just recently started seeing her again after about a year of not seeing her.  She struggles with a whole host of issues, but she is a gentle soul.  We fixed her up with sneakers, socks, underwear, tee shirts, snacks and our packet of $10 bill/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card.

• We met up with our friends (Jack/Rose) who are staying at the shelter.  (Rose) mentioned it was her  daughter’s 21^st birthday next week and her daughter told her, “All I want for my birthday is to get my mother back”.  The sad part is they kept showing us pictures of their daughter on (Jack’s) phone.  The children of our friends are the innocent bystanders of their parents’ choices.  These kids need a physical parent, not a picture on a cell phone or a distant memory.  It’s heartbreaking to witness the broken promises they make because they suffer from a disease more powerful than them.

• We ran into a new friend (Millie) who was with our friend (Shane).  She was just released from jail.  We questioned her on what the charges were, and she was vague with any real answers.  We questioned her if they offered her any type of recovery treatment and her eyes welled up.  She told us she has three young kids in New York who are with family.  She had been in jail with our friend Carrie who passed away.  We fixed her up with clothes and snacks and encouraged her to go and speak to our friend Peg.

• On one of our stops we ran into our friend (Dan) who’s physical appearance was shocking compared to two months ago.  We kept telling him, “You need to get help” and the standard reply with him and other friends is, “I know, I know”, but they really don’t know.  We plead with them, pray for them and hope God’s divine grace taps them on the shoulder and interrupts their demise.  The sad part is we are not in the outcome business; we are just trying to be vessels of God’s love.  They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and some of our friends’ eyes have such a deep sadness and darkness that they keep pushing feelings down deep into their souls which are so broken.  But God’s light can shine through their cracks and brokenness when the time comes.  We hope and pray.

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“I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” Romans 7:15 (NRSVUE)

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Please Note:   We have changed our location for donations for On the Street Ministry from Holy Cross Retreat House to My Brother’s Keeper.  We currently have a box in the main stairway on the 1^st floor of MBK.  If you have recurring orders through Amazon or any other retail website, please change the delivery address to:

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On the Street Ministry

c/o Shaun Teed

67 Turner Road

Scituate, MA 02066

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Thank you to all the people who support our ministry.  We are also grateful for the support of My Brother’s Keeper for allowing us to keep a donation box there.

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God Bless,

Liz Londergan

Shaun Teed and Tito

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