“Ole warned me, it's a mean old world, the street don't greet ya, yes, it's true, but what am I supposed to do”. Lyrics from song “When you Awake” by The Band

Today we had the privilege of serving 45 people.

• It was a busy morning but a good one considering the amount of friends we ran into.  One of our friends (Andrew) asked what the letters “OSM” stood for that were embroidered on our tee shirts along with a three-nail crucifix.  Liz explained it stands for “On the Street Ministry” which Jim and Terry founded.  He told us how grateful he was for us coming out on Saturday morning.  You could see the cuts on his head were starting to heal.  

• We sometimes don’t know what frame of mind our friends are in when we pull up.  They may be anxious or subdued — we never know until we ask them what they need for clothes or snacks.  If we don’t have their size or style of clothes they are looking for, some get visibly upset.  One of our friends (Amy) had tears in her eyes when we didn’t have her size.  I think it had more to do with her internal turmoil than the clothes.  Our friends have a misconception that external things (clothes, snacks, $10 bill/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card) will keep them happy.  We try to show them love to heal their insides not their outsides.  Jim would say “it’s not what you physically give them, it’s what you show them”. This is what heals them.  Some of our friends are difficult to show love to.  They are so damaged from trauma in their lives.

• We ran into our friends who told us of the passing of (Mike) this past week.  The only family around him were his friends from the street who he requested to be with him.  Also sad was hearing of our friend (Sarah) whose daughter passed.  We would see her occasionally with (Sarah).  She was physically in rough shape.  RIP.

• At one of our last stops we ran into our friend (Dave) who was excited to tell us he’s close to getting housing.  We kidded with him to behave when he gets in there — no parties.  The sad part is our friends are so adjusted to life with no rules or guidelines or responsibilities they have a hard time adjusting.  We hope this is not the case with him.  We told him before you know it winter will be here and it would be nice to get off the street.

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“My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off”. Psalm 38:11

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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.

God Bless,

Liz Londergan

Shaun Teed and Tito

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