“Something you can't hide says you're lonely; Hidden deep inside of you only; It's there for you to see, take a look and be; Burn slowly, the candle of life.” Lyrics from the song, “Candle of Life” by The Moody Blues

Today, we had the privilege of serving 32 people.

• We never know what the morning will bring.  We ran into our friend (Joe) who asked for a pair of sneakers.  Unfortunately, we only had women’s sneakers but we were able to fix him up with some clothes.  Blankets were in demand with the nights getting colder.  We always tell our friends to go to L Street Mission Church if we don’t have what they are looking for.

• A couple of our friends were talking about getting into treatment; we can only hope and pray.  We never know when this will happen.  Some of them have had periods of clean time where they have gotten back their dignity and self esteem only to listen to the demon voice of addiction as it calls on them again.  We talk to them about “giving up one thing to have everything or give up everything to have one thing”.

• We ran into our friend (Bosch) whose side of his face was black and blue.  When we asked him what happened he replied, “just part of the job”.  Can’t get more honest than that.

• This Sunday’s gospel spoke of Jesus who healed the ten lepers but only one returned to pay him homage.  It got me thinking about the word “grateful”.  How many people use the world “grateful”?  I heard a man say grateful is not just a word, it’s an action.  We become numb to all the gifts we have in life until they are taken away.  The things we take for granted, our friends are praying for.

• We ran into our friends (Shane and Lee).  (Lee) had a small dog with her who seemed cold.  We gave her a small blanket for him and introduced him to Tito.  We gave her our packet of $10 bill/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card along with socks, underwear, sweatshirt and snacks.  We had mentioned we would not be around the following weekend.  One of our friends (Kathy) mentioned that we would not see her anyway because she had made the decision to get help.  We have heard this many times before but her tone seemed different this time.  She said she needed to get back to her family and her daughter.  We told her, as we do all our friends when they come to that crossroad, any help they need just call us.

With the weather changing, sweatpants and hooded sweatshirts along with gently used winter coats (men’s and women’s) are needed.  Thank you to all who support OSM.

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:

My Brother’s Keeper

534 Washington Street

North Easton, MA 02356

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Thank you and God Bless,

Liz Londergan

Shaun Teed and Tito

“You Lord are my lamp. The Lord turns my darkness into light”.   Samuel 22:29

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