“When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy in the company of strangers in the quiet of a railway station running scared” Lyrics from the song “Boxer” by Simon And Garfunkel

Today, we had the privilege of serving 25 people.

• Not many of our friends were out this morning.  The friends we did see were very grateful we were out there.  With very few of our friends out this morning we got to chat with one of our regular friends (James).  He’s one of the more difficult friends we see regularly; always demanding two of everything we give out.  We have to explain to him if we give him two of everything, some friends won’t get any.  He’s always standing off on his own and isn’t liked by many people.  So, we decided to ask him where he was staying.  He wouldn’t answer us, so we asked, “are you staying at a shelter?”  His reply was he can’t go there because he has been asked to leave a few times.  His argument was that he doesn’t agree with their rule that you need to be there by 5:00 pm.  We told him they need rules or it would turn into a free-for-all when people try to get in.  We realized we were not going to get anywhere with a normal conversation with him.  I once told him I loved him, but his answer was his typical, “if you loved me you would give me two packets”.

• This exchange with (James) got me to thinking that God puts difficult people and situations in our lives on any given day to check our spiritual condition and to teach us.  My wife and I were at mass the other night and a woman caretaker was with a severely physically and verbally challenged man in a motorized wheelchair.  He had frequent outbursts of loud groaning and screaming.  With the congregation looking on she calmly rubbed the top of his head and rocked him back and forth to settle him down.  It wasn’t working so she calmly put on his coat and hat and took him outside to calm him down.  She came back in again hoping the music and singing would calm him, but this didn’t work and she calmly left.  Watching this got me to thinking, (1) how terribly sad I felt for this man and (2) the example of the caretaker who never got flustered with him.  The question I asked myself is can we have the same calmness and compassion toward our difficult friends on the street as the caretaker had for this gentleman?  Another lesson for me to witness.

• We ran into our friends (Shane, Judy, Ray, Jose).  They were all in desperate need of socks, gloves, sweatpants, snacks, along with our packet of $10 bill/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card.  One of our friends whose sneakers were soaked was trying to get the socks on his swollen, wet feet.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” Psalm 119:105

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

Thank you to the anonymous donors who dropped off winter coats and clothes and 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,

Kathy Flaherty

Shaun Teed and Tito

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