“Where were you when I was hurt and helpless, because the things you say and the things you do surround me” lyrics from song “Coming Back to Life” by Pink Floyd

Today we had the privilege of serving 35 people.

• The rain this morning kept a lot of our friends away from the usual spots.  We ran into our friend (Chrissy) who is back out on the street after being in a program for 4 months.  She was living with her boyfriend, and she told us he betrayed her and she has been back out on the street for the last 2 weeks.  She was crying when she spoke about being hurt by this betrayal.  Our friends are sometimes looking for someone to love them and care about them – all that was missing from their childhoods.  They will get into unhealthy relationships that almost always turn bad resulting in physical and emotional pain.

• We ran into a new friend (Laurie) who was nervously standing on the sidewalk in the rain.  We pulled up to her and noticed she had shorts on and was very cold.  We asked if she needed some help and held out our packet of $10/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card and she replied, “yes”.  We pulled over and fixed her up with sweatpants, hoodie, jacket.  She told us she was from California but as she kept talking, we noticed she kept looking up the street and it dawned on us that there was a guy on a scooter watching what was going on.  (Laurie) is another lost soul who seeks protection from someone who cares nothing about her well-being and only cares about what she can give to him.

• We ran into an old friend (Nijiy) who always talks about Jim when we see him.  He was very happy to see us, and he was with a woman (Lynn) who had a blanket wrapped around her stomach.  She told us she was pregnant.  We told her she needs to be careful in her condition and being out on the street.  Like a lot of our friends, when we press them on their situations they deflect the conversation.  We fixed her and (Nijiy) up with socks, underwear, sweatpants, jackets and snacks.  Another case where our friends team up with each other for protection and comfort.  We told (Lynn) she needs to be careful while carrying her child.

• At our last stop we ran into our friends who are a married couple who are staying at the shelter. (Jack’s) physical appearance has declined rapidly in the last three weeks with weight loss and black eyes.  Our conversations with him and (Rose) are always the same.  We tell them, “You need to get help, we can help you get into a place, and we hear the same response is, “we will call you”.   We pray that they will, but the real tragedy is that their high school age daughter won’t be seeing her mother on Mother’s Day.  The children are collateral damage – so sad.

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“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open” Matthew 7:7

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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:

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,

Kathy Flaherty

Shaun Teed and Tito

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