What did you get out of the Homeless Retreat?

At the end of our time together, I wanted to hear from the men what they thought of the retreat. 

Here are some of the answers.

"Great to be able to get to know everyone. Gives the homeless a chance to relax and open up. Great opportunity to just build relationships. Relationships were the key to the week."  Tom

"Everything was alright!" Kevin

"More shooting range time!" Shelton

"Gives the homeless a chance to be around positive people. Gives you a chance to reflect and think about where you are in life." David

Enough said! WOW!

Yesterday I received a phone call from Shelton who went on the retreat with us.

He asked if I was going to be at The Alpha and Omega Bible Church that night.

I told him I was going to be in a meeting, but I hoped to come later.

He said he had over heard my conversation with my wife about the funeral arrangements for my father n law who had just passed away last week.

He then said that he and the guys had gotten a card for me and wanted to give it to me that night.

Shelton said "You were there for us and now we want to be there for you!"

"Awesome!"

The word that was most often used by Kevin: "AWESOME"!

On Wednesday of last week one of the more adventurous things we did was the shooting range.

When asked what the men wanted to do for fun that day, the over whelming majority wanted to shoot some guns.

Paintball was an option but it was low on the totem pole compared to shooting a real gun.

There was target practice as well as skeet shooting!

While some were on the shooting range others walked across the street to the archery range.

When we were done that day on the range, Kevin walked up to me and said:

 "You can't slap this smile off my face! That was AWESOME!"

Impossible?

Sometimes words are not sufficient enough to describe an experience.

The homeless retreat was such a time as that.

In the next few days I hope to describe some of the events that took place this past week.

I am not a writer and I know that I will not be able to do it justice.

God has moved and I along with a lot of others have all seen what God can do when you let him guide you.

Back in the end of November I had a dream.

I was scared to death of what I was doing.

There were many who cautioned me along the way and rightfully so.

Last Monday I fretted all day and night.

What the heck was I doing? 

I was about to take 10 homeless men away for three days.

Only one of the men did I have any knowledge of.

In my world you don't take strangers off the street and go away on a trip!

A year ago I would not even have given a stranger a ride some where.

This is not my story, but God's story!

I hope you will enjoy the ride as much as I have.

Keep in mind that God wants to take you on a journey as well, but you have to be willing to be open to the impossible.

A year ago it was impossible for me to see it and now I am moved beyond words at what God can make possible.

Philippians 4:13

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹³ For I can do everything through Christ,^[a] who gives me strength.

A measure of success!

You never know what kind of impact you will have on one's life.

This retreat for the homeless came with so many questions going in.

I didn't know what to expect.

9 of the men were complete strangers.

One of the many stories I will share happened at the very end of the trip when we got back to Richmond.

I had just dropped everyone off at the Alpha and Omega Bible Church. I was giving Shelton a ride down the road several miles away.

We had left a few of the guys at the church as they were collecting there belongings.

When we arrived at the place where Shelton wanted to go, he began to unload his belongings. He couldn't find one of his bags!

He panicked and looked through out the van several times. He knew he needed to go back and look to see if he had left it outside the church.

He climbed back in the van and said "that was my business bag". Everything important was in that bag.

The drive back to the church was silent. You could tell he was worried.

We drove up along side the church and noticed everyone had left. 

We didn't see his bag!

As we turned the corner, there was his bag leaning up against the front door.

His first words out of his mouth "This retreat must have done some good!"

My next question out of naivety was "Would that bag have been there last week?"

Answer: "Nope"

Sometimes the measure of success can come in very small ways like a backpack sitting on the front stoop of a church.