Wednesday evenings for me are usually assigned to my church bible study class, but this week we were blessed to have had a visitor in the form of Night Watch, a charity which supports local homeless people in the community.
Our church started supporting Night Watch after hearing about a harvest festival being organised by the charity. We started to donate food and clothing on a regular basis and have continued to support the charity ever since.
Night Watch was founded in 1976 after the death of a homeless man in one of the coldest winters the area had ever witnessed, after hearing of the death the community came together and decided something needed to be done and so the charity began.
A group of volunteers go out every evening to a regular meeting point where they minister to the homeless, dishing out food, clothing and toiletries. The organisation depends upon the volunteers who donate there time, and the communities who donate food and money and other required items.
What really struck me during the talk was the stories of the people Night Watch ministered to, as well as the usual donations of food and clothing that people came for, what a lot of the homeless needed was something as simple as someone to talk to, just having a familiar and regular presence who show genuine care was the only thing needed.
As Night Watch continued to speak I just wanted to give God thanks because he saw fit to deliver me from this kind of situation, we can often take our lives for granted but we will never know just how close any one of us are to being homeless, and its by Gods grace that I have a warm home, a family I can talk to and that I am able to buy so much as a meal without even giving it a second thought.
We were told a story about a successful Graphic designer who worked in the city. He had a champagne lifestyle and was an occasional drug user, this however, turned into frequent drug use and alcohol abuse, after tragically dealing with the death of a beloved pet he began to spiral out of control, occasional drug use turned to dependency and soon he was homeless. This is a testament to just how fickle life can be, and the only real thing we can be sure of is our salvation through Christ.
I really want to this post to encourage us to carry peoples burdens. I am going to donate my time as well as food to Night Watch and I encourage people to do the same by finding out about something going on local to your area.
Gods says in Galatians 6:2 Bear (endure, carry,) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfil and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].
No one is above the works of God and we should really learn to humble ourselves and remember, God exalts the lowly and so someone you might over look in this life could be a mighty person in the kingdom of God.
God bless xx
Night Watch: http://www.croydonnightwatch.org.uk/HomelessCommunity.htm
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