Helping Those in Need

 

            Alexander realized that he had an extra hour before he needed to leave for the Church service, instead of sitting around and doing nothing, he made the decision to drive through the poorest part of the city and see if anything was happening or if there was anyone who needed help. He left home early and began the drive toward the poorest and most destitute part of the city, as he drove through the most poverty stricken and corrupt part of the city, he counted nearly two hundred people sitting on street corners, in dirty alleys, barely clothed and obviously hungry.

               He came to realize that he still had thirty minutes before the worship service was scheduled to start, giving him time to visit a local restaurant. As he walked inside, he asked to speak with the manager of the restaurant, he waited a few minutes and was invited into a small office to speak with the manager. “Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time,” he said, “I have an idea to help those who are hungry and suffering. I would like to create a small, limited menu and invite the homeless and the hungry to eat for free. I will pay for every meal that is consumed by them.”

               He provided the manager his contact information, a few hundred dollars, and a suggested start date for the free meals for those who were in dire need of help. “I was thinking that we could choose one day a week at a certain time frame of three or four hours. With this decision in place, I can create flyers to hand out to the homeless and hungry.”

               “That is a wonderful idea,” the manager said, “I would recommend a Sunday evening from eight until eleven.”

               “That sounds perfect,” Alexander said, “I’ll create the flyers and we can work together to choose two or three specific meals from which they can choose. Can we start this endeavor next Sunday evening?”

               “Yes, that sounds great,” the manager said, “I’ll step out a find a couple of menus and then we can decide which items to make available.”

               “Ah yes, very good,” Alexander said, “You will need to be careful about who you allow in for free meals, you will need to determine who is actually in need, who is actually hungry, and who genuinely needs help. The last thing we need to be doing is giving free meals to those who are not actually in need but are only looking for a free hand out.”

               Alexander sat in silence as he waited for the manager to return with the menus. The two men discussed the healthiest and easiest meal to make available. Four meals were identified as the best choices, as well as soda, tea, and coffee. “This is very good,” the manager said, “I will speak with my son to create this special menu and I truly look forward to helping those who are hungry and who need assistance.”

               The two men shook hands, Alexander thanked the manager for his willingness to do good to those who needed help, and he left the restaurant to arrive at Church a few minutes before the service started. The Church service began, everyone gathered after the service came to an end, to enjoy a community meal and spend time socializing. When he had a few free moments, Alexander requested a brief meeting with the head priest to inform him about his plan for feeding the hungry of their city.

               When Alexander and the priest concluded their brief meeting, the head priest rang the bell, called for everyone’s attention, and announced the plan for feeding the hungry and if anyone was interested in donating some money to pay for food for those who were suffering. Over the next hour, multiple people approached the head priest with large amounts of cash, which resulted in over five hundred dollars being donated for those who are genuinely hungry.

               The head priest gathered the money in an envelope, gave the envelope to Alexander, and encouraged him to continue doing the good work of seeing Jesus Christ in every person, feeding the hungry, encouraging the depressed, helping the sick, and providing for the needs of others. This became a regular practice at Alexander’s church each week, which provided hot and healthy meals for the hundreds of hungry people around the city.

               The head priest once again rang the bell and thanked everyone for their generosity to feed the hungry and he would provide details about the work that was being done, with Alexander providing additional details. Alexander moved into a back room, created a flyer, added the file to a flash drive. Alexander and the head priest were the last two people to leave the church that afternoon, he then drove to a local print shop and had several hundred flyers printed. He drove back into the poorest part of town and began handing out the flyers.

               He could feel great joy and could see happiness and thankfulness in each face as he interacted with scores of people. He also stapled more flyers on telephone poles in other neighborhoods. When he completed the advertising effort, he returned to the restaurant to update the manager about the progress that was being made and that he would certainly see plenty of homeless people on Sunday evenings.

               On the following Sunday evening, Alexander drove to the restaurant, parked in obscurity, and watched as scores of people arrived and enjoyed free, hot, fresh meals. When eleven o’clock arrived, he entered the restaurant, met with the manager, and asked for the total bill. He received the total count of people fed, the total dollar amount, paid that amount and added an additional tip for the restaurant workers.

               This became a regular pattern for Alexander each week, parking in obscurity, watching scores of homeless people approach the restaurant and fill themselves with hot, healthy food. Each week after the community meal at Church, Alexander reported to everyone the number of people that had been fed the previous Sunday evening.

               After three months of this philanthropic work, Alexander approached the manager of the restaurant and informed him that their effort of providing free meals would come to an end the next Sunday evening. The next Sunday morning service came to an end and Alexander met with the head priest and suggested that they purchase a small building in the poorest part of the town and open a free soup kitchen for anyone to visit who was in need.

               The head priest called for a meeting of all the men in the parish to discuss this new idea. A great amount of excitement burst forth when the suggestion was made as well as a great deal of money was raised open the soup kitchen, purchase the ingredients for the soup and for bread.

               Alexander contacted a real estate agent about purchasing a small property in the poorest part of town, purchased equipment for preparing the food, as well as tables and chairs in the form of a makeshift restaurant. Three weeks passed, which gave them time to clean, organize, and prepare enough food for those who were hungry. Many people from Alexander’s church volunteered to prepare the food, interact with the homeless and hungry, pay for the food stuffs, and help with the advertising.

               Everything fell into place in a good way, and now that the makeshift restaurant was clean, established and organized, they opened the facility from six in the evening until nine in the evening. Someone from the Church offered to keep track of how many people arrived to eat each evening. Every evening was about the same, they received around fifty customers between six and nine pm. There was always a priest or a deacon available to answer questions, to invite the customers to the Church, and to offer help in other ways.

               To no one’s surprise, each week at the Divine Liturgy, new visitors would arrive, would interact, and expressed their gratitude for the kindness and social interaction they received at the soup kitchen that had been set up. Over the next several months, the number of people who regularly attended continued to increase. After the community meal following the Divine Liturgy, the head priest called a meeting with the men of the parish and praised them for their hard work, their willingness to reach out and support those who were in need of help.

               The soup kitchen continued it’s provision of free soup and bread five evenings a week, which consistently received at least fifty visitors each evening.