This past Thursday was a real eye opener to what our world can contain. I know that I hear the word "homeless" or "poor" on television and I think nothing of it, but when we visited downtown Los Angeles I felt my world view open. I realized that not everything is about me and who ever is in my life. There are many other people in this world that need help with obtaining the simplest yet necessary things in life.The Fred Jordan Mission put on a "Back to School" event to help needy children receive necessary items to be successful in school such as school clothes, shoes, backpacks, toothbrushes, haircuts, and food. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people lined up and camped out a certain street in downtown L.A. just to be one the many people who received back to school items. Smiling children and worried adults filled the lines, just waiting to get a chance to enter the section of booths. It was an exciting day to see many young children be excited in getting an early Christmas. I clearly forgotten how much children love to get gifts, and to get a whole backpack full of miscellaneous items was amazing to them, since some of these students never owned more than a pair of shoes. They were happy, and so was I.
I was not necessarily handing out important items such as shoes or toothbrushes, but I was handing out things that children love most, candy and stickers! I must have had amnesia or something because I forgot how excited children get over stickers. Once I offered them a sticker, their faces immediately brightened and they soon looked around our collection of Christian stickers and chose whichever sticker they thought was the coolest. The children would stick out their arms allowing me to put the sticker on their hands and their only response was "thank you" which made me smile. The older children mostly chose stickers that had a message such as "hope", "love", or "peace" and the younger children chose stickers of items such as crosses or anchors. The teenagers just smiled and laughed, declining my offer of stickers which I guess is normal now a days. Just seeing those innocent young smiles on children while they received stickers made my whole experience since I know I had brightened that child's life just for a brief moment. I look forward to helping out in this event next year, if my cohort is allowed, and I would not hesitate to help out the needy.
