The froshies went to the soup kitchen Ray of Hope, located in downtown Kitchener. Most of the guest who come in are either on social assistance or some form of disability payment. For most of the night, some of us microwaved food that was donated by a store to them, some worked at our Food bank pantry, and the rest talked to the guest who came in. Before going into the Soup kitchen, I prayed that God will humble me, and will let me take something away from this experience. It sounds selfish, but the fact is that for us to go there wasn’t beneficial to anybody except for ourselves. After all, it’s not like we could make a significant impact on their lives after seeing them once.
At 7, people started streaming in. Some of the guest, especially the first few, were really picky about what they wanted. If that was my only meal for the day, I’d be really demanding too. There was a particular guest who chose a sandwich. But when he saw that the expiry date was near, he became really upset about it. He wanted something that was at least a week away from the expiry date. Some of us were like “even I would eat that”. I mean of course we didn’t say it aloud, but that was what I was thinking too (especially so since I love food). As he got more picky, I started to feel a tinge of annoyance. At the same time, I tried to smile and stay cheerful. Afterall, there was nothing else that we can really do to brighten up their day, right? As I reflected on that incident afterwards, I felt that we’re so similar to that guest. We are poor and have nothing to offer, but God has freely invited us to his banquet. Yet, we continue to grumble about the food at the feast.
“It’s too little”
“It’s not what I want”
“Why is the food taking so long”
It’s all about our way and what we want.
But we must remember that the entrance to the gates of the feast was not even our right in the first place. It’s not our privilege, it’s a blessing.
Later that night, we went with Rev Colin for a street walk. Along the way, Rev Colin gave us a glimpse of the stories of our guests. Downtown Kitchener is what people would describe as a “sketchy” place, with a lot going on there. We passed by sushi star, once a coffee-time or more infamously known as the crack-time shop. We passed by the social housing, still severely lacking in numbers. We passed by the dark alleys, places where transactions of sorts took place.
The walk was cold and biting. It pains to see that those faces I had seen were struggling so hard daily. It was heartbreaking to think that they were trapped in so much sin, and stuck in a vicious cycle.
Last year, I read “Lullabies of a little criminal” about a girl’s survival as a street kid in the red-light district of Montreal. In the book, she described the eyes of a drug-addict-icy and colourless. I saw that in the soup kitchen. It was stark and clear to me. Colin said that they thoughts of the next hit usually consume all, if not most of their lives. And they would do everything and anything for that.
The most logical thing for them to do is to quit. There is really no other way about it. Colin has been helping out at the soup kitchen for 15 years and I’m not sure how many lives he has seen turned around. But it’s so impossibly hard given the capacity and threshold of humans. There’s only so much we can bear, and so much more that we’ll do to numb ourselves from the pain.
But we only have to surrender ourselves to God, for he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
You are the God of the broken
The friend of the weak
You wash the feet of the weary
Embrace the ones in need
And I want to be like You Jesus
To have this heart in me
You are the God of the humble
You are the humble King
You are the humble King
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