Downtown in the 'D'

Nate and I went into downtown Detroit with Brad, Jim, Bob, Mark and Josh to help out with the outreach event. Linda Bently from my church (pictured above) goes downtown every Saturday and sets up in two different areas to give out food, clothes and other things. On the third Saturday of the month she takes a group with her. During Christmas we not only bring the clothes and food and gifts to hand out to the kids and the adults. Being in the suburbs it's so easy to never see this degree of poverty and this gives people a great chance to interact with people who are pretty destitute.

Nate went with me for the first time and I was so proud of him. He handed out stuffed animals to the adults and the kids that came through the food line. It was so cool to watch him interact with all of the different people that came through, helping them out. Even for adults, it can be a little weird interacting with the people that come to the park, but Nate seemed really comfortable and was a huge help. Most of these people live at the parks that we do this at during the summer and during the winter, they're only allowed to stay at the shelters for three days so they rotate among the different shelters downtown.

After the food is handed out, people have a chance to get clothes, coats and blankets. It's amazing how grateful the people are for what they're given.