People Appreciation Day: One lovely story of reaching out [1]

Submitted by bwheeler on 08/16/2012 - 09:04 

 Yesterday was People Appreciation Day,  a day when Americans were exhorted to invite to lunch someone different from them. One of the organizers of the event posted this story on his Facebook page from a friend of his.

It's a sad truth, but without the cause of People Appreciation Day and push by Andy McFly, today would not have happened.

My intent was to buy a bunch of food and feed as many people as I could in the time that I had. What happened was this:

I show up to McDonalds and tell the young lady behind the counter I would like to order 40 cheeseburgers. A manager standing behind her says, "WOW, you hungry?" I told her my plans to find as many homeless people as I could and get some food in their bellies. She shrugged. A few minutes later, the manager returns with 40 burgers and says "great idea....they're on me." I said GOD IS GOOD and headed out.

Instead, the first guy I approach grunts, rips the 2 burgers from my hands and walks off. I actually expected worse, Eli was safe in the car, not 5 feet from me, so no harm no foul.

I came upon 2 guys, laying under a tree, all of their belongings scattered around them. I ask them if they're hungry and they start to talk. For about 45 minutes we talked....about God, about humanity, about how the same people walk by them day after day and act as if they're leppers, about the jobs they once had, the families who have forgotten them. All I had was food for them, and a shoulder.

I'm gonna save most of the details of those conversations for just me. In our time talking, they each had a few burgers. Eli even asked one of them if he could have one. He, of course, obliged :-). Needless to say, I had several left over, but I had to go get the kids. One of the guys said he knew where to find some hungry "friends" and I believed that's just what he did.

As I was leaving, he said, "ya know, I don't have the words, but this is good...you're doing good." He leaned in to hug me and I nearly squeezed the air out of him. He said, "I've tried to hug many people in the past 20 years, but you're the first to not turn and walk away."

Eli and I left in tears.

It is my intent to make People Appreciation Day a weekly event.

Again, God is good. Without love we are nothing. Peace.