Hope Park is a drug block and a heavy heroin area. Bodies line the outside of the park and hundreds of needles litter the sidewalk. It’s hard to tell sometimes, who is just passed out, who has overdosed, who is even breathing. Needles halfway out of arms. Non-responsive stares. Like every Sunday we went to the park following health regulations for Covid-19. Even Though most people were at the riots, we still were able to feed 150+/- people. Sick or well, the homeless need food, eye contact, and genuine concern.
Addicts need hygiene supplies, to be heard, and to be valued. About two blocks down there is smoke, blockades of cops. Police fly around the block ignoring the slouched bodies and needles. Fire trucks circle. Helicopters hover overhead. During the time we were handing out food, they announced a curfew in 2 hours. PA is in a state of emergency with the National Guard on its way into Philly. It feels like home for the first time in a while, before the realization hits, “wait, this is America”. Philadelphia on this day looked like a normal city in Brazil. Two worlds just collided. The chaos and unrest, unemployment, road blockages, tear-gassed protests, fires, violence, and looting, that Philadelphia had experienced over the past few months, is the standard of everyday life in huge portions of the world. The lack of safety, even the “food shortages” during the lockdown, this is normal to millions. Jesus made it clear that He came for all of us. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. Loving people from all walks of life has a cost. It will be uncomfortable, inconvenient, sacrificial. It will cause us to re-think, to change for the better. This is the very nature of family and the nature of Christ.
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