This is a moment that happened on our vacation, at a rest stop in Oregon. It was a cold and rainy day. There was a woman, with a sign, with the usual, out of work, need food words scrolled upon it, there was a van nearby, we believe that was hers.
We did our business, stretched, got the children back into the warm dry car.... We needed a few things from the trailer, it's a pop-up so it takes some effort to get into...We both decided that we should share with this woman. It was our first day, we had more food on hand than we would possibly eat in a week, I grabbed a little Starbucks bag, and began filling it with food; a box of cracker, some cans of soup, a box of macaroni and cheese and some individual servings of applesauce. Hubby ran the bag over the the woman, she thanked him, we popped the trailer down and we were on our way.... I thought about that woman lots on the trip. Here we were, taking our little trailer for a vacation, a fun time, camping out, this lady lived in her car everyday, with what seemed like no hope....
Later, while in Anaheim, we had another encounter with a homeless woman, only this one was a bit frightening. She was kind of resting or camping out between our trailer and the motorhome in the next slot. One thing about a pop up is their isn't much security, it's pretty easy for someone to get into, and you can hear everything around you, as it's just tent fabric between you and the outdoors. This woman had a terrible cough and she moaned a lot and then began hollering out, "do you have any spare change". The teen girls in the motorhome next to us were showering, they were in and out, as one came back from showering, she sort of hid behind our trailer, checking to see if the woman was there, then I think she got brave and darted for the trailer door, then one of the guys, leaned out and told the woman to leave- I know she was out there at least two of the nights; she did not come back {at least to our area of the RV park} after this fellow and told her to leave.
Our house is on the small side for a family of seven, heating it was an issue this past winter. Yes, we grumbled about that every now and then.... I'll tell you though, it is a blessing to have a smallish, cold home and to be able to go to the grocery store when needed; these things we take for granite- but we shouldn't, they are gifts from God, for which we should be thanking him daily for!
