Email: Alex Creager

Beautiful Feet

Dear Friends,

Since coming to Belfast, I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of different kinds of work with my church here, Whitehouse Presbyterian Church. I’ve been leading our youth group and a Youth Alpha course, working with scout-type organizations called Girls Brigade and Boys Brigade, making home visits to people in hospitals, nursing centers, and houses, helped with a cross-community lunch club, and have even given five sermons on Sunday mornings. I’ve also worked at a local high school a couple of days a week.

But the thing that has taught me the most has been working with an organization here in Belfast called Beautiful Feet. Every Tuesday night they go out giving food, clothes, and coffee out to the homeless in Belfast. A few months ago, I started going out with them.

After making some sandwiches beforehand, Jonny, a member of Whitehouse, and I joined up with the rest of the mostly 20-something volunteers at a church downtown. There we packed up our bags to take with us and had a deep prayer before heading out.

I had done some work with homeless people in the past, but in situations where they came to us, like in soup kitchens or shelters. I had never gone out to find them on the street. The truth is that I actually had no idea what to do when I met a homeless person on the street. I usually just completely ignore them and walk past when I see a homeless person sitting on a sidewalk. I expected that going out and actually talking to one while offering food and clothing was going to be very uncomfortable.

The first person we met that night was a man named Thomas. He wasn’t sitting down and begging for money, as I assumed all homeless people we were going to meet would be doing. He was just walking down the street like anyone else. But one of the other volunteers with us had seen him walking around downtown a lot in the past weeks and thought she should finally meet him and see if he needed help.

When we first approached Thomas he was very quiet. Every question we asked him, he answered with a single word or not at all. After he found out I was an American, though, he started telling us a story about how he went to Florida, wound up wearing a space suit, climbed up the ladder on the side of a space shuttle, got on board, and then traveled to the moon. After he told us this story, I wanted to leave him immediately. That story, combined with his unkempt beard, poor clothes, and his eerily quiet demeanor made me believe that the guy was just crazy. I thought he would never understand anything we said to him or be able to say anything that made any sense, and that trying to talk with him was pointless. Also, he didn’t want any of the food, coffee, or clothes we were offering. As the others chose to stay there and talk with him for longer, I thought we were just wasting our time on Thomas.

But the more we stayed with him, the more he opened up and started trusting us. He stopped trying to freak us out with fantastic stories of going to the moon, and began being honest with us. He let us know that he was from Dublin but didn’t know where his family was now. Thomas had been in Belfast for the past month, just walking around most of the time. He didn’t have a place to say, but also didn’t like the homeless shelters he had been to. After talking with him for 20 minutes, we invited him to join us as we walked around downtown Belfast for the rest of the night. I don’t think he ever said yes or no, but as soon as we started walking, he came along with us. And as he came along with us, he opened up even more. He accepted the coffee, sandwiches, and soup he had turned down earlier. He laughed at our jokes, and especially my strange accent. And I found out that he likes to sing, especially to “Eye of the Tiger.”

One moment in that night sticks out a lot to me. We had run into another homeless man, Davey, who also joined us and walked along with us. It’s our policy not to hand out any money, so when Davey asked for some money, none of us offered. But Thomas, a man without a home, who ate enough sandwiches and soup to make me believe he didn’t get food very often, and who only carried with him the clothes on his back, reached into his pocket and handed Davey some change. It wasn’t even a thought for Thomas. Someone else asked for something that he could give, so he gave it, and he gave it with some joy on his face. This same man who an hour earlier I had dismissed as crazy and unworthy of my time, was joyfully giving away his money, even though it might have cost him a rare meal or worse.

Every night since that I’ve been out with Beautiful Feet I’ve learned something about respecting those we are serving and treating them as friends. The ministry is still very challenging to me, but I love it when I see familiar faces, and I’ve learned that when I have just a little bit of patience, the discussion and interactions I get to have with the people we meet are some of my favorite moments of the week.

Alex

P.S. I'd be very pleased if you visited my blog.