By Suler Acosta, who serves with InFaith at New Life Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia

I’d like to share the observations of Karen Hamilton, a member of my church who went with me under the El a few weeks ago:

He called them “Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve”: night walkers, drug dealers, drug addicts, prostitutes, and the homeless. Our leader, Suler Acosta, said before we left that if Jesus were physically walking the earth these days, among these people is where we would probably find Him. He said we were going to show them Jesus, but we were also going to see Jesus in them. Some were smelly, visibly strung out and high, bound by HIV and other diseases, and desperate. And they were beautiful.

Six of us went out to the Kensington area under the El around 9:00 last night and set up tables with hoagies, chips, drinks, and candy. (The sugar helps take down the high that many of them are on.) Then we just engaged the folks who were out in conversation, shared the love of God with them, listened to them, and prayed for them. For two hours, about thirty of them hung around, eating, joking with us, commiserating about the Phillies (smile), and just waiting for us to ask them to tell their story. What was amazing was that even in their current state, they had some of the same dreams, hopes, frustrations, etc. that we all have: wanting their children to do well, telling their friends not to take more than one sandwich so there would be enough for everybody, thanking us over, and over, and over again for coming out in the night under the El tracks, and sharing how they knew they were messed up. Listening to their stories gave them the dignity that is many times lost in their circumstances, but it also reminded us, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

One of the things that touched me the most was my conversation toward the end of the night with a man named “Moo”:

“This is really good y’all doing this, because people be out here, and they be hungry and they don’t have no money to get nothing to eat, and when you hungry you can’t even think straight. It don’t seem like a lot, but when y’all give us that sandwich, and some iced tea, some chips, and some candy, it make you feel like you somebody, like you not just trash on the street.”

“When you get that hunger out of you, and you can think straight, it might make you do something positive, like put in a job application, or check on your kid or something.”

He told us how he was out in the street doing drugs, dealing drugs, and “everything else bad,” and then one day saw a boy selling candy. “I had a couple extra dollars and I said, ‘I’m gon’ do something good today; I’m gon’ help this young boy out and buy some candy.’ ‘Cause I remember being that age out tryin’ to sell candy for school and stuff and that’s hard, don’t nobody be buyin’ it, and I decided I was gon’ do something good and that made me real happy. And it made him happy.”

I told him that Jesus said “Whatever you’ve done to the least of these little ones, it’s as if you have done it for the Lord.” I told him by showing love to that boy, just like we were showing love to him, God was receiving that as an expression of love toward Him.

His eyes lit up, and he said, “Yeah? So that’s love, huh? I guess I was showing love!”