Friday, October 22, 2010

The Faith Ball

Mr. Jeffrey reached into his backpack and showed me his variegated rubber-band Faith Ball -- the size of a child's soccer ball. I held it in my hands and felt the weight of his belief.

Two years ago he became homeless and collected rubber bands to literally hold onto his faith during this tumultuous storm. Today, Mr. Jeffrey has a room of his own, thanks to Friendship Place, a community homeless outreach
center in Washington, D.C.

"God made me homeless to make me humble," he asserted to our sixth grade religious school students. "I never thought I would be homeless, and I will never look at a homeless person in the same way again."

He stopped speaking and surveyed the crowd of fifteen Jewish teenagers.

"You probably understand what it is like to be homeless. After all, the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years: The Israelites were homeless all that time."

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