Soap, Chips, Veggies, & a Coke

Well, the other day I walked past Steve on my way to the gas station to get a cup of coffee.  I was going to say something to him, but he had headphones on and looked like he was resting.  So I tried to make eye contact and acknowledge him and then went and got my stuff.  On my way back, he was lying down with a cap drawn over his eyes.  Sleeping I guess...or so I thought.  I didn't want to bother him if he was sleeping, so I just went back to the office.

(Thinking about it now, it's kinda ridiculous.  I should've just said hi.  Anyway...)

I get back to the office and a little while after, Max says hey, I think Steve is still out there.  We should make him a plate of food.

(Great, right after I walk by the man, Max has this great idea...but often, I feel that's how God works in my life.)

So we get to it.

All we have in the fridge are some veggies...and I'm feeling a little embarrassed cause that's all we have to give.  And then I think to myself, "Why are you embarrassed?  He doesn't have anything to eat.  Something is better than nothing.  Right?"

So I get over that.

Max also gets some chips, soap, and a Coke.  Doesn't look like that pitiful of an offering anymore.

As we are walking out, we say a few short prayers.  We ask God to bless Steve.  We ask God for wisdom as to how to love Steve.

We get there and this is not a movie, so this picture also comes with smells and I can smell Steve.  Which makes it a little more difficult to be there.  He's lying down curled up, headphones on, with his cap still drawn over his eyes.  He's resting.  I'm ready to tell Max let's leave the plate and other stuff by him and let Steve rest, but before I can say anything, here's Max nudging Steve's arm...

Steve wakes up with a tired and confused look on his face.  But he gets up and acknowledges us. So we (re)introduce ourselves and give him our little gifts of soap, chips, veggies, & a coke.

We talk stories.

We hear how he tries to keep his area clean so the cops don't bust him or tell him to move.  We hear how he is still healing from a hip replacement.  We hear how other people steal his stuff like his blanket and soap...and as he mentions the soap, he looks at the big plastic bag full of hotel soap and shampoo and says how it was just what he needed. (Wow.)

We stay there for a little while longer and before we leave, we ask Steve if we can pray for him.  He says it's alright.  So we do.  We pray.  At the bus stop.  We pray for healing to come to his hip and to his ulcers.  We pray for God to provide for Steve.  We pray for God to bless Steve.  (Amen)  We shake hands and let him know that our office is around the corner if he needs any help.

Then Max and I head back.

As we do, I think about what just happened.  I think about what my plan for Steve was: to provide a few things, gain his trust, infuse a little hope into his life, pray that Steve comes to the Lord, gets off the streets, gets a place to stay, gets a job, comes to church and tells everyone how God changed his life!

But that wasn't God's plan.  Not that day anyway.  God's plan was for me to get to know Steve better.  God's plan was for me to see how grateful he was for those simple things.  My plan was for me to go and bless Steve and for me to teach him something about God, but God's plan was that Steve was going to teach me...about contentment...about being grateful...and about what we need to "survive".

If we think about it, what do we need?  Not that much.  But we stress, fight, and work so hard for things that really aren't that essential.

This is a difficult verse because of the culture most of us live in, but it comes to mind:

Proverbs 30:7-9 NIV
7“Two things I ask of you, Lord;

do not refuse me before I die:

8Keep falsehood and lies far from me;

give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

9Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you

and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’

Or I may become poor and steal,

and so dishonor the name of my God.

...so thanks, God.
...and thanks, Steve.

Small things can still mean a lot...

So there's this guy outside of my office.  He's homeless.  His name is Steve.

I started talking with him a while back because of a message at church.  In the message, Pastor Mark shared the story of the Good Samaritan and challenged our view of who our neighbors are...challenged me.

So as a result of that, I've spoken with Steve a few times.  He's from Houston, Texas.  Not really sure how he got here.  But he has a cane and he's had hip replacement surgery...so he walks with a limp...when he does walk.  He mostly stays at the bus stop outside my work.  He doesn't really like IHS or the other shelters.  He's slept at the bus stop outside my work and at the old Advertiser building on Kapiolani (among other places).

Recently, I've been walking by the stop and I kinda say hi as I go by and didn't really get an acknowledgement from him.  So believe it or not, I got offended. (Sheesh. I suck.) So for a little while I was thinking, "O, so you don't wanna say, 'hi'. Ok, I'm not gonna help you or get you stuff."

But as soon as I got that bad attitude, I could feel God say, "Jared, are you serious?!?! A homeless guy doesn't say, 'hi' to you and you're gonna act like this?  C'mon now" <---this is a paraphrase BTW

So of course I'm wrong.

Of course I am.

I know I am.

So I ask myself, how do I love this guy?  How do I care for this man?  How do I love/care for my neighbor as myself?

The next day I bought him a Gatorade. 

He was so stoked!

"Hot tamale!!! Thank you, thank you," he said.

Today, me and Max got to talk stories with Steve again and got to pray for him, too.   In doing that, it made me wonder about something...

How much is enough?  Tell you about that later.

But for now, if you wanna help someone out, it doesn't have to be a huge life changing thing.  It could be small...but still life changing thing. 

PI, HI, & me

A few years ago I got to go to the Philippines for a short mission trip with YWAM (Holoholo Ministries).  It was really great.  I love to see different places and experience different cultures.  Not only do you get to learn about other people, but you learn a lot about yourself.

Let me say that the Philippines is a beautiful place.

But like all places, there are areas...that could use a little more beauty.  Areas you don't see on the vacation brochure...

This is the Balatas dump.

(click on image to enlarge)

We went to the dump on more than one day.

There were a lot of things you don't want to see there.  Homes...built on trash.  The ground you walk on sinking just a little under the weight of your foot...because it's not soil...it's trash.  At another site named 'Smokey Mountain', methane gas would be visibly rising out of the 'mountains' of rubbish.  But the most heart breaking thing about this whole scene is the people...kids even...going through the trash for things they can recycle for money...or for things they can eat like left over hamburgers and other food.

A quick look back

So I've been trying to go through the bible this year with Youversion.com & it's been pretty good, I must say. I do miss my readings some times, but so far, I've been able to catch up on most of them. One thing that I feel has been a theme for me this year is 'to remember' because as one lyric from Listener's Wooden Heart says, "We only have what we remember"...and I don't want to be robbed (or rob myself) of what the LORD has given me (family, friends) and what He has been showing me in this season of my life. Now, there are a few...well, maybe a lot...of misspellings and grammar errors, so I apologize in advance. But as I've looked back, here is a small sample of what I feel the LORD has been showing me as I've read and journaled. Just click on the links below...and if you have any thoughts, let me know. I'd love to talk it out with you...cause I might be still working through some of it myself.

The Garden, The Law, & Faith
The LORD buried him
A personal encouragement
Just got slapped in the face by Paul
He is in the whisper
This Never Gets old
He cuts everything
Continually seeking Him
only fooling myself
Wholeheartedly

Thanks for stopping by.

From the Road: Seattle to Oregon & the train

Well we are in Oregon now...and let me tell you, it was an adventure.

First, I think that 5 lanes of traffic is a lot. Most times when I was driving on the I-5, it felt like I was a little fish caught up in a rushing river and I was just going along with the current. But with that, most drivers on the mainland (that I've experienced) are pretty nice (freeway) drivers. If you blink, they will pretty much let you in. Not like in Hawaii, where if you blink, somehow it translates to other drivers in the islands that you would like them to speed up into the spot that you were wanting to go to. Like instead of "I'm moving into this spot" it means "LOOK, here's an empty space in the road. YOU should speed up and take it.". Anyway, that's just a rant about driving.

Now with that out of the way, I have to tell you this story. So on Wednesday, we were catching a train (Amtrak) from Seattle to Portland. Now the plan was to take my family to the train station and then check in. After that, my dad and I would drive back to the rental car place to return the cars. My Uncle would then pick us up and drop us off back at the train station and we would all have a lovely little train ride to Portland. In order to shorten the story a little, let me just say that we had a lot of little delays that pushed us back and my uncle, my dad, and I found ourselves stuck in traffic on the I-5 seriously doubting we would get to the train on time. BUT while doing my bible study, I read Philippians 4:6 which says don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need & thank him for all he has done. So in spite of my doubt, I was just thanking Him for the little miracles (that I felt occurred) which even gave us a chance to make it...and I started to believe that we were going to make it! Traffic started to open up a bit! We are going to make it! My uncle took a different off ramp and it seemed we were going to make it! Red lights were switching to green! I think we are going to make it! I'm texting Tiana telling he where we are and she's texting that they hadn't left yet! We ae going to mske it! We get to the station, jump out of the car and sprint to the terminal. We get in and ask where is the train to Portland...the workers point us in the direction...IT IS RIGHT THERE...but say that the doors are already locked and the only person that can let us on is the conductor on the other side. That's okay, I just have this feeling we are going to make it. We get to the door...my fist pressed against its glass...ticket in hand...I ask:

"Can we get on that train?"

He looks at us and says...

No

Okay, it's gonna take a little more coaxing I guess. He can't say no after I say with a little more desperation in my voice:

"But my family is on that train..."

He moves...

hesitates...

then...

"Sorry," he says.

1 minute later, the train pulls away from the station.

Not exactly the "romantic comedy movie ending" I envisioned.

My dad and I ended up catching the next train which left 3 hours later and we made it safely to the rest of the family in Oregon.

And while my dad and I did miss the train, we also got to spend some time together...just me and him...and I felt like we hadn't done that in a really long time. Maybe a blessing in disguise? I would say, Yes.

Lesson learned: Just have to make the best out of every situation.
Primary lessoned learned: Give myself more time in travel situations so I don't miss my train/bus/plane/etc.

If you're curious, I documented some of the stuff we did while we were waiting in Seattle for the train in my twitter feed. Just click on @jaredmiyamoto in the twitter widget on the right to see.

Fun Times

Lessons From the Road

So we are on a family trip and I am trying to blog from an iPad. Let me tell you, I miss having a real keyboard to type on. But one kind of neat thing is that you don't have to take it out of your bag when you go through TSA. I thought that was pretty cool.

The reason we left the warmth of Hawaii and trekked into the gray cold of the pacific nothwest is that my littlest sister is graduating from college. And as a result of being here for about one day, I feel I've learned some important things.

1. 56 degrees is cold.
2. It's only been 1 day, but I miss the sunshine.
3. I learn to trust God a lot more when I'm driving in an unfamiliar place.
4. I learn to trust God a lot lot more when I get lost driving in an unfamiliar place.
4a. My family learns to trust God a whole lot more when I get lost driving.
5. It's hard for me to get adjusted to the time difference.
(I should actually be sleeping now)
6. Expect a lot of crying when traveling with a child under the age of 1.
7. With all that said, it's good to be with family.

I want to write some more, but I gotta go to sleep. So....

Good night.