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GROWTH challenge






On the 2nd of December, I participated in a fundraising event for a charity called GROWTH.

GROWTH is a Christian charity that has been helping people in situations of homelessness by sheltering them, finding long-term accommodation, and also helping them in their research for a job. The Liberty Church London has been supporting GROWTH for quite and people rotate to volunteer in their shelter. And once a year members of the Church participate in a fundraising event organised by them which consists to sleep outside for a night.

This December was the second time I participated in this event.


The first time I did it was in 2019. We slept outside of a church and the charity provided us with sleeping bags. The night went well, as it was cold but not too cold and it started to rain a bit early in the morning


I had difficulty sleeping because I did not use my sleeping bag properly so I was feeling cold and I was fearing that they would be a rat or mouse that would come closer to me.

But this year compared to the previous year I participated, felt different.


We slept by a river actually and it was just in front of many restaurants in West India Quay in Canary Wharf. For security reasons, they delimited the perimeter we would sleep in, and there were security guards. It was a Friday night, you know people eat, and get drunk.


To be honest with you, I did not feel like going initially. the reason being I had been feeling down for a couple of weeks. I was not sure exactly why I did feel like this and where this feeling was coming from, but I could not drag myself to do anything. My house is a mess I am a mess, it became harder at work to do certain tasks even at church. The only thing I was capable of doing was to show up.

it was 7:00 pm and I live more than an hour and a half from the place we were supposed to meet at 8:00 pm and I was still fighting myself to show up. But thanks Lord for the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I decided to prepare myself although I was not prepared as I did not have a sleeping bag so I put as much cover as I could, jumpers, I even brought my blanket and pillow, and I made my way to the place where we were supposed to meet. Of course, I was late but glad that I was able to make it, to show up for this charity and the cause I am committed to.


There were about 20 of us. The church that welcomed us was St Peter's Barge. They prepared tea biscuits and even a meal for us to have before going to sleep. it was a very cold windy night. And luckily for me, the organizer had a spare sleeping bag for me.


This experience was different from the previous one. This was mainly because when we slept outside St Anne's church in Limehouse, no people were passing by it was just us the participants that were there. But this time it was different, it was not only us but also the people having dinner and having fun drinking. I felt a type of discomfort not because I was sleeping on broken boxes in a sleeping bag outside but because they were people looking at us wondering why we were sleeping outside. Some people even made fun of us saying we looked like dead people. At that moment I could not stop but imagine how a homeless person because of the regard of others. I felt embarrassed mixed with a feeling of insecurity because we could hear some commotion going on. It was tough.

The last time I only had to fear any rat or mouse coming near me but it was my imagination. This time I could hear and see people passing by. People that I did not know what they are capable of.


This let me to think about my behavior and my attitude when I meet people that are in a situation of homelessness do I treat them with kindness as a normal human being will do, or do I just ignore them because it makes me too uncomfortable to just smile and/or say hello because I’m feeling helpless. How do they feel? How do you feel when you don't know when your next meal will be, it is the coldest night and you have no place to sleep?


This event made me more grateful for what I have. There is no difference really between a person in a situation of homelessness and me in the sense that it can happen to anybody

Everything we have is only by God's grace and everything that we consider normal or granted can be someone else prayer points.


I invite everybody that have a heart for homeless people to see how they can help within their community to get involved with a charity or shelter. And if you cannot help financially, you can still offer your time or your skill. If each of us puts a brick what difference we can make


Stay blessed!


 
 
 

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