I arrived a little after 5:00pm and all was buzzing along nicely, Dwayne had almost finished making his usual 2 trays of sandwiches and Garth and John were making soup with Bill floating around doing his usual keep the peace job. There wasn't much food to give out to the people but the coffee was hot and Kelly found some rice and pineapple and heated it up in the oven. I decided to head back into the clothing area and sort out some of the mounds of clothes back there. I have been working on this for the past couple of days and can see orderliness happening at last. Elaine and her 2 daughters decided to join me in my efforts and the job seemed less daunting with help. The cold soon sent Nina and Vanessa back to the relative warmth of the front (the back of the Mission is not heated, so it's a big freezer) but Elaine stayed and continued to work with me. We made a big dent in the clothes and cleared off 2 benches that piled with clothes hanging the worthwhile ones up on racks and discarding the rest. Garth and John went off to have supper and left the finishing of the soup to me. Sandi arrived and brought a microwave and some winter clothes (Thanks Sandi!) I gave her a tour of the Mission and she prayed with us in the kitchen before the service.

There was some noisy incidents during the evening but we managed to keep everything relatively calm. It's hard for the street people during the Xmas period as they feel the distance between their families more acutely at this time. Terri was feeling the separation from her 2 children and was very disruptive during the service, I tried to get her up for prayer but her pain and pride held her back. Michael, who we don't often see at the Mission was in his own reality and had made no friends during the day capping it off by attacking an elderly man. Some of the men had determined that they would wait till he left and dispense some street justice at that time. I tried to diffuse the expectation of that as much as possible throughout the evening. Fortunately, Michael stayed until the end and by that time most had lost interest in him. The Lord moved powerfully through David and 2 or 3 men gave their lives to Christ and we prayed for many. There was an abundance of soup and sandwiches and no-one went away hungry. We ushered the last of our people out into the cold winter evening and closed the Mission. I drove Kelly to the Hope Mission and after praying he joined the long line-up for a mat for the night. Home for me.