Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200489A
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00:27 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:29 This is a program designed for you 00:32 to bring you up to speed 00:33 and inspire you 00:35 on religious liberty developments 00:36 in the US and around the world. 00:39 My name is Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty Magazine, 00:42 and my guest on this program is Pati Lawrence. 00:45 Welcome again. 00:46 This is not your first program, Pati. 00:49 But I'll introduce you again for some viewers 00:51 that haven't seen you before. 00:53 You are what I would call a religious liberty activist. 00:56 Yes. 00:58 A woman who as you've told the story 01:04 came in with an idea to serve 01:05 and saw religious liberty material 01:07 and literally followed the blueprint 01:09 and reached out and made contacts 01:11 with public officials 01:12 and at this point it's amazing, providential, 01:16 inspiring to hear you tell some of these stories. 01:19 So where do you want to pick it up? 01:20 Let's continue the story of the adventures of Pati. 01:23 There was a film years ago, The Adventures of Pauline. 01:29 But this is, doing and daring for the Lord, isn't it? 01:32 It is, and you know, the greatest thing 01:34 that I experience 01:36 is when the elected officials and not just elected officials, 01:39 but I build relationships 01:40 with county services with nonprofits. 01:44 The individually run nonprofits, 01:46 the people who are in the streets 01:47 with the people, 01:48 they see and know so much more 01:50 than maybe someone sitting in an office, 01:52 not to take away anything 01:54 but we need people on the ground. 01:56 But when their eyes notice that they begin to see us, 02:00 the Seventh-day Adventist Church 02:01 as an asset, 02:02 and as a positive influence and as a resource. 02:06 That's really a great thing. 02:08 But I do want to say, at the beginning, 02:10 I kept praying to be a resource, 02:12 God, let us be Your resource. 02:14 And God always does give us more than we ask for. 02:17 So happens that congresswoman's office, 02:20 like when I go in, and I before I leave them, 02:22 I let them know, if you need anything, 02:24 call me first, call me. 02:26 I may have a resource for you. 02:27 I may have a source, I may have a service, call me. 02:31 Well, they called me on that. 02:33 I received a call. 02:35 And the case manager says, 02:37 "Pati, we have a constituent in our district." 02:40 They have, it's a woman who has a brother, 02:43 he's a senior citizen disabled. 02:46 He is on limited income, 02:49 and his medical doesn't cover 02:52 for all of the adult diapers 02:55 that he needs through the month. 02:57 We might think oh, okay, that's not such a big deal. 03:00 But you know what? 03:01 It is a big deal to someone who has to go. 03:04 But I think they were almost testing you. 03:06 Maybe they were, this wasn't something... 03:08 This is what I think, this was a test case to see 03:09 how you would respond. 03:11 Adult diapers and I said, "Let me see what we can do. 03:13 Let me see what I can do." 03:15 Because I know that several of our churches 03:16 in the area have thrift stores 03:18 and have food banks. 03:20 I know they get baby diapers. 03:22 Again I prayed and I said, "God, let me be a resource. 03:25 Let me find diapers." 03:26 There was a local church I contacted. 03:29 Now this is a man, so diapers are specific. 03:32 They're specific to gender and size. 03:35 Capacity. Yeah, capacity. 03:39 I mean he was running about 18 to 20 diapers short a month. 03:43 I mean, that becomes a hygiene issue a problem 03:45 for the family. 03:47 Serious issue for the individual. 03:48 That's serious, 03:50 so I needed male 03:51 and I needed large adult diapers. 03:55 I reached out to a local church 03:57 that I knew had the food bank and a large thrift store. 04:01 They had large adult diapers 04:05 that someone had recently donated. 04:07 They were taking up too much space in their store. 04:10 That is a providential thing right there, 04:11 what are the chances? 04:13 What are the chances? 04:14 So I called back the congresswoman's office 04:17 her caseworker and I say, 04:18 "I have about a four or five months supply 04:21 of supplemental diapers that I can drop off." 04:23 And she says, "Well, can I put you in contact 04:25 with our constituent?" 04:27 She wanted me to then take to drive this 04:29 and take the reins on it. 04:31 I said, "Sure, let me give him a call." 04:32 So I called and the woman says, she gives me her home address. 04:37 I go to drop them off that day. 04:40 What I saw in that home, it just... 04:43 I can't put into words. I go into the home. 04:47 There were probably four or five little children 04:50 under 10 years old. 04:51 I believe this gentleman lived with his daughter 04:54 and her family. 04:57 When they saw me walk in, 04:58 I asked for help if someone could help me, 05:00 there was a teenager there, he came out to my car, 05:01 he helped me bring them in. 05:03 The children, five year old, six year olds were, 05:06 others may take it for granted in other you know areas of, 05:11 but these children were jumping up and down 05:14 carrying as much as they could. 05:16 The diaper the package of diapers 05:18 and saying grampy, grampy look, look. 05:20 They were excited for him. 05:21 To them, it was the greatest thing in the world 05:24 to see their happiness, they're jumping up and down. 05:27 The caregiver and his sister, they were just like, 05:30 their eyes were big, they couldn't believe it. 05:32 This was a great thing for them. 05:34 It was great. 05:36 And I left and I gave them my numbers 05:38 and said just call me. 05:40 If I could be of any other help, call me. 05:44 The greatest thing about this is, 05:45 they knew that their member of Congress, 05:47 their elected official helped them, 05:49 but they also know that we help them, 05:52 Seventh-day Adventist Church helped them. 05:54 I left some literature and higo, 05:57 you know, for the kids 05:58 and I had some I just happened to have 06:00 some little booklets that were for children. 06:02 No one never carry those. 06:03 I had them. 06:05 So I left them really I had tears in my eyes. 06:07 I was, it was a happy tears. 06:09 And I said God, 06:10 I kept praying for us to be a resource. 06:13 But you made us a blessing this day. 06:15 We were a blessing to a family. 06:17 Just last night I was reading Martin Luther King's 06:20 one of his last sermons 06:22 and he quoted there from the words of Jesus, 06:24 he says, you know you, you didn't do this. 06:27 And he says when I was sick, and you didn't visit me, 06:30 but you visited, 06:31 and I'm quoting the words of Jesus 06:32 that that's true godliness. 06:34 So to be part of helping someone 06:38 in their immediate need. 06:40 It's not only creating a good relationship 06:43 with the government official. 06:46 You know, this is God's work for that person. 06:47 But to see those children, 06:49 that's what made me so happy 06:50 to see those children running and saying, 06:52 "Grampy, grampy look what we have for you." 06:56 And one of the women she says 06:57 this is about a five month supply. 07:00 This will get us to the summer, 07:01 they were in awe and so as I. 07:04 I didn't know it would be that. 07:06 I just didn't know what to expect. 07:08 Now, but also these things that we may take for granted. 07:11 There's a non... 07:12 I mentioned the nonprofits, there's a nonprofit. 07:15 She's been doing homeless outreach 07:18 since she was a teenager. 07:19 Now she has her own foundation. 07:21 She goes out into Skid Row every Wednesday, 07:23 she has an alley 07:25 that she sets up in food, clothing. 07:29 First time I saw this, so she had a washing station, 07:31 it's a little portable. 07:33 You dispense soap and water. 07:34 She says, "Would you mind running this for me?" 07:36 We ran up to homeless people 07:38 will wash their hands and face and bring them in, 07:41 give them some lunch 07:42 and they can pick some clothing. 07:45 As I'm standing there I had gloves on, 07:47 we were very careful. 07:48 I would ask them the most of the time 07:50 they would wash their own hands and splash the water. 07:52 Some because of maybe a mental illness, 07:55 they didn't really know, I would help them 07:58 standing there washing their hands and face 08:00 on a hot day. 08:02 You see the relief that comes over them. 08:04 You see the smiles. 08:05 They're thanking me and I'm saying, 08:07 "No, thank you for letting me serve you. 08:11 Thank you for being here." 08:13 So I'm getting emotional. 08:14 It touches my heart, something we take for granted. 08:18 We can walk in and wash our hands and face 08:19 any time we want. 08:21 And when you see the dirty water 08:23 coming off their hands, 08:25 and so that prompted me 08:27 to buy a washing station of my own. 08:30 I thought I'm going to do this in my town San Pedro. 08:34 The week after I ordered it. 08:36 I come out of the post office, 08:37 and there's someone I hadn't seen in few years, 08:40 Seventh-day Adventist who also lives in San Pedro. 08:44 We worship at different churches, 08:46 but because of COVID, 08:47 it has kept us distanced really from interacting 08:50 and visiting our churches. 08:52 I saw him and he says, 08:53 "Pati, I've been wanting to do something with the homeless." 08:56 Thank you God and I said, "Really?" 08:58 I just bought a washing station. 08:59 I showed him the picture. 09:01 He's like what? 09:02 He says, "He wanted to focus on hygiene." 09:04 And I said, "So do I." 09:06 He says, there's a lot of people 09:07 and when you're out there, 09:08 there's a lot of people that pull up, 09:10 drop off food and clothes. 09:11 But who really takes the time 09:12 and there's many out there without face masks on, 09:15 where's the even... 09:16 I don't want to come down on the city or officials. 09:19 But where's anyone monitoring the homeless 09:22 to make sure they're protected? 09:23 No, they're literally fallen, 09:25 perhaps they're sleeping in the cracks. 09:27 Who's helping them wash their hands, 09:29 giving them gloves, giving them clean face masks. 09:32 So he and I talked about it for a while and we said, 09:33 "Let's do this." 09:35 I said, "My washing station will be here this week." 09:38 So he says, "Let's call everyone we know, 09:40 let's get them out." 09:41 Our first visit out, there were three of us. 09:44 He and I and a woman that lives in my building, 09:46 she lives downstairs. 09:48 She's Seventh-day Adventist. 09:49 Wonderful, wonderful woman 09:51 with the biggest heart of anyone, 09:52 her and her husband both. 09:54 So we went out the first time, first day. 09:57 We were going to go out the first Sabbath afternoons 09:59 and the third Sabbath. 10:01 He says, "Well, we have no one else coming out. 10:03 So I'm going to post this on Facebook." 10:05 Okay put, we talked about the washing station. 10:08 You know, let's give hygiene kits, 10:10 let's give clean masks, 10:12 let's wash their hands and faces 10:13 or have them wash their hands and faces. 10:17 The third Sabbath comes and I said, 10:18 "Let's meet at my house." 10:20 I think maybe 10 or 12 people are going to join us. 10:22 And I thought amen. That is great. 10:24 Lincoln, when we showed up, 10:26 we counted 34 Adventists showed up 10:28 from different churches. 10:30 That's amazing. 10:31 So people are ready to respond if you give them a direction. 10:35 We caravanned in cars to the homeless encampment. 10:39 There were people there from, I have to give them a plug. 10:43 They're called fusion from San Bernardino. 10:45 They do homeless outreach in San Bernardino, 10:47 they didn't have washing stations. 10:49 Now people are going to start getting washing station. 10:51 Amazing. 10:52 Loma Linda, Canoga Park, Burbank, 10:55 they drew out to a little port town 10:57 called San Pedro. 10:58 If you unless you know you're going there, 11:00 you don't drive through this town. 11:02 We had 34 people join us. 11:06 And you got any estimate about 11:09 on how many homeless people 11:10 that those different locations 11:11 are at the location you were in? 11:14 I don't know, because there are many 11:16 that stayed inside their tents, some came out, 11:17 there were quite a few. 11:19 It was a very large camp. You mentioned tents. 11:20 Since I traveled to US, in the last few years 11:22 I've notice more and more tents under on an underpasses 11:26 and by deserted bypasses 11:29 that they're not in the most public places, 11:31 but there's a lot. 11:32 Now and these were in the backyard. 11:33 Something is going on. 11:35 Yeah, they weren't on the street 11:36 where they were visible. 11:38 We happen to see a small portion of them, 11:39 once you get drive down the street, 11:40 it was an industrial area, 11:42 and you go down to like 11:43 the alleyways of the side streets. 11:44 There they are, there were 11:46 several homeless encampments all over. 11:49 And, you know, there are many different causes. 11:51 And I don't want to get into all of them. 11:54 But it tells me there's a mission field 11:56 at home. 11:57 You know, it's still trendy 12:00 to sort of talk about over there, 12:02 you know, and sometimes young people 12:04 go on mission trips, 12:05 it's not all bad or not all good. 12:09 But there's a mission field at home. 12:11 There is and... 12:13 You see numbers of homeless, huge amounts, 12:16 especially in the big cities, 12:18 and how they survive in the winter 12:19 sleeping on grids and stuff in sub zero temperatures. 12:22 I bought lots of flip flops, 12:24 because I see a lot of barefoot 12:25 in the summer. 12:27 And because of COVID I can understand 12:29 from all the outreach when we tried to call people 12:31 to join us, I can understand 12:32 because of COVID we have to be careful. 12:34 A lot of members don't want to go out. 12:35 Yeah, COVID has changed the dynamic. 12:37 I think it's exposed the need 12:38 but it's made the risk even working with this greater. 12:41 Let's take a short break 12:43 and we'll be back 12:44 to continue this interesting discussion 12:45 of opportunities during COVID. |
Revised 2021-03-12