Homeless For A Day, Seeing A New Testament Church Part 1

So I was asked by Portsmouth First Church of the Nazarene to preach at a special Sunday service this past week and it turned out to be something that would be stuck with me (in a good way). The thing was it was not an ordinary thing where they asked me to just speak, they had other plans that went along with it. They had an outreach planned for Saturday where they have a park nearby and kind of took it over. They have a stage there and the band was playing, they were giving out hot dogs, chips, juice, cotton candy, popcorn, they had blow ups where the kids could play on, booths and other misc stuff going on. It was pretty awesome, it was a good turn out and several people from the church were there. Well I was to show up at this event they had as a homeless guy and see what the reactions would be. So I had a black zip up hoodie, black cargo pants, older sneakers, white V-neck undershirt, and an old beat up Auburn hat. Well I stayed at my Aunt's house and before I went over I dirtied up myself and my clothes (not to say all homeless people are dirty, but how much of a stereotype do we have to think that?). I had my cousin drop me off across the street and slowly made my way over to the park. It was interesting to see people not say anything to me until one guy with a camera invite me over to get some food. So I went through the line and got a couple of hot dogs, some chips, and a juice. Oh yeah and also a flyer. So I sat down and started eating my food off to the side and up came a gentleman named Kevin and he was very friendly. He introduced himself, his wife, and kids. Well he introduced pretty much everybody who came nearby. He asked me my name and I told him Barrett but somehow he got Perry so I just went with it. He invited me to church and told me when and where it was. I finished and made my way around the platform on to the children's section of the park where they had games and things going on and nobody seemed to even acknowledge me being there. I walked by with a slight slump in my stature and had my hat pulled down over my eyes. I tried to be as stand-offish as possible and it definitely worked. I made my way completely around the stage and back to the beginning and just stood next to people to see what the reactions would be. Needless to say the men held their wives tighter, no one made eye contact, people avoided me in a general sense. It was a horrible feeling of being an outsider that I don't wish on anybody. Although nobody said it I felt as though they were saying "Why don't you get lost bum and leave us alone." It was a shocking feeling and I never thought a church would ever do that to a person. I spoke shortly with the pastors and they asked me to go over to an individual and sit next to him and start up a conversation. As I started walking towards him he got up and walked away. I went through the line again and got seconds, but this time I put it in my backpack that I had with me which contained a blanket, Gideon Bible, and other odds and ends. As the event ended I tried to reach my wife on the pastor's wife's cell phone but she left her cell in the car. So I was forced to walk back to my Aunt's house which was 1 mile away. 1 mile might not be much for skinny people however with us biggins we have a little bit more trouble with that. It didn't seem too bad though and before long I was there. Once I got there my wife and aunt were there and told me that I stunk because I hadn't taken a shower in a day or so, plus I had been sweating for a mile so I was ripe! I decided to shower so that my wife would sleep next to me that night. The rest of the night I had to myself and I hung out with some family and got to bed early so I could get up and see what the reaction would be. I got up at about ten til 8 and had my aunt drive me over to the church where I set up for the morning that would be remembered...