Some may have seen in the news that was really cold here in Germany last week. It was brutally cold. Haven’t seen this kind of cold in the five years I’ve been here.

A Pampered Life Visiting a Christmas Market

I was reminded how cold it was when a group from our church met downtown to visit the “Weihnachtsmarkt”. It’s a tradition in Germany with many cities and towns having them. Booths are set up across the downtown areas selling everything from Christmas trinkets to food, drinks, handicrafts, you name it. A favorite here is selling hot wine. People sit out for hours, talking with friends, drinking their heated wines.

We had a great time, but I was reminded how cold it was as we spent a few hours at the market after dark. I couldn’t help thinking about where the homeless go when it gets really cold. It’s got to be bitter. Lying on a piece of cardboard just doesn’t cut it.

I Didn’t Really Care When I didn’t Know any Homeless

When I was younger, I didn’t know any homeless. They seemed so distant that it didn’t really bother me that there were so many living on the streets. But when you know them, it becomes really haunting.

One of the women in our Christian charity recently returned to her boyfriend on the street, leaving her apartment. She’d been doing so well . . . and then relapsed. The apartment was too far from friends, so she left, returning to them and the lifestyle of drugs and drunkenness that prior ruled her life.

We caught up with her on the streets, urged her to return without success. Then the cold hit. She was sitting outside on the sidewalk with her boyfriend and a beer. Who knows when she last ate or where they sleep?

Another friend, a Romanian migrant was also back in Koblenz begging on the streets for money to support his wife and newborn son. He contacted us, asking for money so he could buy a bus ticket home and some food.

We agreed to help, asking him to meet us at our church for our 4th Advent Celebration. It was a way to get him to come in, meet some Christians, have a cup of coffee and some cake. That’s when I learned he wasn’t sleeping on the streets. A man had allowed him to sleep in his garage if he’d watch the parking lot. The garage has no water, no heat, no lights.

Or Ukraine. Civilians deliberately targeted. No food, water, power, heat. It’s hard to believe how much the world is spending on weapons to either destroy the people or protect them. Either way, the entire country is becoming a wasteland. I often wonder if the world will spend as much to rebuild if and when the war ends.

The Struggle over What to Do

Knowing some of the homeless doesn’t make it easier. It actually makes it harder. You start to really care about the people, but it doesn’t answer the question of what to do.

I don’t know how to help our friend who doesn’t yet want our help. I don’t know how to help my Romanian friend when his only interest in us is when he’s flat out of cash. That’s when he expects us to be his ATM.

I also don’t know how to help the man who started attending our church a few months back, alone without family, retired with a pension of only $800/month, living out of his car. It begs a bigger question: what is our responsibility to the poor – to those inside and outside the faith? It’s a question I’m really struggling with.

I’ve decided first to pray, and truly seek God for an answer, but also to testify of the love of Christ. I think it’s great when people know you love them and care about them. But it doesn’t seem to be enough. They really need to know that God loves them so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus, who can transform broken lives and give people true joy.

That’s the amazing part of the Christmas Season. God gave us His most precious Son, who gave us eternal life. And I think that’s worth sharing with the lost.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Oh, and by the way, the woman in our charity came home the other day! It gives us another reason to rejoice for the season!