Jesus says there are going to be some surprises in heaven! We might not see some people we expected to see. Some people who prayed lovely prayers won’t be there. Neither will some people who did miracles in Jesus’ name (Matthew 7:21-23). On the other hand, Ellen White says many will be in heaven whom their neighbors thought would most certainly not be there! (Christ’s Object Lessons, p.72).

So why will some people be there and some not? The answer centers around a name: JESUS! He’s the only way to heaven (Acts 4:12). When we accept Him as our Savior, we will do the things He did, such as caring for the needy and homeless and being compassionate to those who are poor. Jesus says that in the end He will separate the sheep from the goats (the saved from the unsaved) based on what they did for others (Matthew 25:31:46).

We asked some students from Grand Rapids Junior Academy to share their experiences participating in a school project called Christmas Gift Bags for the Homeless and the impact that it had on them.

Ve.Z: Tell us a little about your project:

Hannah: Every year for the past twelve years my school’s Junior High has gone into downtown Grand Rapids to hand out gift bags to the homeless. We start collecting things to put in the bags around September, and we hand them out in December. We put scarves, hats, mittens, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, socks, and other things into our gift bags. It’s so much fun collecting all these things. Some of my friends and I even learned how to knit scarves, and we donated the ones we made.

Megan: Some people go to hotels and ask if they would like to donate personal bottles of shampoo or soap. And sometimes we go out and buy the things we need for the bags.

Marlee: We decorate the paper bags with festive pictures of Christmas trees, snowmen, candy canes, and other winter pictures. Then, on the day we hand out the bags, we form an assembly line and fill the gift bags with all of the items we collected over the months. Our goal this year was to make 250 gift bags, but when we finished counting, we had almost 300!

Bailey: For the past two years, we have added something special from us personally, such as a cookie or a memory text on a card.

Ve.Z: Have you had a specially memorable experience?

Ricky: We’ve all had many different experiences while handing out our gift bags. I remember the time when one man returned and gave back the card with the Bible text. On it he had written, “Please pray for me. Your friend, Charles.” It touched me that in such a depressing place, some people still have their faith. The project left me wishing we could do more. That’s when I realized we can! We can pray for the homeless in our communities as Charles asked us to do.

Bailey: One great moment occurred during the first year I was involved in this project. About a week before we handed out the bags, we went on a field trip to Mel Trotter Mission. The people at the mission had set up stations showing about eight to ten different places a homeless person might live, including a car, a cardboard box, and a door frame.

Danielle: That display was called “A Walk in Their Shoes.” We learned that some people sleep in garbage bins and even in boxes. The display also showed that some homeless people can fit everything they own into one shopping cart. That trip was a huge eye opener for me.

We also went into a room with a piano and invited a homeless man to play. We all sang Christmas songs with him. That was really fun!

Ivan: My group went down by a homeless shelter and handed out bags to the people who were there. One person we handed a bag to was a mentally challenged person. He was drooling everywhere. His teeth were crooked, his clothes were dirty, and his hand dangled from his arm. But instead of being content with one bag, he came back for another one, and he kept coming back. Everyone thought he was incredibly greedy, but no one really paid much attention to him.

When we had handed out all our bags, a different man from inside the homeless shelter came out. He asked if we had any more bags, because the man inside had stopped handing out bags. Then I realized that the man we thought was so greedy was the very man who had handed out those bags to others. I felt terrible that I had judged him so poorly.

I like what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 15:7-8: “When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost” (The Message).

Ve.Z: Has anyone had an attitude adjustment while doing this project?

Christie: Last year was my first time working on this project, and at first it didn’t seem like that cool of a project, but I’ll have to say I learned a lot, especially about not judging others. At the “A Walk in Their Shoes” display, we heard a few stories about homeless people. In one story, a girl and her grandmother were being stalked and had to leave their house right away. Because they didn’t have any money to relocate, they were forced to be homeless for a time. It showed me that homeless people don’t necessarily bring this upon themselves and that I was wrong to judge them so harshly—in fact, I was wrong to judge them at all.

Ve.Z: So what else have you learned?

Donavan: On the way to the homeless shelter I was nervous. I had never seen a homeless person before. On TV and in the movies the homeless people beg you for money. But when I gave out the first gift bag, the homeless man was so happy he ran inside the shelter and told his friends! I now know that homeless people are people just like us who happen to need a home.

Brianna: I realized how often we take for granted all the everyday things we have, such as food, showers, clothes, a warm bed to sleep in each night, and most of all, a home. Most of the people we met don’t have anybody.

Christie: I learned about gratitude. These people were so happy and thankful to receive our gift bag, filled with practical things, which was probably their only Christmas present.

Ivan:I learned that there about 100 million homeless people worldwide. In the United States, in a given year, 3.5 million people are homeless and 1.3 million of them are children. Instead of judging these people, let’s lend a hand to them
whenever we can.

Ve.Z: Does anyone have any closing thoughts?

Hannah: There are many different ways to make a difference in your community. It is so worth it to help out!

Danielle: When we hand out the gift bags, I have tons of joy in my heart and I feel great!

Trent: It’s amazing to see that a few brown paper bags with some scarves, gloves, hats, and other small gifts could make people so happy. Think about what YOU could do for others in your life.

Brianna: I hope that if you get the chance to do something like this, you’ll take it! It is the best experience you can have. Maybe it will open your eyes just like it did for me.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40, NIV