Acts of Faith and Kindness

Over Thanksgiving dinner, my daughter, Sunny, related a story she heard at school about a man who did good deeds for three strangers in the course of a day. That night, the story goes, an angel appeared and said that God had come to him three times that day. Disbelieving, the man asked for proof.

Out of the shadows emerged the people he had helped that day.

Inspired by her story, camera in hand, I set out in search of missions, shelters and churches gearing up to help those with the least.

Some of the efforts were bureaucratic and rushed; some of them were nothing special. But occasionally, in the grimy streets and rougher neighborhoods of our city, I caught fleeting glimpses of the true selflessness and joy that, to me, capture the spirit of this holiday season.

I saw it on a street corner downtown on Skid Row, where retired Catholic priest Father Maurice Chase, a.k.a. “Father Dollar Bill,” arrived with $2,500 in cash and handed it out, dollar by dollar, until his money ran out.

I saw it in Wilmington, where new homeowners and volunteers worked side by side in a Habitat for Humanity blitz to build 20 new homes, singing Spanish Christmas songs on the roof of one house as they worked together.

I saw it in a dress rehearsal of a youth dance troupe at the First Baptist Church, where a professional ballet dancer came to teach these young dancers and dress them like angels.

I saw it on the streets of Boyle Heights, where Pico Aliso parishioners of a neighborhood that has been wracked by violence in recent weeks took their guitars, their songs and their voices, and walked through the most dangerous crime-ridden alley they knew, and prayed for peace.

And I saw it in the face of a 2-year-old girl who waited for hours in downtown Los Angeles at the Union Rescue Mission for a toy, gripping the metal bars of the crowd barricade in anticipation as she waited. And when she finally received a stuffed Piglet--bigger than she--she grabbed it and wouldn’t let it go.

These are some of my images. This is some of the kindness I saw--in the sunlight and shadows of Los Angeles. Maybe this was my proof.