The kids at the afterschool at St. Ann's in the South Bronx come for fellowship, for community. And for food. They eat because they are hungry. And they eat a lot. The church offers meals to the children, and has a food closet.
People from the neighborhood come for food. Many are embarrassed when they receive it. They don't know how to give thanks.
"You don't need to thank me because this is what a church is for. That's why we're here... This is a church. God doesn't close the door, " Katrice, the matron of the afterschool, says (page 148).
God doesn't close the door. We might close it -- out of fear, exhaustion or distraction. It may feel at times that God has closed the door, because our frantic knocking yields no response. I have discovered -- over time and through many frustrating moments, that when the door to God doesn't budge -- I am at the wrong door.
God always gives us a way in. It might take some cleverness, faith, persistence -- and each other, to find it.
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