Love Lakewood Laundry Day

Rick shared that he lives with his wife and drug-addicted son. He explained that the son will trash the house, making housekeeping incredibly difficult for he and his wife. “I’ve been doing laundry every day for the last 2-3 weeks. Multiple loads a day.” Rick shared how his days have been just trying to catch up on laundry, and he has been able to do hardly anything else. He was visibly upset when sharing about his home situation. “Today, because of you guys, I’m finally gonna be able to catch up,” he said. Rick stayed for most of the day (he did seven loads of laundry!), sipping coffee and talking with our team. We had the opportunity to pray with Rick before he left. 
 
About an hour into our morning we had served 8-10 individuals and realized there are neighbors all around us who likely have to pay for their laundry every week and may not know about the service we were providing. A few adults and students went to nearby apartments and passed out flyers. One man couldn’t believe it. “You’re paying for people’s laundry? Like, for free? Right now?!” He quickly began throwing blankets, towels, and other large items into his car that looked like they hadn’t been washed for months. When he got to the laundromat, he explained that their landlord had locked the room which contains the washer/dryer for their apartment. Nobody had been able to do laundry for about two weeks. Pretty quickly, multiple people from this same apartment complex began arriving, telling us the same story about the laundry units at their apartment. They kept thanking us and expressed how much of a blessing this was.
 
Towards the end of the day, a middle-aged man with a backpack rolled up on his bicycle. He reached out his hand and thanked me for what we were doing. “Were you able to get any laundry done?” I asked. “I’m homeless,” the man replied. “I only have one shirt. 99% of the time, people like me feel invisible to everyone else. Today, I feel seen.”