Smithsons give back to community; Blessing bags distributed to homeless

Larry and Sandy Smithson have been going to the neediest parts of Baltimore during the Christmas season to help the homeless for three years. This year they accumulated a group of family and church friends to take with them on their expedition. In the past they have handed out blankets to people in need, but then they realized that they could give something more impactful this year.

This year the group handed out “blessing bags” with things like deodorant, soap, toothbrushes, socks, hats, and gloves. However, according to the group the most impactful item in the package was the bible.

This was Susan Birchfield’s second year going on the trip and she explains, “Out of everything in the blessing bag, most of the people pulled the bible out first. They were so happy when they found out we put bibles in the bags. It was amazing to see God working in unexplainable ways on our trip.”

Larry Smithson is the one who initiated the whole ordeal. He reports that this day is very important to him. “This is my Christmas.  I am very blessed to be able to help other people. I do it because I felt led to do it, and it’s as simple as that.”

Many people in the group reported they could not have been able to do this if it wasn’t for their driver Kevin McFatridge and Mr. Smithson. Birchfield stated that their navigation skills were “very accurate and got us exactly where we needed to go. Larry had maps of the city and his tablet out which helped the accuracy of our directions. Baltimore is a big city, we wouldn’t want to get lost.”

The entirety of the group reminisced about the most impactful moment from their eventful day. Sandy Smithson explained “The most impactful point of the day was when a guy was walking down the street and we rolled our window down to give him a blessing bag. He looked at the package and then hugged it saying ‘I got my bible, I got my bible’”.

The Smithsons have brought their nieces Kayla and Lacey Smithson for all three years. Lacey explained how scared she was the first year when she was only about ten years old. “I was so scared because we were in a tiny little car the first year and we had a huge group of people crowding our car trying to get blankets. We couldn’t even open the doors.”

Lacey has now grown accustomed to the frenzy of handing blankets and packages out. She states that her favorite memory was when “One of them hugged me when I gave them a blanket and they started crying.”

This year the group had two new editions with Patty Herbert and her daughter Melanie Herbert joining in. Patty Herbert states “This was my first time going, and I’m glad I did because it’s just always a blessing to be able to serve any of God’s people in need. I don’t care who they are or where they are so thank you to Larry and Sandy for organizing this.”