Life Lessons | Paul Stensrud ministers to the homeless
Spending time on the streets providing food and friendship to the homeless, coupled with his AmeriCorps work for Red Cross disaster services, has taught Paul Stensrud about dealing with calamity and other life lessons.
• Be appreciative of what we have. I think a lot of times we get wrapped up with our wants, not necessarily needs, because we always want something. Why can’t we have what we have and just be happy with it?
• I think a lot of times we think we’ve got to do this huge, huge thing in order to show someone that other people do care. ? But it could be simply hearing someone out on a bad day.
• No matter what we do in our life, whether through a ministry or just as a civilian, we shouldn’t have to be patted on the back for a good job. It’s what we should be expected to do.
• When you truly feel there’s a passion within your heart, where you feel as though you’re being led to help the community or help anybody, most importantly you have to fully rely on God to get us through this. My life had started after being baptized, after losing my father, and then fully relying on God. That is where the change started in my life.
• Things started to make sense because when you’re outside that box, you tend to ask the why questions, and I tried to avoid the why questions completely because they tend to get you in trouble. And I found the more you learn about Jesus, the more trouble you get into.
• I think with family it’s important that we show who we really are. If you have your faith, then be the example that we should be.
– Katya Cengel, The Courier-Journal
