Elisha Peña: Finding Faith Through Service
Over the Christmas break this year, Bluefield University student Elisha Peña went home to Knoxville, Tennessee, and while there she did more than spend time with family, celebrate Christmas, and take a break from her studies. In fact, Peña used the time to serve the disadvantaged of her community, particularly the homeless of Greater Knoxville.
Before going home, Peña planned on selling some of her clothes on Facebook — something she’d done before to earn a little money. However, this time she decided to do something else with her extra clothes, all because of a detour she took while driving home.
“I was driving through Knoxville,” Peña said. “I always used my GPS, because I am terrible with directions, but this day for some reason I wanted to see if I could find my way without it. I ended up thinking I was lost. That is when I found this street that was heavily populated with homeless people. When passing by I looked at all of the people, and it truly did something to my heart. I had never in my life seen so many homeless people.”
After seeing all the different tents and people around the street, Peña felt a calling to help them. So, she drove home just talking to God.
“As I drove home I just talked to God and cried,” Peña said. “That’s when I felt he led me to take my clothes to them. As soon as I got home I started rummaging through all of my clothes, and before I knew it I had three whole trash bags of men’s and women’s clothes.”
Peña made three different trips bearing gifts to the homeless. She first took her clothes, and then made and delivered hygiene goodie bags for 90 men and 90 women. The third trip involved reaching out to others for help.
“I decided to make a Facebook page dedicated to helping them (the homeless),” Peña said. “That’s when I made more hygiene bags, made muffins, went through my clothes again enough to have two big boxes — one for men and one for women — blankets, hats, scarfs, gloves, and waters.”
Helping the homeless, Peña said gave her a new outlook on life and faith.
“I one hundred percent believe this experience changed my whole life,” she said. “It changed the way I look at money. I realized money really doesn’t mean anything. We live our whole lives focused on ourselves and how we can make money and buy things that we want that we honestly don’t really need. So instead of going out and spending $50 on something I really do not need, I would rather put that money toward making someone’s life just a little bit better if it’s possible.”
Peña plans to continue giving back to those she finds in need. She wants to continue her work with the homeless anytime she can.
“Since the area I live in isn’t very large, Knoxville is the biggest city in a wide range of distance,” Peña said. “The homeless population is very high, especially for the area. I believe they definitely do face judgment. I face judgment every day, and I’m not homeless, so I can only imagine how they feel and what they go through. I know it can’t be easy.”
Peña hopes that one day people will recognize the struggle that homeless people face and that it is not a choice in life.
“If it’s me and 100 people that stand behind me or me standing alone, I will do whatever I can to make a difference because I believe that’s what God wants me to do,” Peña said. “They need someone to stand up for them, and I will be that person.”