Well, here it is…another month past…another four Homeless Outreach trips under our belt. I must get better at posting weekly blog entries, after each Homeless Outreach trip.
As I work toward that…here’s the first of several blog posts regarding our November trips, for you to enjoy:
This was an absolutely beautiful day. As I offered our usual weekly prayer for the trip, I even said the words, “Father, beautiful days like this always make for amazing Homeless Outreach trips, and we pray for one of those today”. As the words were coming out of my mouth, my brain told me it wasn’t going to happen. I just knew it. It wasn’t any kind of Murphy’s Law expectation…I just realized it wasn’t my place to ask God for an amazing Homeless Outreach day. It was my place to ask Him to be with us, guide us, work through us, and to pray that He be glorified in what we did.
So we headed to St. Louis. And encountered the set-up for the city-wide Veteran’s Day celebration. The downtown area was packed. With spectators, soldiers, military vehicles, etc. We made it to 14th Street and had just two blocks to go to our usual destination when a squad of about 400 troops marched out in front of us in formation. They weren’t moving. We couldn’t turn left because it was a one-way street. We couldn’t turn right because the road was barricaded. A soldier finally moved the barricades to let us through. We weaved through the tanks, jeeps, and whatnot, and received glares from other soldiers who weren’t aware why we were cutting through their area. They let us proceed and we found our usual parking spots blocked. We finally parked – three blocks away from our usual distribution point. Not a big deal, except for the fact that we had several cars full of coats and blankets that no one felt like lugging three blocks.
We walked the care packs over to our usual spot and handed them out. We asked our homeless brothers and sisters to accompany us to the cars after the distribution if they were interested in coats and blankets. We caused many traffic jams in the parking lot, which in turn caused a few irate drivers.
The Veteran’s Day parade was indeed beautiful and festive. And it went on forever. My mind kept returning to my homeless friend Pops. Pops (real name John) is an Army veteran. He retired in the early nineties after over twenty years of service. And is now homeless.
I know this is awful, and I don’t say it to push buttons. But, as that Veteran’s Day parade went by that Saturday, I kept wondering to myself if they had a section in it for homeless vets. I’m sure they didn’t. But, there sure are a lot of homeless men and women who served their country bravely for several years.
I didn’t see Pops this day. But the next week I learned that, just as I expected, he was dutifully perched on a street corner, enjoying the Veteran’s Day parade. I’ll bet he saluted when the flag went by, too. All those old-school guys do that. I love it.
Days that big events are held downtown are usually “off” days for the Homeless Outreach. Most of the homeless folks head toward the crowds to panhandle (which I don’t blame them at all for) and we don’t encounter many of them.
The whole day was off kilter, save for one encounter.
During our care pack distribution we met Lisa. As she walked up, I could tell that she was homeless and I could tell it was new. She had nice glasses. Like “Sarah Palin nice” glasses. She was very attractive and didn’t carry herself like the rest of the folks we met with on a regular basis.
I visited with her a bit and gave her one of our car packs. It was toiletry week. She was very appreciative. We spoke a little and her eyes welled up with tears several times. Whatever her experience had been, I could tell it was still raw.
This week was the start of our new Homeless Outreach schedule. We hand out our care packs on the south side of the public library and once they’re all gone, we now go over to Lucas Park on the north side of the library. Originally, we did the distribution in Lucas Park, but the tenants of the loft apartments around the park call the cops on us for attracting homeless folks.
So, at the request of city officials – who knew they couldn’t legally do anything about what we were doing – we moved the distribution to the south side of the library.
At any rate, as we went over to Lucas Park to visit with our homeless friends, we met up with Lisa and her friend Keyana. Keyana was about 8 months pregnant and we found out she’d secured a spot in a shelter for homeless pregnant women. We lovingly told her we hoped we didn’t see her the next week. And, praise God, we haven’t!
We all sat around, visiting with Lisa for a few hours. We learned that she was in fact newly homeless. We learned that prior to being homeless she was in outside sales for a paint company, selling paint to places like Home Depot and Lowes. We learned that less than a year ago she was making a six-figure salary and had a home beside the ocean.
We didn’t ask her what had led to her current situation. But it served as a reminder not to judge homeless folks based on what you THINK about them. They’re not all uneducated. They’re not all drug addicts or crazy. They’re not all lazy. Some are. But, lots of folks who have nice homes are uneducated, drug addicts, crazy, and/or lazy, too.
How far are you from being homeless? I’m probably a couple of house payments away from it. We’re a single income family with no savings account. We make it – but we just make it. Take my paycheck away and who knows what could happen. Now, in our case, my wife and I both have families and friends that we know we could count on to help us out. Lisa, for whatever reason, just didn’t have the same opportunities.
Lisa contacts us via email every so often. She moved to the northern part of the city, where she thought she could find more job opportunities. Yes, homeless folks have email. They use the internet at the public libraries throughout the city. Sometimes to keep in contact with people, but most often to look for jobs. And yes, they have cell phones, too. They save up money they acquire and purchase TracPhones and pre-paid calling cards from gas stations. Again, to help them with job situations, etc.
Homeless folks are NOT all lazy, uneducated, crazy, or drug addicted. Many of them are quite hard working. In fact, many of them have full time jobs. But they don’t make enough money to make ends meet. And it is NOT always just a matter of money mismanagement. They simply do not make enough.
This was one of the lessons learned on Saturday, November 7th.
The other lesson was not to selfishly pray for beautiful, awesome days. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes…maybe God wants to bless you with a completely lopsided, off-kilter day that teaches you all kinds of lessons.
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