The Dirty Roots Revolution offers voice to our volunteers any time they want to share their stories and experiences of our weekly homeless outreach. Hannah Groves has been on many outreach trips and has built a relationship with a homeless man who is mute and cannot speak. After observing their last beautiful interaction, I asked Hannah if she would share her some of her experience with her friend and some of what it has taught her. -Ryan Mifflin
BY HANNAH GROVES
I have learned recently that the incarnation of Jesus should be our model of ministry. We shouldn't invite people to come where we are comfortable and they are not. Instead we should go... we should face discomfort in the knowledge of the glory of heaven that Jesus Christ left on our behalf. With this in mind I struggle through the time that I spend with my friend that I affectionately call Friend- Brother- Cousin. I don't feel like I do a very good job at being his friend, but its a process and I know that the Lord loves this man very much and I want him to know that love.
This is an entry from my journal the first day that I spent with friend-brother-cousin.
For the first time I feel like I am beginning to understand the gospel. Yesterday I went to ST. Louis with Dirty Roots. There was a man who was sitting alone so two of us walked over to him. I started to ask him questions, but he couldn't talk, he sorta hummed- obviously trying very hard to communicate with us. I almost left because how were we supposed to help a guy who couldn't talk to us? Honestly I was a little creeped out. The Lord gave courage and I asked (just to be sure) if he could talk to us. He hummed again and so I asked him if he would like us to go away. He forcefully shook his head no.
We told him a few things from our lives and then began to ask him questions... yes or no questions of course. We played a lot of guessing games. We eventually found that he didn't have family or friends around. At one poing I told him about grandma dying (she died this past semester) and how before she died it was really difficult to communicate to her, but that never stopped us from trying and those times became little victories and really special memories with grandma. I told him that although it was hard to communicate with him it was wonderful to try and I told him we weren't going to leave.
At that point he got out his incredibly worn Bible and came over and sat by me with his leg resting against mine. I almost pulled away - I mean he was a grown man and I'm a young girl, he is homeless, he is dirty - so I shouldn't touch him. But I felt that this man just needed to have another human's touch. I tried to imagine going even one week with no one touching me. That would be awful. So, I didn't pull away - thank you for your courage, God.
We read Psalms- he picked some, we picked some. One of the Psalms talked about God as the provider and the protector and I asked him, "Is it hard to read these words, it it hard to trust God when you read these words?" He shook his head no. What incredible faith and trust in God! He can't talk, he is homeless, he owns next to nothing, he doesn't have family or friends around and yet he trusts God, he knows that God is his provider, he knows that God loves him- incredible. Lord, may I be like this man.
One Psalm that we read ended like this, "the poor and homeless will not be forgotten." I told him that I would really like to know his name so I got out
y notebook and asked him to write it down- he didn't. I asked him if it started with an A, a B, a C... and so on through the whole alphabet. He shook his head no to all the letters except M and N. We decided to call him friend-brother-cousin.
Andie wonders if he hasn't been called by name in so long that perhaps he has forgotten his name. That would be so so sad. We read more together and then we sang a few songs. Before we left we prayed with him with our hands on his shoulders.
