Tonight’s theme would have to be: Jesus went to the woman at the well. I said it many times this frigid evening. This weeks outreach was a collection of extra special donations. First, my dearest, beloved sister Tanya came up to visit us from North Carolina. She spent last week helping me sort and organize donations to help make my work area more efficient. It was a significant effect. Katie’s food donation came to me in bulk, frozen but pre-cooked. It made meals a thousand times easier this week. So if anyone is interested in baking 3 or 4 casseroles and then freezing them, that would be a great way to help. She also had hotdogs, which was another good idea. To top it off, I brought hot water and cocoa, plus a pump pot of coffee. The handwarmers were another boon. Thank you for the blankets! But the donation we had this week that made eyes pop was backpacks. Really really nice backpacks. The guys were ecstatic to receive them with a Mag Bag and a blanket in each one. To top it all off, Traci had a donation of McDonald’s gift cards. It’s like they are made from dodo bird feathers. They are so cool that no one believes they are real.
My favorite thing we had the joy of transporting to the homeless tonight was a guy named Kyle. Kyle is incredible. He is the rung on the ladder we’ve been missing this whole time. He is a housing specialist. His job is to help vulnerable people get off the street. This might mean an apartment, a room to rent, a nursing home, temporary shelter, section 8, and all kinds of assistance programs that are available to people who would have no way of knowing that. The Stanbulance was filled with volunteer medics, so Kyle got to ride with us.
Our first stop of the evening was to go back to that one old abandoned building we went to a couple of weeks before. The old man who lives on the front steps is now a client of Kyle’s. I’ll call him Ahab, because he looks like a old fisherman, or boat captain. Ahab hadn’t met Traci or Kyle yet, so he was very standoffish. Then when I came around the van, I said, “You remember me, right sweetie?” And of course he did. He let Traci get his some food, while I got him a back pack, some extra socks and a blanket. Then I found a warmer coat for him, and grabbed that, too.
Kyle was talking to him about helping him. He admitted he had breathing problems from a factory job he used to have. He’s been homeless since he’s lost the job from the resulting sickness. He was hoping that now he was a senior citizen that he could get help, but now he was so far removed from the system, he didn’t think he would get back in. He had accepted his lot in life. He believed it allowed more room for someone who might need the help the help more than he did. If God wanted something else for him, he would have that. He was content with the life God gave him.
But I know people. Those are the things we tell ourselves to accept situations we feel powerless to change.
So I told him, “Hunny, Jesus went to the woman at the well. He comes to you where you are. He finds you. This man right here is your golden ticket off these concrete steps. You can be in a house. It’s your turn. You do so deserve it.” I’m pretty sure he believed me. He’s meeting with Kyle again.
Next, we visited some people who lived beside a bridge on the expressway. It’s a place where we must use a lot of caution. Traci grabbed the food, and one of the nurses helped me carry blankets, purses, and backpacks, up the steep hill. When we asked the girl what other supplies she might need, she said that they could use propane. They had what was called a “little buddy” heater for their tent. I’ll have to look into that.
Eventually, we ended up waiting in a parking lot as we often do. I found out that we were meeting some old friends, but in a new place. It was my Brothers!!!! First we talked to the brother with one leg for awhile. I was excited to introduce him to our new fancy housing specialist. He was afraid though. He had all these reasons why he thought that he wouldn’t qualify. Mainly because he didn’t believe that any agency would be willing to provide assistance to a drug addict. He didn’t want to start a program that he would have to stay clean to qualify for. He didn’t know if he could do it. I told him that it couldn’t hurt anything to ask. As a matter of fact, drug addicts qualify for housing assistance, too. Running the system the other way doesn’t help. People are less likely to return to using drugs if the are not living on the streets in the same dens as other drug addicts.
I said it again, Jesus went to the woman at the well. It makes no sense for me to require you to be healthy before you “deserve” help.
Then his brother came up and we talked to him for a long time. We talked about ghosts, curses, and addiction, How damaged people poison all of their personal relationships. He talked about how exhausting it was to be homeless. You can’t take a single day off. There is no down time. I got him to talk to Kyle as well. He was excited about the possibility of living away from the drugs and constant suffering that surrounds him.
It’s like people are either homeless because they have been damaged, or damaged from having been homeless.
But having that one guy say he could help, really help, it offered a whole new layer of hope. It is that missing rung on the ladder to get up and out off the street. It’s the ladder to a safer life.
We stopped a couple of more places, but by the time we hit our last stop, I had some of the greatest conversations. I ran into a guy that is just brilliant, and cool as heck. He was telling me why he always has narcan with him. He told me about a guy who overdosed on fentanyl right in front of him recently. The guy was flatline dead. He had narcan on his person, and he said he gave it to the guy, and it was like he could see his soul rush back into the guys body. After he made sure the guy was okay, he kicked him out of his car.
He talked about how much he hated being on he street. It’s impossible to be in that life and not fall back into using drugs. He’s quit a bunch of times, but every time, he ends up having to come back. He hated how some people don’t understand that not everyone has family that cares, or can help. Not everyone has a friend who is doing okay. This guy is smart. He knows he can use his intelligence for much more productive means. But that isn’t what’s in his reach. He even works a full-time job, but it isn’t enough. I introduced him to my new friend, Kyle. He was filled with joy for the potential a sober life could hold for him. The idea of being out of the rat trap was more than merely a dream. It was a process that he began tonight.
The light that was in his eyes! Marilyn Monroe’s new guy came outside while we were talking. He’s working as well. He’s clean and just needed a couple more items, like an ID and a couple other documents to get on his feet. Our new friend was able to help him with all of that. That kid is going to make it. They both will. I predict seeing them again in the future when they will be volunteering at my outreach center, Mitchell’s Crib.
He and I also talked about the challenges of loving someone who has an addiction. I told him that when she says those hurtful things, that’s the addiction fighting you, not her. I told him about my personal experiences with loving an addict. We consoled one another’s shared pain on the halogen lit sidewalk. The hazard lights on the van flashed red spots on Traci’s legs while she packed more warm meals for the men who slowly oozed from behind the leaning fence.
Kyle has already met The Hobbits, and is well on his way to working them into a residency. Hopefully, soon I will be bring dishes and bedding to them instead of charcoal and handwarmers.
We went to where the people who needed us the most were. I feel we successfully helped all of the homeless people we could find tonight. I had thought provoking conversations about the real issues in their very real lives. We quelled some real fear. Offered tangible alternatives to homelessness, and brought life with hope back into people’s dreams.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit. Amen.
#peaceloveandhygiene #magdalenesmission
