The theme for this week is friendship. I have watched season 1 of Wednesday on Netflix at least five times. Not just because I can relate to her, but also for the social analysis. Wednesday feels she is alone. She feels like it is her vs her family, her school, her family history, and all of her peers. But through the course of her story, the people who she resolves are against her are the ones who save her life. She had friends she didn’t know she had. By the end, she accepts that she is not working through life independently. She is a unique part of a collective whole. She has found a space where she can maintain her individuality, and still appreciate others individual contributions. I identify completely. Wednesday’s Nevermore is my Detroit.
It was a challenge tonight to help our friends living on the street last night. It was so cold out that there weren’t many people we could find. When the teams went to some of the places where we knew people lived, their forts were abandoned. Maybe they moved. Maybe they found another shelter. Maybe… The Hobbits are gone, the old man who sleeps on the steps of the abandoned schoolhouse is gone. His fort has been dismantled. All we can do is pray and hope for the best.
Eventually we did find a familiar face. I found my brother with one leg. I love talking to him. I love real conversations. I’m miserable at small talk. We talked about what it’s like panhandling at that corner. The light changes quickly at that particular intersection. He has to be able to hobble quickly up to cars. He has to protect that corner from other panhandlers. I asked him how he lost his leg. It was a crazy story. He was battling coming off from drugs. He was struggling and one night fell asleep in one place of a house, then woke up somewhere else and didn’t know how he got there. Then he remembered being in a hospital. Then he remembered waking up again in the most pain he had ever been in in his entire life. The next time he woke up, his leg was gone. He’s still not sure what happened to it. But he’s on his third prosthetic leg. He said this one was a good one. He really needed a sleeping bag this week. Thank you to the person from church who donated a sleeping bag. You saved a young man from freezing to death at night. You saved my friend.
The next stop we went to was to see a women we hadn’t had a chance to meet yet. That seemed surprising. We parked outside on the curb for several minutes. Stan let us know that it would be a few minutes before she could come out. The dealer who runs the house where she was at hates our outreach teams. She had to pay him to leave the house, and then also had to pay him again if she wanted back inside. What a sweetheart. She was so grateful for the food and hygiene supplies. It meant a lot to her to have her own blanket to sleep with.
We traveled around a little bit more. We heard there was a person naked and bleeding, so we rushed to that area. I’m not sure what happened to that person. A couple of young ladies came running to the van. They were desperate and frantic. Honestly, they were not the humble sweethearts that I like to write about. They are entrenched in “Survival Mode”. They took extra purses even when I said “one per customer”. They wined about not having clothes they like in their sizes or style, even though they took as much as they could carry. They complained about not having enough backpacks. They just complained about everything.
It’s not always easy. But Traci made a good point on the way home. We know those girls are living an unthinkable life. That life probably isn’t going to be a very long lived one. Traci said that sometimes we are just a pillow of comfort until their final rest. Not even Jesus saved every person he met. There were times he came to town, even in his own hometown, and no one wanted to hear it. But the lesson I learned from that was that you power through. Keep doing the right thing and the people who need you will find you. I cannot save everyone. I can show up and do my best. Our best is plenty for many.
Magdalene’s Mission is a network of friends from all over the United States. We are all Americans. We are all Human Beings. We are all struggling with our own personal human experiences. Those of us who can spare a little for another person, do. We can all do better, for ourselves, and for our species. And whether its someone who I have their number in my phone and we late night text, a woman held captive in a dope house, a paraplegic, or a whiney sex worker, we will be there sharing the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit. Amen.
#magdalenesmission #peaceloveandhygiene
