Happy Mardi Gras! I started writing a report last Tuesday night, but I fell asleep. I started again the next morning, but by lunch, I took a nap and was pretty much out for the entire day. Then it’s back to work, and so it goes. So, the theme for this week is: Love & Excess.
We had warm meals to serve to our friends this week. It was frightfully cold and windy.We had sandwiches and cookies as well as bottles of water. The warm coats, pants, and sweatshirts, especially with hoods, were welcomed gratefully. We had our beloved housing assistant Kyle with us again tonight. There were many people whom he met with us on Tuesday night outreach that were currently on his caseload. It was difficult to stay in touch with people on a regular basis, but he has been diligent.
We started off in the downtown area first. The first few people we helped were sleeping in doorways of towering castle-like buildings. I couldn’t even tell they were there. Stan would point to a blanket, and inform us that there was a person underneath it
A few more men who were living under a bridge along the highway. It seemed like it would be a very loud place to try to be at rest..They prayed for our safety after we delivered food to them.
We saw our Brothers. The one who was determined that he couldn’t be helped asked for Kyle right away. That warmed my heart. He proudly displayed to me the quilted vest he wore beneath his jacket. He was proud of his thrift store find.
We saw several more people while we waited for the medical team to finish helping a patient. One of them asked me if we get paid for any of the stuff we do. I laughed. Traci told him that our payment is the love we get from people like him. The opportunity to love on him was all the payment we needed.
We travelled around a lot in just a few hours.Our very last stop of the night had us visiting with a couple of old friends. They weren’t doing very well. The one girl, who looks like Karen Allen (Marion) in Indiana Jones, was significantly better after we saw her and got her warmed back up again.I gave her my number so she could stay in touch with me, and we could be sure to meet up on Tuesday nights.
My other friends, she isn’t doing well. Her husband of many years just passed away. Her best friend is dying in the hospital. Now she has been evicted from her apartment. She was a skeleton who sobbed. She hadn’t eaten anything in days.She was grieving and worried all at once. I put my cell number back into her phone. We connected her to Kyle. We held her while she wept. She’s the one who was always there to take care of everyone else. Now, the only person she needed to care for is gone. No one is left to care for her.
I hope that now that we are connected again, she won’t feel abandoned any more. She was reminded that she was definitely not forgotten. Peace, Love & Hygiene, Baby.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit. Amen.
