1/23/24
The theme for this week is chutes and ladders.
I decided to rent a vehicle for the night. I went with Enterprise Rental at the Ann Arbor Airport. What a wonderful, serendipitous, decision that was! I got a good deal on a compact SUV, but there was a hiccup at the last minute with my credit card. I told a kind woman at the counter, Q, that I would be right back. I said a little prayer, then got on the phone and went outside to come up with another plan. I hadn’t even walked twenty feet away yet, when she stopped me.
“Ma’am, we have an alternate vehicle that you can rent with your debit card! It’s a van. I hope that will work for you. It does cost a little less though!”
That. That right there is why I cannot be convinced that Magdalene’s Mission is not blessed by God.
We loaded it up with your thoughtful donations of coats, and blankets. Traci and I packed all the bags and backpacks with hats, gloves, and socks, in addition to a hygiene kit, sweater or sweatshirt, candy, and snacks. It was nice.
We only went to 3 places last night. The van was nearly empty after about an hour and a half. Please, allow me to share this intense evening with you.
The first stop we went to was on a busy street. We were there for the medical team, but it’s one of the places where we get swarmed with a lot of homeless people. The very first 2 ladies we saw came running up to us begging for a warm coat.
I was passing out coats and clothes. Traci was busy passing out food. Then we switched. We must have seen at least 25 people over the course of an hour. Everything was running smoothly. I even got to see a couple of my favorite people. One of them was my Angel!
She was doing okay. She’s been staying away from trouble. She even has a job! The store owner is letting her keep her belongings in a locked area on the property. She is allowed to sleep in the alley behind the store if she keeps herself neat and discreet. She confessed that she was still living outside. She was in touch with the housing specialists, but these things take time, and she hasn’t heard back in a while. I gave her a tent and blankets.
She was dumbfounded by her good fortune. She admitted that she hadn’t been in that area for a few weeks. By the time we were done, she had a large, cumbersome load to try and manage down the dark icy sidewalk. I offered her a ride, and we all thought that was great.
We got her to her new spot. I prayed for her and told her how proud of her I was. We traded numbers again and promised to keep in touch.
That counts as 2. The third place we went to was right behind that place. The teams were waiting together for a moment when Traci, called out, “It’s GG!”
I jumped out of the van with her, and we went to work making sure she was hooked up. GG loves her hygiene kits. She is a wisp of a woman, so we always make sure she eats.
She was her usual self in the way she was happy to see me. But she wasn’t her usual self. She was shaking, distracted. We kept asking if she felt alright. Did she need medical attention?
“No. I’m just stressed.” Ms. GG told me.
I put gloves on her tiny hands, one at a time. I asked her, how was she doing? Was she still in the same place? Who would have the audacity to stress out my Ms. GG?
She told me, “I turned the light off to go to sleep. Then he turned it on. Then I turned it off. When he turned it on again, he had a pistol pointed at me!”
I grabbed her and held her close to me as she wept into my leather jacket. I prayed over her, for her, and beside her with every drop of Love in my entire soul. After I said Amen, I heard a few other “amens”.
I looked up and opened my eyes. The medical team was already nearby. These people are the real angels out there with me. I asked her if she would allow the medical team to offer her a test for STI. She agreed. Then I went back to the van, and I wept.
I turned around and looked to see what was left. We were out of food. 50 sandwiches are a lot of sandwiches, but when it’s all the food we had, it went fast. The blankets and backpacks were on bodies who were genuinely grateful. We found a worthy home for our tent. My good friend has a job! She’s climbing that long ladder off the street.
As one of the nurses put it, “So often we get a chance to see the absolute best in people. Then sometimes, we have to deal with the absolute worst in them, too.”
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit.
Amen.
