May 21, 2024
Last night was inspirational to me. I learned even more about what I do. I learned tricks to be better, and I learned things to make me more aware.
My goal was to share the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. For that, I am on fire. People’s Church has truly shown their devotion to this same goal. I had 48 pepper sprays to pass out! I had a ton of clean socks, and that is the first thing people ask for after food and baby wipes. I had plenty of tote bags so people could carry their new clothes, and the medicine or first aid supplies they received. Julie G was my food angel making sure everyone had a sandwich and a piece of fruit to eat. She even found ground beef and rice, so I made a delicious casserole. The casserole was outstanding- ground beef cooked in cream of celery soup, mushroom milk, rice, green beans, and a fresh sautéed onion. Honestly, after 4 hours in Ms. Bonnie’s roasting pan it looked like cat food. But… it tasted good!
Nick just bought the old Peaberry Café in Whitmore Lake. He’s renaming it Kahuna Sunrise. It’s not open yet, but we got to go in and make ourselves lattes before we hit 7 Mile and took it all the way into our hood. That was cool.
The evening played out like a rehearsal for Nick to see how swarmed we get in the summer. The air was hot, but not scorching. The sun loomed radiantly over us, like God left the flashlight on a little longer so we could see our way around better.
First stop- across from the busy grocery store. We went through most of our wares sitting in that one place for an hour. Our usual medley of people ran up to Nick’s van as soon as they saw the ambulance. Nick passed out meals and hygiene kits, while I captained clothes and hygiene, too. I made sure to give pepper spray to as many of our ladies as I could. Some of them are sex workers, some are victims of trafficking, some are beggars, but some are also senior citizens. There are older men who get attacked a lot and I make sure they get pepper spray, too. I can tell it means a lot to them. The safety of men isn’t a priority for most people. It’s true that the ladies receive most of the violent attacks. But we aren’t there to help categories. We look at every person the same way Jesus would, as a precious creation. We must have helped at least 20-30 people in that one spot. We got the warning from our Cap’n that the situation just got critical- so we said good-bye’s and darted away. I left a box of summer shirts sitting on the sidewalk. As we drove away in a giant U-turn, four skeletal women stood over it like hungry crows flapping floral patterned wings in the hot breeze.
I got to see my best girl, Darla! Her owner had another pit bull laying on a blanket beside him at the intersection. Darla recognized me right away and ran straight to me with a big toothy grin. I had food and water for her and her new bud. I even had a red harness that I found mixed in donations. It just fit her! I cuddled with the dogs while Nick took care of the owner.
An older man with a white beard, carrying a worn leather jacket creeped towards the ambulance, he talked to a nurse for a moment and then hobbled slowly over to the van. I offered him food, and he was grateful. He had a very thick accent. He told me he had been a soldier in the Romanian Army for forty years. He was eighty-four now. His accent was very thick, and even though I’m pretty good at that sort of thing, I could only pick out parts of sentences. One thing about a knife in his stomach. Something else about a dog in a car. He was interesting and very nice, respectful, and polite to me. As he was story telling the ambulance rushed us off again.
After we pulled away, I was informed that some years ago, that same man used to traffic one of the other ladies we know. They had to cut through several padlocks to get her out of the room she was being held captive in. She has severe mental disabilities. She is the one who is always preaching loudly and incoherently at everyone she sees passing by her on the jagged sidewalk. She has a couple of other older men I see her with now. They look like they are protecting her. My Tiny Preacher.
The next stop was to help a senior man. We gave him food and hygiene. He asked me if he could please have an extra meal for Tiny Preacher. He stays with her in an abandoned parking booth behind an abandoned strip club. I hope he cares for her in the way he seems to genuinely care for her.
We saw an old man walking, bent in half. The medical team swung back around. There was another young lady there, too. They were awesome. As I was getting food together for the man, he said he would rather let the young lady eat first.
“There’s plenty for everyone!” I expressed and handed him a bag of food and water.
He stepped back and said again, “No thank you. Please let the young lady eat first.”
She was a filthy, tattered, adorable thing wearing oversized men’s clothing. I handed her the meal. We got her fitted into some size 00 shorts, and a clean shirt. I gave her 2 hygiene kits. Nick packed a meal for the gentleman, while I loaded him up with clean socks.
Another young Hispanic man approached us. He looked very proud and very desperate all at once. I remember serving him before, and he remembered us. I noticed that he was looking through the women’s clothing as much as he was the men’s. Nick noticed him earlier waving at cars. I can’t take for granted that all the sex workers, or trafficking victims, are female. All three were beside themselves with gratitude for a can of pepper spray. (PJ, you rock)
Our last stop was like a grand finale. I adore this lady and her boyfriend. She is the lady I sat with in the grass that day. She loves my book. She is my Tattooed Lady. They live together with some other people in an abandoned house. I told her that I had a couple of more books that I wrote, and I can hardly wait for her to read them. She can hardly wait either. Its nice to feel understood. It can be hard for some people to connect with other people. We mess it up. We get it all wrong and sometimes our attempts can have the opposite effect.
My Tattooed Lady loaned my book to her boyfriend. He remembers all my little stories. He started to tell me his little story. He told me that his mother pulled him out of school in fourth grade so that he wouldn’t have to learn sex education. By sixth grade, he just stopped going at all. At twelve, he ran away from his abusive mother and found peace and solace in the escapism of drugs.
He gave up trying to be anything at age twelve. Can you imagine? Maybe you can. Somehow, someone can stop caring about themself, but still be human enough, still possess enough love inside to care about the well being of others.
Someone donated a cute pair of used purple Converse. He saw they were his girlfriends size, so he hid them in a separate pocket for her. He said he can’t wait to surprise her later. Her birthday was Monday. He made sure to carry more than her. He tries to keep her burden light, like Jesus does for us. He always makes sure Tattooed Lady is cared for first before he will accept anything from us.
We had another buddy stop by the van. He’s a nice guy. We’ve seen him for a while now. He’s very respectful. He and Traci are good buddies. I made sure he got what he could use out of what we had left. Again, the medical team swept us away.
This time, I found out that there was a shoot-out the night before in the abandoned house where we were around the corner from. Three people got shot. Two of them died. The third was the buddy I just talked to for fifteen minutes. I never even asked what happened to his arm that was in a cast. He was just happy for clean socks and real food.
And that was it! I passed out over 50 meals, 50 hygiene kits, blankets, 20 pepper sprays, dog food, 5 bins of clothing, a bunch of hugs and an infinite amount of love.
If anyone has a suggestion for how I can come up with $6,000 for a cargo bus that would have enough room for volunteers and all the stuff we take out each week, please let me know.
We have been sharing this unconditional love for 9 years. It only gets bigger, and it only gets better.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit.
Amen.
