Here’s a rundown of where your donations went to last night-
- First stop, beggar hunched over in a wheelchair at the highway intersection. Met a homeless/ unsheltered couple there also. Traci snuck a bible into her bag like a Gideon.
- Tarp behind an empty house. Man emerges with a black eye. It’s Mr. Boop. He was beat up savagely for protecting his wife, Betty Boop. Medical team set him up with a doctor’s appointment and a bus pass to get him there.
- Next stop, woman waved us down. We pulled over. It’s a lady I’ve worked with for years. I got out of the van for the first time. She put her arms around me, and I held her close to me. She wept. I told I had her, she was alright now. She said she just wanted to sleep inside, alone, on a bed, and to take a shower.
A familiar unsheltered friend approached us. I brought him some food, and a hygiene kit, then asked how he had been doing. He has prostate cancer. He’s been fighting it for years. He told me that at first, he was given hundreds of pills of oxytocin a month. Then the doctors cut him off suddenly. No weaning. He became very ill and has been struggling to overcome his addiction ever since. The doctors told him if he didn’t get it removed immediately, he had a few weeks to live. He said he made the appointment. Could I pretty please meet him at that exact spot at noon on Friday to give him a ride to the hospital? I directed him to a volunteer medical team who could make sure he made it to his appointments.
The talks were small, but the effects were intense.
- A lady huddled up on a bench on the sidewalk. Large, stuffed, pink bunnies guarded each corner of her shopping cart. While we were parked at the gas station, a man covered in dirty work clothes asked for a sandwich. He looked so hungry. He ate it in two bites before he made it back to his work truck.
- Two men on the front steps of an empty church. One of them rocking back and forth, arms shaking.
- An old man huddled in an office building doorway downtown.
- A man sitting up under a blanket across the street from him. He had obvious developmental disabilities when we heard him speaking to us. He was like a toddler mind in the body of a 6’4″ man.
- So did the woman around the corner from him. She claimed that she was in danger from the immigrants who were coming to take her away. She hid under a blanket also.
- Last stop, large church. Old men were huddled up in front of each of the three doorways facing the street.
- The church is sanctuary, sacred, safe.
In a way, it reminds me of the van. It might be a bit beat on and broken, but it’s out there trying its best to serve as many people as possible.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit!
Amen.
