Most Friday
nights I am in a warm, cozy place, entertained by the hustle and busyness of my
home or excitedly playing on the ball field.
Last night was a very different night for me. The air was very damp and
the cold snuck in rapidly through your shoes, biting your toes until they were
literally numb. Talking and breathing
made the night air look as though billows of smoke were rising out of
chimneys. I was only in these conditions
2 short hours, bundled in a manner that seemed very appropriate for the weather
conditions, yet I was still a cold mess in the end.
As the Union Gospel Mission van
pulled into each stop I witnessed worlds I had never fully known before. Sure,
I knew there were people who were homeless, I knew that some were simply circumstantial
or situational poverty, others were struggling with addictions and/or mental
illness, and some were teens who simply thought couch surfing was a better way
to go than to be within the walls of their own home; but I had never known the
communal feeling amongst those who were homeless. I had never spoken with them, gotten to know
their story, or even placed myself within their world. I will be completely honest, I had never done
these things because I didn’t know how to and there was fear of that unknown
world.
Our first stop was to a local
church that allowed people to sleep in their cars on their property. The
drivers referred to this spot as the “car campers”. It was a very quick stop as
there was only one man there that evening, “Lance” (name changed for privacy). It was touching to get to know Lance; even in
the short 5 minutes we were there, I felt as though I knew the story of this
man’s life. After handing him a couple
of sandwiches, hot cocoa, and a candy cane he shared with me all about his job,
his 4 kids, even about the painful loss of one of his daughters when she was 7 ½
months old. The love for his family just
beamed through his eyes and you could see joy enter every part of him as he spoke
of his kids. In a lot of ways I didn’t
want to leave that spot. Five minutes
with this man just didn’t seem long enough, I wanted to learn more about him
and watch him come alive as he reminisced.
I don’t know if he sees his children still or what type of relationship
he has with them and his grandkids, but I look forward to seeing him again and
learning more. I am excited to pray with
and for him.
We only
had one more stop that night and it was to a section in Kent near the food
bank. As the van backed into the parking
lot, it was like a swarming of people in need began approaching from out of
nowhere. You had individuals that looked
as though there was no way they could be homeless, very well kept, clean, nice
clothing, etc. Others you could see the
years of hard addiction had taken a toll on their health, aged beyond their
years, without a shower for days, possibly even weeks. Some had their pets, whom they actually fed
before themselves. In this midst of the
diversity of homelessness, these people came together, as family, sharing their
left overs, offering their blanket to someone else, protecting each other.
Back in
a darker corner of the building was a young girl, 20 years old, homeless. She sat there with nothing more than a thin,
long-sleeved shirt (no shirt under it), and jeans. I had given her a blanket for the night
earlier in the evening and noticed she had offered it to someone else, another
gal who had even more to wear than herself.
She was so meek in her appearance, withdrawn, and so broken inside. As I sat beside her, I used her adorable
little dog as an ice breaker. I sat with
her for some time, learning a great deal about what lead her to this place in
life at such a young age. As we spoke, I
watched how tentatively and lovingly she cared for her dog. More than once she mentioned how her dog,
Grace Kelly, has kept her alive. Each day she thinks about ending her life, but
the love for her dog and the inability to “abandon” her dog as she had been
abandoned by so many in her life is what keeps her strong. We spoke for about 20 minutes before she had
to leave and find a place to sleep for the night. I naively believed that going
into this position I would be able to somehow connect with and hopefully help
out someone in need. God used that 20
minutes to touch my life and speak clearly to me. This young lady shared with me that she had been
a foster child; moved from home to home, never adopted, and eventually aged out
of the system. Through tears she shared
with me her experience of pushing families away because she knew they didn’t
really want her for forever, she couldn’t trust any of them to just simply love
her and have her as their own. Her words
spoke of the brokenness of our system, the brokenness of foster parents, the
brokenness of the kids placed in foster care.
Her words, “These kids just need to be loved through their pain, not
given up on. They just need to be loved.” Played over and over in my head
throughout the rest of the evening, into my dreams, and even more so
today. We have been struggling with our
son David. Parenting a child who has
been abused, neglected, and abandoned is a challenge that I can’t
describe. I had been in prayer so much
yesterday asking God for His guidance, for an answer of what to do and in her
words I could hear him saying so clearly what I needed to do. My prayer now is that someone in this young
lady’s life will step up and not give up on her, that they will love her
through her pain, pull her in as she pushes them away; before her dog is no
longer able to save her life.