Downtown 9/12/2011

"Then the owner of the house...ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the towns and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame'. 'Sir,' the servnt said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.'" Luke 14:21-23 from the Parable of the Great Banquet.

Well, some things came up Sunday night that forced me to make this week's trip on Monday morning. As you know, if you've followed my blogs for awhile, going on a weekday is totally different than going on a weekend or even at night. However, it still is an opportunity to serve people who need help. One of the things that was so strikingly different were the streets where I've been doing the "doorway" focus lately. I practically had to do a double-take on some of those streets I was driving on yesterday because they didn't look anything like they do at night time. During the day, these shops have their merchandise out on the sidewalk in front of their respective stores. There is a mixture of floral shops, garment/fabric shops and fashion shops. You can probably imagine how colorful the sidewalks are with all this stuff out there trying to get your attention to come over a buy something. At night time, the merchandise is all back in the stores, the store fronts have a gray metal roll-up door pulled down to the sidewalk. During the day, the curbs are lined up with parked cars. At night, there are no cars and only homeless people on the sidewalks. All this happens during the daytime a block or two from the skid row area. When I prayer-walked the skid row area yesterday there were still several hundred homeless people milling around those streets. One latino man I saw was walking on San Pedro Blvd going north. When I got back to 6th and Wall St I saw this same man who was now crossing the street going south on Wall St. He stopped at the southwest corner there in front of the El Paso/Tijuana Bus depot. I had been praying the whole time for God to highlight someone for me to help. I figured this was the guy. I had a bag of food in my hand during the walk, so I gave him the bag. I told him, "This is for you." In broken English he replied, "Thank you." At this point I was right across the street from where my car was parked in front of the police station. I had noticed a woman sitting on the sidewalk 30 yards down the street from where I was. She was going through some bags that she had on the ground and I felt she was another one I was to help. I walked over to my car and got another bag of food and two bottles of chilled water. When I gave her the bag and the water I told her the same thing I told the man on the corner, "This is for you." She replied, "Oh, thank you sir." I'm not sure why she called me sir because she looked as old as I am. I then asked her what her name was and that's when I got a reply I wasn't expecting. She said her name was. "Sweet Dreamer". Yeah, honest. I had the other bottle of water in my right hand, so I reached out with my left hand to shake her hand and said, "Well, it's nice to meet you." With that I turned around and walked back to the man at the corner who I had given the bag of food to and gave him the other bottle of water. Again, he said, "Thank you."
On the way down to this area I was able to help two men. The first man, Art, was sleeping on the sidewalk and he at first refused any help, but then changed his mind. He told me he was waiting to take a bus back to Texas. I'm not sure where he was going to catch a bus there because he wasn't near any bus terminals. The other man was Robert, who lives off Alameda St. When I first saw him yesterday he was walking down the middle of Alameda which isn't a good place for a man his age. However, after I drove around the block to reach him he had made it safely across the street to where he usually hangs out. After giving him some food and water I actualy heard him say, "Thanks" in a very quiet whisper. Robert never talks very much, so this was a lot for him to say. I told him I loved him and I'd look for him again soon.
The last two men I saw were both familiar friends. One I hadn't seen is a few months and had heard he had gotten into some legal trouble. I was glad to find out it wasn't true. His name is Willie and he used to live in an alley with Tara Lee. He told me that some people (other homeless folks) had come by and knocked over all the stuff where Tara Lee stayed (it was just a few feet from where we were). He even covered up the bag of food I had given him because he didn't want anyone else coming by to see it and try and take it from him. He told me that he and Tara Lee had been wondering what had happened to me. I told Willie, when I switch back to the day schedule and can come down on Sunday's during the day we'll have another barbecue. I told him we'd pick a day and they could invite all their friends to come by. In thinking about it later, since I wouldn't be able to do this until November we could turn it into a Thanksgiving day barbecue! I'm looking forward to it. The last guy I saw was Doug, who I had seen last week. He was going through a dumpster when I drove by. He hustled over to the car and I passed some food and water through the window. He knew I couldn't stop there, so he quickly said, "God bless you." and I drove on.
During the middle of my prayer-walk on skid row I had gotten a phone call that made it imperative that I make it home by 2:30 p.m. Although, I made it home in plenty of time it kind of put me in a 'rush' kind of mode the rest of the trip. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I hadn't prayed with any of the people I had encountered. Even though I had prayed a lot before and during the trip, the main goal of these trips is to pray with the people I meet. Giving out food and water is really only of secondary importance to me. I had put notes in each bag of food and I pray that those notes will be of value to each of these people. Until next week. John