Downtown 1/21/2013

"Be fearless for your destiny." --Heidi Baker

Last week's trip was on a Tuesday and left me with no time to make a blog entry about it.  For the most part it was an uneventful trip with the exception of one encounter that left me a little flustered.  I wasn't sure what to make of it and it doesn't bear going into any details.  Suffice it to say my reception from the homeless has pretty much gone well 99% of the time.  Yes, I've been sworn at, propositioned by prostitutes (both male and female), approached by drug dealers and even discouraged by law enforcement officers.  You have to expect these things to happen from time to time if you work among this group of people.  In the end, if you have been called to go, then you know you have no choice but to go...and keep going.  When I finally sorted out my feelings over what happened, the quote above from Heidi Baker came to mind.  "Be fearless..."  That's the key.  I'm not going to intentionally do anything stupid or reckless, but people who go to the front lines know the risks they take.  Because of the actions of one, I need not abandon all the others.  Since yesterday was Martin Luther King day, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by him the night before he was assassinated.  He was speaking to a group of pastors in Memphis and made this incredibly insightful statement concerning the story of the Good Samaritan.  I've quoted it before, but it bears repeating here.  "The first question that the priest and the Levite asked was, 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?'  But the Good Samaritan reversed the question:  'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"  I have come to have close relationships with many of the people I have met here in the last three and half years.  I can honestly say I love these folks and think about them during the week and worry about them if I haven't seen them in a while.  In the last three months or so, I've written about Gary who has been living in an alley behind an auto parts store on Washington Blvd.  Yesterday, his stuff was gone.  Just when our relationship was growing in depth and content...I not only don't know what happened, but I have no way of finding out either.  I'll have to keep praying for his well-being and hope he's just had to relocate for the time being.

Eugene, on the other hand, is one of my regulars and he has an employment opportunity in Seattle and he and his wife, Helen, are leaving for there this weekend.  What a great privilege to pray for them about their great opportunity.  I'm hoping they make the best of it.

I also met Trudy yesterday for the first time.  He was asleep on the sidewalk near the corner of Washington Blvd and Long Beach Blvd.  He had one shoe on and one shoe off.  There wasn't a place to park nearby and I had to drive around the block a couple of times before finding a place, but eventually I was about to park and get over to him.  It was around 1:00 pm and it was warm.  I'm sure the sidewalk was fairly hot too.  I decided to just offer him some water at first.  When he woke up and saw me he immediately reached for the water (that's what I was counting on).  He then said he was hungry too when I asked.  I noticed his socks were about as thread-bare as they could be and still be 'on'.  In fact, his foot with the shoe off didn't even have a sock, so I brought back some socks with the food.  I was kind of surprised that before eating the food, he was putting on the socks!  It always amazes me that with so many people working in that area, no one had stopped and offered to help this man.  I prayed with Trudy before leaving him.  I doubt if I'll ever see him again, but you never know.  Sometimes, I'll see someone a year or so later.  I won't remember them, but they'll remember me, because I prayed with them!

There were a couple of other men I helped yesterday, Luis, in the Pico and Olive Blvd area and Curtis off 14th Place near Central Ave.  Both were very appreciative, but one woman named Mary was just special.  I saw her pushing her cart west on Washington Blvd.  There wasn't a place to pull over (that's one of the problems with going during the week).  I drove down a couple of blocks and then around the block and came back up to Washington Blvd just as she was crossing the street.  I was the first car in the right turn lane as she was coming across.  I made eye contact with her and held out a bag with some food and water in it.  She hustled over to the car as fast as an elderly woman can and gratefully thanked me for the food.  I had only seen her once about a week or two ago and remembered her name.  When I called her by name her face lit up like you wouldn't believe.  It made my day!  She made it across the street with her cart and stopped on the corner and started to eat the food from the bag.  She waved and smiled to me as I pulled on through.  What a blessing to me to help her. 

On the way to the freeway, I stopped to give John Stokes the last of the food.  Last year he told me that he had marched with Martin Luther King back in the early 60's when he was a youth.  I know John is from the Atlanta, Georgia area, but I seem to recall him saying it was in Alabama.  Anyway, it was fitting to see John yesterday.  I'll leave you with one last quote from Dr. King:  "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"  --Until next week.  John