Downtown 10/19/14

"You listen to the longings of those who suffer.  You offer them hope, and you pay attention to their cries for help.  You defend orphans and everyone else in need,..."  Psalm 10:17-18a

This was my first trip after missing two Sundays.  My work schedule is now back on the night shift, so Sundays are spent sleeping for the most part and makes my arrival downtown considerably later.  I didn't arrive until almost 6:30 pm.  In another two weeks daylight savings time will be over and each trip will be at night.  The next four months will be interesting and different so say the least.

On my last trip I saw Nichole, a pregnant woman I first met a month or so earlier during the BBQ. She told me this last time that she was gong to deliver her baby boy on the following Wednesday. Since I hadn't made a trip since then I wanted to find out what I could about her and the birth of Billy. The freeway off-ramp is right there where she works, which is a recycling center.  I pulled in there and looked around at the people working there, but didn't see her.  I waited there in the car for a minute and while I was waiting I heard my name being called.  Will or "Willie" was panhandling on the corner and he was calling out to me.  He told me that Nichole had her baby, but she and her husband had lost their little apartment.  In fact, they had stayed with him for a night in his tent last week as they look to get their situation settled.  After talking with Willie I pulled around the corner to where we had the BBQ and where Willie's tent is.  He had told me there were a couple of other people there.  It turned out there were about four or five people there.  I told them when they see Nicole to let her know I have some things collected for her and her baby.  It may be awhile before I actually see her.

By the time I left them it was completely dark out.  I drove around the block and saw John Stokes and talked to him for a while.  By this time I only had three burgers left, so my options were kind of limited.  I didn't want to go down to 25th and San Pedro again with only three burgers left (like the last time), so I decided to go over to the other side of town and look for men on the sidewalk by themselves.  I wasn't really expecting what happened.  There is a little street just west of Pico and Olive.  I've helped a few people on this street before, but it's been a while and I usually end up using this street to just go around the block and come out on Olive again so I can either cross it (Olive is a one-way street) or get to the far east lane to turn back east on Pico.  When I pulled onto this small street I immediately saw a man sleeping on the sidewalk with his shoes off and another man on the other side of the street sitting on the sidewalk with his back up against a building.  I pulled up to where the man was sleeping and parked.  I tried taking his picture in the darkness from the car, but the picture didn't turn out too well because the flash from the camera lit up the window on the passenger side.  I had my driver window down and could hear the other man talking.  I wasn't sure what he was saying, but I thought it might be about me and my picture taking.  Anyway, I put all three burgers in a bag along with three water bottles and got out of the car.  The man sitting up across the street, his name was Rodney.  Another man, named BB had walked by at this time pushing a shopping cart.  He thought he was going to miss out on the free food, but when I walked over to him he got all happy about the 'perfect timing' of his arrival to that street.  BB motioned to the guy sleeping that he 'must be pretty tired because he didn't even find a piece of cardboard to lay down on'. Sadly, this man was sleeping straight on the concrete sidewalk, no blanket, no pillow, no nothing. I walked over to this sleeping man and bent over to set the bag down next to him with the last burger and the water bottle and gently spoke to him.  He was Latino and spoke no English.  However, when I said,"Comida" he immediately understood and sat up and opened the bag and started eating the burger.  I went to the back of my car and got out three pairs of new socks and gave each man one. All three of these men would have slept through the night without a meal if I hadn't have come by.

When I left the house before this trip, I asked my wife to pray for me.  I really wasn't feeling "up to" or "connected" to this trip.  I know part of that is because of the schedule change to nights at work. Part of it was due to it being three Sundays ago since the last trip.  Knowing that it would be dark soon puts a different spin and expectation level to a trip also.  During the next four months things will be different.  People will be getting ready to sleep and a lot of folks will be covered up and sleeping as soon as the sun goes down.  It can be kind of rude to "wake someone up" when they've gone to bed.  Well, we'll see what happens.  God will lead me to people needing help, that I know.  Until next time.---John