"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he [John] is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." --Matthew 11:12-15
Well, let's catch-up the last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago I worked Sunday, but made a trip on Monday night, I just didn't have time to write about it. Last weekend I worked a double shift into Sunday and didn't make a trip at all. I ended up napping my whole weekend to catch up on sleep. However, there were a couple of things of note on the trip Monday night (19th). I had made up a big pot of pasta and took it with me while it was still hot. Remarkably, there weren't many people in the alley off 25th and San Pedro, maybe only a half dozen folks. There was one man there who was pretty happy to get a bowl of pasta. I asked him how long it had been since he had a bowl like this. His reply stunned me. He said about 10 years or so! I was glad I had made it with 3 or 4 pounds of meatballs in it and plenty of spices to make it taste special. When you think about the food options that homeless folks have you quickly realize that the cheapest and easiest to make food is what they will most likely receive. Even if they have a few dollars, they are going to buy the cheapest food available. That means a burger or tacos and maybe a soda if they have enough extra money. The things we take for granted are just not in their world. Since I had a lot left over when I left the alley, I went over to a few of the streets where I knew folks would be. I had to find people quickly because the pasta was losing the heat quickly at this point. I found Leticia and Antonio on Trinity St and a couple others nearby. I still had some left and went over to where John Stokes lives. Everyone living there was in bed for the night (it was probably about 8 or 8:30 by this time) except for one woman who was walking around there. I think she thought I was looking for a date, but I asked her about John Stokes. She said he hadn't been around for a while and thought he was in jail. I went around the corner to where Dave from Minnesota lives. Dave and John use to hang out all the time together. I gave him the last of the pasta. When I asked him about John Stokes he told me that he had 'gone back home'. I said, "To Atlanta?" He said yes. I know John's birthday was either at the end of May or the beginning of June. This year he would be 67 so, apparently, extra social security benefits were available and were enough to get him a ticket back to Atlanta where he has family. At least I hope he still has family there. It's probably been 30 or 40 years since he's been there and I'm sure things have changed a lot. I'm praying for a happy ending on this one. John is the second friend of mine who was able to use their social security benefits upon retirement age to go back home. A couple of years ago Richard Brown was able to get back to Missouri when he turned 65. I didn't get to see him before he left to get or leave a contact number and never heard from him again.
So now we're up to yesterday's trip. I got down there early, about 2:30 pm and drove around quite a bit. I even drove over to the Lincoln Park area. I haven't been there in a long time. Cesar was standing on the corner of Mission and Main there asking for hand-outs. I haven't seen him in probably two years. He doesn't speak English so even if I was able to stand around and talk to him it would be difficult to communicate, but I passed some food to him through the window. There were a few other homeless folks I was able to help before I ended up in an alley and parking lot off 9th and San Pedro. The first guy in the alley said he was just wondering what and how he was going to do get some food for the day. He was relieved when I showed up. There were others there that I've seen before, but I ended up stopping by three guys who turned out to be Native Americans. One was from the Hope Indians, another was from the tribe of Yellow Hawk (I'm not sure what tribe of Indians he was from) and the other guy, Calvin, who looked more Native American than any of the others didn't say what tribe he was from. He did, however, tell me he just got out of prison and has been in and out of prison for the last thirty years. I talked at length with these three as other folks walked by. The interesting thing is that I gave the last three sandwiches to these guys, but two of them ended up giving theirs to others who came by that needed the food more. Yes, most everyone in this parking lot had been drinking. Some more than others. The three NA were probably a little more hostile about life in general, yet they were the ones who gave the food to others. They also recognized that I was different and had come to help people. Yellow Hawk asked me to pray for them, then when I finished he prayed in his native language. He had told me that they had become pretty jaded by the violence they have seen on the street and although the police may have been around, they did nothing about it. It almost seemed like he was suffering from PTS. Anyway, I really did enjoy my time talking with them. Others may have felt threatened by their talk, but I didn't and, in fact, it was probably therapeutic for them to be able to vent their frustrations to an 'old white guy'. I also look at it as something to build a relationship on. The next time I see them they will remember me as the 'church guy' they can talk straight up with. That's becomes huge in gaining the trust to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. You know Yellow Hawk actually asked my why I come down there. So I was able to tell them something about my past and how I used to drive trucks right down there where we were and about Jesus' call on my life to go to people just like them right where they are. Soon enough, they will have questions about all the 'religious stuff'' that bugs them and they'll ask me about it out of their frustration. That's when I get to be real with them. That's when the pay-off for encounters like yesterday happen. I listen to them enough and sometime down the road, they'll listen to me.
Before leaving the area I did go by the burned out church at 27th and Petaloma. I prayer-walked the street. No changes yet. We're building up momentum. --Until next time. John
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