"But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man, and when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. Luke 10:33-34 Part of the story of the Good Samaritan
A week from today I will have another birthday. As one experiences these 'later' birthdays in life you can't help but appreciate the special gift each day is, particularly the good ones. Health issues rob some days of their full potential and enjoy-ability and that has been the case with me this last month. A nasty foot infection landed me in the hospital for a couple of days and prevented me from making trips downtown. Although there are policies in place to help people on the street with their health issues, I couldn't help but think how fortunate I am to have good health insurance that can take care of situations like this. I'm not over this problem yet, but it is significantly better than it was three weeks ago and I felt good enough to make a trip.
Sunday was the first day of no daylight savings time. So night time would start very soon after 5 pm. I got down there at probably 4:50 pm, so there wasn't going to be much daylight left, not that darkness prevents me from helping people, but it does make things a little more difficult (people are usually bundled up/covered up and trying to sleep shortly after the sun goes down). My first stop was a small street just east of the Los Angeles St off-ramp off the I-10 freeway. There are usually about 3-5 folks living there that I can help. When I accessed this street from a small one-way alley the first thing I saw was the shelter that a couple of people lived in had been vacated. As I got closer to the street I noticed that they had relocated to another spot a few yards further down. The street ends at the I-10 freeway off-ramp and this section is less than a 100-yards long from 16th St to the street's end by the freeway. So there were 4-5 people living there Sunday evening, and by the time I left about 5 other folks came by. Robert and Hope were two of the most familiar people that I knew and a couple others who came by I've helped before. Apparently, Robert had been in the hospital with a stroke for about two weeks since I saw them last time. Hope told me that there had been problems with people giving them a hard time where they had been staying by the off-ramp and the stress of it had caused Robert's stroke and precipitated their move to the current spot. Anyway, I opened up the back of the car and everyone got to go through the clothes. Mostly, everyone is looking for warm heavy shirts and jackets. I had two pairs of jeans that went quickly and I handed out a pair of socks to everyone there. The corner of this street is where Philip and a couple other men used to sleep at night, but I haven't seen them there recently. I asked a couple of the Spanish speaking guys that were there if they had seen them. They told me they stay off of Spring St now. A year ago I made a special and second trip down there to give Philip and his friends blankets when they told me how cold they were at night. That was the middle of November last year. It's now that time of year when it gets very cold at night for these folks living on the street. I prayed with most everyone there on that street last night and when I left I thought maybe this is the place for the next BBQ.
That's Hope sitting on the sidewalk and Robert in the brown sweater.
This picture was taking standing in the same place but looking the other direction. You can see the street dead ending up against the freeway off-ramp. Hope and Robert used to have their shelter just to the right of the guard rail there at the end of the street.
I drove over to where Leticia and Antonio live on Trinity St. It was now almost completely dark. Leticia was shivering when I drove up in spite of the sweater she had on. They were about to put down the cardboard pieces they had on the sidewalk to sleep on for the night. I think they had a blanket or two, but I told them I'd bring them one next week when I came back.
With all the food now gone and it being officially night time, I drove over to 27th and Petaluna to the burned out church. I hadn't seen any progress in the rebuilding of this church, so I decided to call Pastor McGhee and ask if there was anything new on the horizon. The last time I had talked with him was back in February of this year. I was glad I called. He told me they were in the final stages of selecting a contractor to do the rebuilding and hoped to start shortly after the first of the year. Obviously, there are a lot of hoops to go through to get approval through city hall. In fact, we laughed about the reality of the old saying, "You can't fight city hall." He promised to call and let me know how things were going. We talked for probably twenty minutes or so about a wide range of things connected to serving God through helping people. I look forward to partnering with him and his church in the future. ---Until next time. John
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