Life Downtown

Last Thursday night when we arrived, I noticed that someone was feeding some of the homeless across the road from our location at an abandoned gas station. I was told by some that a local church had set up there to feed and share the gospel. Since it is the same night we are feeding and ministering, it has resulted in a slight decline in our numbers. This week we served 49 meals with the assistance of 12 volunteers. Although, we have considered continuing Thursday nights indefinitely, this may require us to return to Tuesday after Paul finishes his classes. I would appreciate any feed back from our volunteers either as a comment on the blog or directly to Paul concerning the best night to meet the needs of the community.

One of the most difficult situations we see on the street is homeless adults with children. It is very difficult for us to provide any long term solution to this problem. Currently, we are ministering to a young father with three children. We are providing short-term housing and even baby sitting services so he can work. He had been coming by himself for a couple weeks before asking Paul for help after his wife left him and their children. Please pray for this family and for us as we minister to this family. There are very few ministries available for this type of situation.

It seems that every week individuals show up late wanting food even after we have finished cleaning up. This week, one individual who is a regular did show up late but he had a good excuse. It seems he was downtown and had a few words with another homeless person and the authorities arrested him on a charge of “nuisance behavior”. I have heard from others that this is generally the charge the authorities use to make a sweep to remove some of the homeless off the street. He showed me the ticket he had gotten to verify his story. Fortunately, he was released after about twenty minutes but he needed something to eat. Since he does come every week and listen to Paul’s message, I decided to break one of our rules and give him some money for a meal.

One of the major reasons for homelessness is mental illness. I have seen so much evidence of that in many people that come through our ministry. You can have an intelligent discussion with a person and all of a sudden, they will say something that definitely is out of the ordinary. Early in Paul’s ministry, we had an individual that would come each week and sit by himself. You could see him talking to some imaginary person by his actions during the meal. He told us of elaborate plans for different businesses that he was considering. He even prepared written plans and budgets which he had accurately calculated his success. One week he showed up after missing the last two weeks and I asked him where he had been. He responded that he had just gotten out of jail. It seems that he was arrested for trying to change the locks on a church that he had previously purchased.

I saw further evidence of this last Thursday night. We gave a couple a ride home. Since our catering van has only two front seats, this person and I were sitting on the floor in the back of the van. He began to tell me of the difficult time he has with hearing voices. He indicated that once he did take medication in jail that seemed to help but now he does not take any medication. He has the belief that it is the result of a stomach problem that causes him to get mixed up in his head. Fortunately, he is not homeless because he receives a disability check each month. Many are not so fortunate. Most are on the street dealing with mental and/or physical problems associated with homelessness. Our desire is to meet all of their needs but most importantly it is the need of their heart to be changed. We know that God through Jesus can change a person regardless of their condition.

~Marc