Lenny and Sara's Tent

Sara in her mid twenties, has been homeless for about six months now, has depression and anxiety issues, is a cutter, originally from the upper midwest. And Lenny is around the same age, I believe he's from southern CA originally, has a bachelor's degree in accounting, is very personable, but said in a previous [intoxicated] conversation that he doesn't like the 'responsible' life, and this week got out of jail after a three-ish week sentence.

Sara and Lenny along with a handful of other folks live in an encampment near a river or resoviour which is normally a safe and comfortable place in the grand scheme of things. But with all the rain we've been having the river rose 20 feet and washed away their tent and all their belongings. I found this out on Wednesday and Sara was pretty sure they'd figure it out and be fine. They'd stay in the shelter Wednesday night and during the day Thursday to get dry. Then start figuring things out. I gave them my umbrella so they at least wouldn't get too much more wet on the walk to and from the bus.

I was really surprised to see them on Thursday at the lunch since I thought they'd be at the shelter, but apparently Lenny won't stay in the shelter because it was too much like prison for him. So instead they rode the bus until they stopped running at 1am then tried to find shelter and got back on the bus when they started running again at 4am. Needless to say by the time they arrived at the church they'd barely slept and were pooped. They both sat down at the tables and slept heads down on the table before lunch began. Sara had asked me if I knew anyone with a tent. The condition didn't really matter, just something. She described the last tent to me and it's duct taped patches and jerry-rigged tarp... it sounded pretty pitiful. I decided that out of my descretionary fund I would get them a new tent.

I know I shouldn't play favorites, but with them I kind of do. I think they really have a chance to break the cycle and have so much potential, and perhaps they don't seem all that different from me in some ways... so I feel more inclined to help them... not that a tent will change their lives, but at least they can have a shelter.

I took Sara with me after lunch to go get the tent, Lenny wanted to stay back at the church with their stuff. I think it was nice for Sara to get to just have someone to relate to and talk with in a normal way. She was funny about the car ride, when I was cleaning off my passenger seat she chuckled a few times and said, "Wow... you're so normal... you eat breakfast in your car like the rest of us (I had a banana peel in the seat), and have mail on the floor... that's cool." and a little while later, "It's so nice, yet weird to be doing something so normal as riding in a car... It's just so normal... I miss my car, it's funny the things you miss that you never though you would, I told Lenny last night that I want to argue about drapes with him. He told me I was silly, but I told him I wanted to argue with him about something as mundane as the color of the drapes. Or be able to sit next to him on the couch and have some tea... I think that's the blessing of all of this is that now I appreciate so much more, and I know how to budget really well now. I can make just a few dollars stretch further than I ever thought I could."

I imagine I could learn a thing or two from her now about priorities and budgeting... I pray they can sleep a little sounder and drier tonight in their new shelter. What a blessing it is that I, on behalf of the church, can care for my neighbor in such concrete ways. Thanks be to God!

Rainy day fun

Rain in LA is often a novel diversion from the day in day out beautiful sunshine, but this week we've been inundated. On Monday it was nice to stay in and work from home under my warm blankets, delighting in the muted, pensive nature of the day. But Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the rain continued and after going to the church, I saw it from a different perspective.

On Wednesdays the Valley Rescue Mission comes in to serve a hot meal, and the sheer number of people who were soaked was crazy. So while I may enjoy the novelty of the rain under the covers on my dry cozy couch, people who I care about and have promised to serve are struggling with staying dry. Since I have no way to dry things or stop the rain I decided that what I could do was leave the building open since I was going to be around for another few hours.

While hanging out for a minute by the door as lunch was ending Larry commented on how we needed to clean out our gutters which would solve the dripping water from the overhang. Then offered to clean it right then if I had a ladder. Er, okay.... I'm getting better about letting people help, in the moment. And off I went for the ladder. Larry found quite an impressive amount of gunk in our gutters, most notably a Curious George hacky sack.

On my way to get the ladder I discovered that our roof was leaking in the narthex. Great... Larry also notice this when he carried the ladder back from cleaning out the gutters and said he'd check it out, he used to be a roofer after all. So in the rain he climbed up on the roof and determined that all we needed was some roofing tar to seal a few seams and we'd be good to go... that was a relief, I'd had momentary visions of need a new $15,000 roof, or something. While holding the ladder for Larry as he was climbing onto the roof, Vic another regular was sweeping the water off the sidewalk then trying to sweep a drainage ditch of sorts into the grass so the water would run off into the street rather than collect on the sidewalk. It was kind of comical to watch a dude in a poncho sweep the grass in the rain.

After the ladders had been put away we were again gathered in the doorway watching the rain, a power line about a half a block away put on a rather disturbing fireworks show and our power went out, then as I went in search of a number to call to report it power came back on so I stopped working my way through the automated system. Then a few minutes later there was another round of serious sparks and so Larry called 911 and the fire department came out. In the meantime I was cold and assumed everyone else was too so I decided that a round of hot cocoa was in order, so I put the water on to boil and served up an entire box cocoa. It felt kind of festive. It was nice just to have people hanging out talking about their football predictions, and what-not, in the dark. It reminded me of college when the power was out and we all hung out in the hallway together. These are the unexpected moments in my days that I love! And never underestimate the power of cocoa to fortify a person for the elements. It just might be magical...

Take 2

So yeah... it's been awhile... but making excuses and apologizing is annoying. Plain and simple it's time to give this blogging thing another go. Ministry in my world is just too much fun and craziness to keep to myself. And really I'm way too spacey to keep up with everyone individually so here we go again... Welcome back!

Searching for Bible Studies

I've just spent the last couple of hours looking at a variety of Bible study materials.... I'm looking for a few different things- Adult Education for Sunday mornings, September is quickly approaching- newsletter comes out this weekend and I should probably mention our fall programming (meaning I'd better get on the stick and plan it!) I'm also looking for material for a potential Women's Bible Study that one of the women who comes to our lunches approached me about.

Being supportive of my denomination I naturally went to the Augsburg Fortress website first, and checked out what they had available. The Book of Faith material looks decent and will probably fit the bill for Sunday AM, but didn't quite fit what I was looking for for the Women's study. So I went to look up some of the names I'd heard tossed about like Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. I'm currently leaning towards Beth Moore's study on Esther- but this got me thinking what is it that the Augsburg Fortress stuff was lacking? Why does the "Evangelical" (for lack of a better descriptor/generalization) material and/or message play better than the Lutheran stuff (in my head at least) among the jobless/homeless population among which I find myself ministering. I'm not 100% behind everything the material claims. And there are a few things that just rub me the wrong way, but most of that is stylistic. I have a hard time trusting what they say, when they're on a big stage and have a lot of... errr... energy in their delivery; it doesn't resonate with the more subdued 'Lutheran' style I'm accustomed to. But after watching the guy who delivers the message at our Thursday who comes from a more Evangelical bent and the pastor who did it this past Tuesday from a local Lutheran church, the Evangelical message and delivery are much more enthusiastically received. Why is that??

Open House: the gist

Every Wednesday morning we have an Open House. Basically we open our doors, provide minimal refreshments- coffee, Kool-Aid/Lemonade, cookies- and just hang out. One of our members, Barry, started doing this a while back so that the church is open at least once a week, since the previous pastor worked mostly from his home office. These gatherings are always interesting and I never know what to expect.

In addition to the basic refreshments if someone asks for something more to eat we have some Chef Boyardee microwavable meals we give out. We don't promote that aspect because we have limited resources. But today the Chef was in high demand I probably handed out 15 tubs of Beef-a-roni and spaghetti and meatballs. I didn't get a chance to talk with as many of the people as I would have liked because I was too busy in the kitchen shuttling food to-and-fro. We usually try to close up refreshments around 11:30 so that there is not the expectation of lunch and today was a prime example of that because it was a bit later before we started closing up shop, and the demand was much greater... word spread quickly.

Unfortunately the whole time I was handing out food, in the back of my mind I was struggling. Part of me was more than happy to provide what little food I could to anyone who asked. While at the same time another part of me was thinking... oh crap... now we're creating a cafeteria reputation, and we do not have the resources to sustain this.

Around noon we close up shop and I return to my office to get a little bit of work done. And we leave the building open so people can have a space to get out of the sun and relax. One of the women had a tiny portable DVD player and was playing a movie, at one point I came out and there were probably 5 or 6 people sleeping, and I wondered how it must be for them to have a safe, indoor, relatively undisturbed place to sleep. What a small blessing that our facility could provide for them today. Maybe one of them will accept Barry's invitation to attend worship on Sunday morning, most likely they won't... but I'm thankful that they had a place to come and rest, if only for a little while.

Open House: The people

The people are definitely what make Open House interesting. It's a bit like the Thursday lunches but on a significantly smaller, more intimate scale. I get to hear a bit more about people. Although I need to get better about learning their stories. And in this setting people feel more comfortable to talk to me about their needs. There are the 'usual' needs- the need for housing or gas money etc, to which I unfortunately am very little concrete help. Some tell me about their faith, which is always fascinating. And then there are the more unexpected conversations. Two from today particularly stand out.

One gentleman told me that he was feeling kinda depressed because his ex-girlfriend won't get back together with him. I started talking to him about why they broke up to begin with and he said she tried to kill him- well... that's after he hit her. I quickly let him know that it is not okay to hit anyone. He said he's gotten over his alcohol problems which are what caused him to hit her. We talked a bit more about how this didn't seem to be a very healthy relationship for either of them and that he should just move forward. And why did he want to be with someone who tried to kill him anyway? Because he loved her? Big deal! We love lots of people and things that are bad for us.... that doesn't mean we should continue right along with them... I don't think I actually got very far, but I at least made him think for a moment.

The most interesting consultation of the day was with a young man who has been at open house the last several weeks, a pretty quiet young guy, maybe 22? I'm not always sure if he's completely with it or what. Today he asked if he could talk to me, but not in the coffee line... so we went to the church lounge just off the parish hall and sat down on the couches. After a few awkward starts he told me that he was having a lot of weird feelings lately... but was being very vague and unclear... finally after a few more awkward pauses and fidgeting he told me that he was feeling confused about his gender.

I had never been more thankful for my roommate and I's avid (okay, weird) interest in random documentaries on a wide range of topics, especially those on people who are different from us and we had watched a couple of documentaries recently about transgender people. (See God does use all things for good!)

Because of these documentaries, seeing the struggles of the people featured combined with the subsequent conversations between my roommate and I. I wasn't as shocked or inept feeling as I might have been before. While I could never say that I understand what this young man is going through, I could be much more sympathetic after having had some glimpses into the struggles especially psychologically that transgender people go through.

What this young man was struggling with most was the fear that if he did act on these feelings of being female that he would be rejected by the people that he already knows here, those who know him as a man. Being rejected for whatever reason is extremely difficult. Especially when you're living on the streets and have a precarious support network to begin with. I made sure that he wasn't a danger to himself, and suggested that we find him someone more qualified than myself to help him work with these feelings. I am a good listener and would listen to him as much as he needed me to, but I am not trained to help him through something so major.

Then came the real question he needed me, the pastor, to answer... Do I think this is wrong? Essentially- could God still love him if he felt this way... and acted upon it? It is a privileged position to be in to be able to remind someone that God is loving beyond our understanding. No matter how unlovable we may feel- or society may tell us we are- we are God's children and we are loved deeply and passionately by God. Being unsure of your identity of who you are-- of something as fundamental as what gender you are is one of the most challenging things I can think of to go through. So there was no way I could judge this man for what he was going through. No way I could even imagine telling him that what he was going through was wrong. Difficult to understand- yes, contrary to our understanding of nature- sure... but wrong... no-- no way.

Welcome to Open House!

Knights of the Light

Several weeks ago one of our regulars, Robert, came by my office and asked me for a ride the his apartment because he had too much stuff to carry on foot. Happily I helped him get home and he was excited to show me his apartment and building. He is part of a transitional housing program geared especially toward people with some sort of mental illness, counselors and case managers have offices on-site among other things. During the tour of the facilities he showed me the community room where he told me that he and one of his buddies Goldie hold services, they have robes and everything. This definitely made me curious to see what they were up to. I imagined it to be something like kids playing school.

A few weeks later I arranged to come by their meeting one morning. I arrived about 10 minutes late because my office painter was late so I had trouble getting into the building. Thankfully another man, Freddie, who reminds me of the mole from Frog and Toad, came down the road with his shopping cart just after I arrived and hopped the waist high fence and opened the door for me (something I considered but didn't think was appropriate to do in my clerical collar). Once in the building I made way to the community room and discovered that Robert had a doctor's appointment and was unable to join us. But Goldie was there leading the meeting. This is more Goldie's vision than Robert's. They are still in the organizational phase so we just met more informally.

I came mostly out of curiosity, and with a good bit of skepticism and probably too much well-trained snobbery. Every day I learn that all my intellectual inclinations and academic training sometimes gets in the way of dreaming big and remembering that God uses all people in big ways. Thankfully I get frequent reminders. Goldie calls the group the Knights of the Light. He hopes to bring God's Word to the people of the community. No arguments there! Some of their hopes for the group I will openly admit that I am skeptical of them actually achieving, for example, they want to make a (perhaps several) full length films of the entire Bible. Not sure where they'll get the equipment to do that... but hey... God can do great things. But regardless of my skepticism I came away inspired. I was in awe of their unbridled passion for the Gospel and their willingness to dare to dream big. We talked about current events, Bible passages, how we're gifted by the Spirit, and how the God blesses the desires of our hearts that are in accordance to His will. If I had out my theological fine tooth comb I could probably find a lot of flaws... but overall I left richer for having come observed this motley crew love the Lord with abandon. Thanks be to God!