Mobile Loaves & Fishes needs your help now to advocate on our behalf to the Austin City Council for a resolution that is coming before the Council this Thursday June 24th. We need you to email, call or communicate NOW to the Council in support of the pending resolution. The fastest most immediate way is to send one email that will reach the Mayor and each Council Member by clicking on the following link:
Email Mayor & Council Members NOW
This resolution will instruct City Staff to work with Mobile Loaves & Fishes on either gaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use a tract of land out by the airport or to find another suitable tract of land for us for our groundbreaking Habitat on Wheels RV Community housing model. This is currently item # 83 on the morning Council Agenda.
You could email something like this:
Dear Mayor and Council Members:
I am writing in support of Item # 83 on the June 24th, 2010 City Council Agenda. This resolution on behalf of Mobile Loaves & Fishes will place a very powerful tool into the continuum of care tool box by providing permanent, supportive and affordable housing to those that find themselves chronically homeless.
Thank you,
Your Name
You can learn all about our Habitat on Wheels model by clicking on the link below:
Habitat on Wheels RV Community Model
For over five years Mobile Loaves & Fishes has been lifting chronically homeless brothers & sisters off of the streets of Austin into affordable and permanent RV's and Park Model Homes. Today we own about 45 of these RV's that house over 55 people. Many of our residents have been with us since its inception and over 85% have maintained stable housing for well over a year. We are asking the City to merely provide us with a tract of land suitable for our purposes and we will raise all of the capital necessary to build and operate the community.
Thank you for your attention to this very important issue. The community needs your help now. Your voice (and emails!) make a big difference and are heard.
-Alan
1,373
That's right...1,373 texts. Let me spell that out for you so there is no misunderstanding. One thousand three hundred seventy three!! At $10 a pop that adds up to $13,730! That is a mere $1,730 above our goal of $12,000 to get Danny & Maggie off the streets. Not quite the windfall some are erroneously reporting.
As many of you recall we had this powerful campaign in April where we put Danny a homeless guy up on a billboard and asked people to text "Danny" to 20222 to donate $10 to help us get he and his wife Maggie into a home. Go check out the I Am Here website to get a full description of what we accomplished.
For those wondering what we did with all the money we hauled in...well, we got Danny & Maggie into a home. For those reporting we hauled in $100,000 please correct your dis-information.
-Alan
Tuesday evening June 15th KXAN the NBC affiliate in Austin ran a story on Danny & Maggie about how they are back on the corner of Braker Lane and IH 35 panhandling. You can see the story by clicking here. We are grateful to KXAN for continuing to elevate the dialogue of the chronic homeless here in Austin and we are happy to be a part of that dialogue. We do take one extraordinary exception to one part of their story however. KXAN implied that they tried to reach me for comment repeatedly but without return phone call but the truth is that I was out of town on a fishing trip with my church and was not reachable. They were told this by our staff. They were also told this by our official spokesperson. As the spokesperson for Mobile Loaves & Fishes I look forward to every opportunity to speak on behalf of those brothers and sisters whom we serve.
Now on to Danny & Maggie. It is with pure joy that I am able to report to you that for nearly three months Danny & Maggie have a place off the streets that they can call home. They are progressing just as we expected. While making this radical transition they have longed to reconnect with old friends; both those on the streets and those that served them in ministry while they were on the streets. This longing led them back to their old stomping grounds at Braker and IH 35. Of the almost 90 days they have been off the streets they have spent about 5 days out on their old stomping grounds. Folks, this is a celebration! Now personally I wish they would not go back there but we live in a free world and they are allowed to do so. I respect and honor their decision. I do pray that as time goes on there will be a greater connection in their new community and a lesser longing for their old.
We are learning that for anyone, much less those that have experienced this type of homelessness, it takes about one month for every year you have lived in a place or a lifestyle to make the adjustment. For folks like Danny & Maggie this may mean an adjustment period of a year or longer. For those of you with families that have had to transfer from one city to the next think of the extraordinary adjustments you have had to make. So too for Danny & Maggie. Merely receiving a place they can call home does not allow us to say they have been fixed and repaired. It is a giant step though.
Now let's talk about panhandling. Virtually everything I have to say about panhandling can be found at www.mlfnow.org/panhandling. Simply, I would prefer no one felt compelled to have to panhandle for any reason. Those that do find it humiliating. Read the citeable studies found at the above link to get the facts.
When questioned by the reporter about why they needed to panhandle Danny & Maggie responded that they needed the money to live and pay bills now that they are housed. Let me go on record by stating emphatically that in the almost six years we have been housing formerly chronically homeless brothers and sisters 100%, YES 100%, of them have struggled in almost a life and death situation to pay their bills every month. Come on folks! These people live in poverty and we are grateful every month that any of our residents are able merely sustain themselves. We are not moving this population of people into a middle class lifestyle. What is really incredible though is our residents level of happiness however, not without the pitfalls of life.
"Why don't they just get a job!", many would say. For a variety of reasons many of our brothers and sisters have a difficult time gaining employment. Their fault, our fault or nobody's fault the fact remains that many of the chronically homeless are unemployable in the way you and I typically think of employment; the forty hour week 8 to 5 type of job. You can read a lot about how we view this by going to www.mlfnow.org/jobs. We talk extensively about why and then offer a program as to how we can begin to change this for some. We have been changing the lives of several formerly chronically homeless through our micro economic jobs model. If the only answer is to stuff them into the 8 to 5 box we are only going to be marginally, if that, successful. We are thinking outside the box with results.
We would love for you to go read about our Community First! approach to home by going to www.mlfnow.org/how. Here you will find our business plan for the RV community we are proposing as well as a number of other documents that details very specifically our philosophy. No secrets here as these documents have only been up on our website for several years now.
Everyone wants to know how much money we made on the I Am Here campaign. Many suggest or allude that there was a windfall. Let me assure you there was no windfall. We are grateful that we exceeded the goal to raise enough money to get Danny & Maggie into a home plus a little more to perhaps get another chronically homeless individual off the streets of Austin. We were blown away by the national attention the campaign received and are ecstatic with how viral the campaign elevated this very important issue. Mission accomplished!
Let's celebrate a victory and continue to dialogue together on how our community can best tackle this very pressing issue. Mobile Loaves & Fishes is committed to this mission of serving our most vulnerable. We love to love those whom many choose to despise. We welcome those who want to join us in this effort. We are making a powerful difference.
-Alan
The very powerful I Am Here campaign that lifted Danny & Maggie off of the streets of Austin has accomplished its initial goal; to lift a chronically homeless person off of the streets. In fact the campaign was so penetrating that the national media coverage is something just short of miraculous. Go check out www.iamheremlf.org for a complete synopsis of the campaign. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive but there have been a few negative naysayers. Some particularly in the neighborhood immediately around the area where Danny & Maggie lived and panhandled are very pessimistic about the prospect of their success to stay off of the streets. Their concerns are legitimate. What if Danny & Maggie don't make it? What does it mean to Mobile Loaves & Fishes and what does it say about the I Am Here campaign?
First, it is important to understand the population that Mobile Loaves & Fishes has discerned to serve. The chronically homeless; those by definition who have been living on the streets continuously for over one year or three long-term bouts with homelessness over a three year period AND have a corresponding disability. This disability could either be physical, mental or addictive or any combination of the three. Bottom-line is that Mobile Loaves & Fishes' sweet spot of service is to the despised and outcasts of our society. We love to serve and love on those whom many would hate and despise. In fact over the course of the five and a half years we have been housing the chronically homeless (serving them now for over twelve years) we have seen some extraordinary success. We have also been saddened several times when one or more of our brothers or sisters finds their way back to the streets. It is during these times that our hearts are heavy but in spite of this our hope remains eternal. Regardless, we now have over an 85% success rate at keeping folks housed for longer than a year; many have now been home for three, four and five years!
Now please understand that Mobile Loaves & Fishes is not a fix and repair, catch and release model. Our goal is to simply get people into housing they can call home. We know now nationally that by merely housing people is a more cost effective strategy than keeping people on the streets. Simply, because of the reduction in use of the health care system and the criminal justice system it costs our communities less money when people are housed. And we know that without housing it is impossible, to maintain a job, to battle physical and mental illnesses, battle addictions or to improve yourself through education.
We think that coming off of the streets should be easy for people but it is not. It takes months for folks to acclimate to this new way of life. The first several months are critical. People are leaving their known way of life and their known community and being uprooted into a very new way of life and an entirely new community. It is disruptive to say the least and it is in this adjustment that our efforts are so fragile. In fact for a few of our residents we have seen them cycle back to the streets a couple of times before we are able to achieve a modest amount of success. It remains a risk that we are willing to take and continue to pursue.
Danny & Maggie have now been off the streets and away from their known street corner for over a month. Danny has reconnected with his family, particularly his daughter and his son. We love the progress they are making but also know that it is and will continue to be a struggle for them for some time. We pray that this time they are able to rediscover their respective purposes in life and be able to heal from the ravages of living on the streets. Please pray with us! If they don't make it this time we here at Mobile Loaves & Fishes will continue to love them and to serve them as if they were Christ Himself. We will continue to remain hopeful for them and provide them with other opportunities to escape from the streets if they wish. We know in the end that we can only be a vessel for their success but they are the ones who are truly in control. As for their home so many generously provided through their donations? Well, someone else will then get the opportunity discover what home is; a place of permanence, a dwelling place, a storied place, a safe resting place, a place of hospitality, a place of embodied inhabitation, a place of orientation and a place of affiliation and belonging.
-Alan
Incredible metrics from the powerful I Am Here campaign created for Mobile Loaves & Fishes by T-3.
This report was as of Friday May 7. But we know that the campaign is still getting lots of air time.
With the social media traffic we are now over 10,000,000 impressions.
Total Story Count: 231
Total Nielsen Audience: 9,182,034
Total Run Time: 5:06:05
Total Calculated Ad Equivalency: $179,056
Total Calculated Publicity Value: $537,135
An update on Nashville arrived, bright and early, in our inbox this morning. Enjoy, courtesy of Tallu Scott Schuyler, the Nashville Program Director:
Good morning! If I was a preacher preaching a sermon this Sunday I would say, Hey Nashville: You ARE the sermon! Look at you lifting each other up with strong spirit, sense of humor and humility! Look at you being church!
Your efforts to provide meals for those who have been flooded out or displaced has been incredible. Over the last three days we have made stops across Davidson + Williamson Counties, serving over 2,300 meals. Because of all the generous donations of food from local grocers and food distributors, we are at capacity with fresh foods. We are asking for volunteers whose kitchens were not damaged to pick up grocery bags of food from our kitchens, along with a recipe, and prepare meals at home. We've got disposable tupperware to go along with it. These meals are going out on our trucks daily and served to victims of the flood, as well as to those working around the clock towards recovery. A huge hanks to Woodmont member Kathy Davis who has been working tirelessly to organize this aspect of what we're doing.
Day four of our relief effort looks like this:
Today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) we will be receiving volunteers to prepare food from the hours of 11 AM to 3 PM. We appreciate everyone's willingness to pitch in, but are asking that volunteers please not arrive before 11 AM as we are trying to use that morning time to check voicemail, return phone calls, send emails, arrange deliveries and get organized for the day. We will be more productive later if we are able to spend that time in the office. Today, we need as many truck drivers as possible. Please email Margo, our Volunteer Coordinator at mclongiger@mlfnashville.org if you are available to drive a truck during the day or this evening.
Many of you have been asking about weekend volunteer opportunities. We will have a plan for Saturday by the end of today and plan to take a Sabbath rest on Sunday. However, we will need to schedule someone to deliver food Sunday to one location (Metro Water's Central Plant). Please email Margo to get plugged in.
For those of you bringing donations of toiletries or fresh fruit in, please let us know if you need a receipt for your purchases. We will be happy to sign one before you leave. We'll gladly continue accepting donations in the form of toiletries and fresh fruit, but because so much has already come in, they are no longer a pressing need. THANK YOU for stepping up and bringing these items in. We will continue to collect:
We are also looking for donations of a few bigger items which will allow us to store more food and serve more people:
We can arrange pick-up if you have one to donate and will be happy to provide receipt for your tax-deductible gifts. Please be in touch if you have one!
If you're interested in making a money contribution, please donate online through a special Nashville Is Under Water campaign here.
Finally, a big thanks to Alan Nelson of Woodmont Christian Church who posted this video to youtube:
If you know of any area of Nashville, precinct meeting or community coming together to help in the recovery effort who could benefit from meals, please let us know.
I begin this day heartened by the stories of hospitality I'm reading in the paper and grateful for these opportunities to learn together and from one another. Thank you.
With peace like a river, Tallu
For several months now, the Mobile Loaves and Fishes staff have been reading and reflecting on Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. We’ve debated about the exact nature of the MLF “flywheel” and whether we have “the right people on the bus” as well as many other Good-to-Greatisms. But of all that Collins wrote - and Alan may disagree with me on this - I don’t know that there is any thought from Good to Great that has so effectively penetrated the Mobile Loaves and Fishes organization as the pursuit of finding “what we can be the best in the world at.” Ultimately, this is a debate about the MLF central idea. What are we really (really) about?
In our internal conversations, a word that seems to describe the collective wind within the MLF sails pretty well is hospitality. We are not merely a food and clothes provider, nor solely a relational and resource provider for our brothers and sisters living on the streets. When we get right down to the thing that keeps us laying in bed awake at night, for many of us, our thoughts seem to always drift back to the idea of home-making: what is it and how can we foster it?
Of course when we began, most of us already thought we knew the answer to these two simple questions. Eight months ago, I moved into a trailer within one of the Habitat on Wheels (HOW) RV communities and didn’t think twice about telling my friends and family what that program was all about. HOW is a housing program for chronically homeless people in Austin (what is it…solved!) whereby generous patrons supply the money for a fifth-wheel RV trailer for them to live in (How can we foster it…solved!). Eight months, many tears and painful conversations later, I am less convinced I know what a home - or true hospitality - really is.
What do I mean by this last line? I mean that I have witnessed good friends of mine within the community move from being homeless, to housed, to deeply residing “at home” within our community; and then to being only housed, and ultimately homeless again. In the few circumstances this has occurred, it has been terrible to watch. What did their “housing” have to do with their “home”? Absolutely everything! But not all aspects of their “home-fulness” were present when they were simply being housed. Something additional was present at one point in these residents lives - something magical - that, for a variety of reasons was snuffed out, leaving tired individuals to once again orient their lives according to the heavily wounded and chronically underfunded resources of their homeless heart.
The real fact is that we haven’t got it right yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not on the right path. With your help we’ll get one step closer each day.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. What is the essence of “home” and how can we help foster it for our brothers and sisters on the street and in the Habitat on Wheels program?
Ann Andree co-journey’s with folks on the street at The Gateway, a 108 bed men’s shelter and community drop-in in Toronto, Canada. (http://www.thegateway.ca) On a really good day, Ann gets to play a part in some of her homeless friends journey beyond homelessness as supervisor of counselling services. She is a member of the Wine Before Breakfast community that Brian Walsh pastors at the University of Toronto. This sermon was written for that community.
Introduction
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
My dear brothers and sisters, in reading this passage, we have just entered into a sacred space and joined Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is my prayer that we are able to journey deeper together into the dark groves of Gethsemane. It is my prayer that we come to understand together, the abandonment Christ experienced in the garden alone.
Joe
There are few people in our broken world who are better able to connect with Christ in his moment of complete abandonment that our friends experiencing homelessness on the streets. Few people know better then these folks what it is like to die, desolately abandoned by everyone who has ever been important to you. For those of you who don’t know, Dion, Jake and I have the privilege of walking alongside these folks experiencing homelessness at the Gateway-- a 108 bed shelter, which too often is considered home to men who have been cut off from every other segment of society, many of whom have long since been abandoned by friends and family. It breaks my heart when yet another person has no emergency contact to give me, no one who would know if they were dead or alive. It breaks my heart when yet another person is dying in a cold, white-washed hospital room with nobody to sit by their bedside, just to be and to face death alongside of them. It breaks my heart, when, for the third time in three months, we have held a funeral for yet another person on the streets because, somehow, shelter staff have become the closest to family that these individuals have had. Folks on the streets, they get loneliness and abandonment profoundly. They know what it is like to die alone. They truly get the lonely journey Christ was on to the cross.
Two weeks ago, a man who I hadn’t seen for two years walked into my office. We’ll call him Joe. He walked in, shoulder slumped, eyes to the ground, feeling trapped by the circumstances that surround him. Not unlike Christ, he is in the court system, trapped by conditions placed on him by a judge who doesn’t even know him. A talented tradesman, he has a criminal record and cannot find meaningful work. His family? He has a son--somewhere--but his wife has long since left him, taking their son with her. Joe refuses to call a dingy, dark room in a crack house his new home--which is virtually the only thing he can afford on social assistance. Joe sees living on the streets in a sleeping bag the best option out of a limited few available to him. When Joe walked into my office, he stated in an uncharacteristically flat affect that if he could not find even a glimmer of hope out of his situation, then he would create a suicide plan. I said to him that I would be devastated if that was his ultimate decision. He said he needed to do what he needed to do. In other words, if death was what brought hope to him, that was the path he would take.
My dear community, the passion story, like the streets, is not a romantic drama unfolding. It is dark, dangerous and desolate.
Mark 14:32-52
Moving from the streets of Toronto to the passion story in Jerusalem, we find that Jesus has just finished the last supper with his disciples, warning them—and perhaps even reminding himself-- that they would all desert him. And all of them denied His words. Peter--always the rash Rock, boisterously brave after all that wine from the Last Supper says he’ll stick by Christ. Together, they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane, and the dark groves enveloped them. Christ, as God, knew he was journeying into the heart of darkness, the chilling climax. But now, Christ, as human, was experiencing the cold reality of the journey. And the journey was terrifying. Mark says, “And sorrow overtook him and his was filled with grief”. Take a moment to let these words drag you into this unfolding terror: Deep, dark tumultuous suffering. Anguish. Genuine horror.
That Christ began in the Garden of Gethsemane on his final part of the journey to the cross it is significant. Humans were once expelled from the Garden of Eden, sentenced to live in the mess we made, and now, the one human who had proven himself worthy of living in the Garden of Eden enters into the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane. But instead of finding full communion in the Garden, Christ finds betrayal and abandonment. It all fell apart in the original garden. And now, our hope for redemption was beginning in this garden.
That said, despite our hope for redemption, darkness still covered the Garden of Gethsemane. At this point in the journey to the cross, there was no sigh of relief for the dawning of our redemption yet. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we humans were not out of the woods of our broken world yet-- because alongside Christ’s mission of redemption was temptation: could Christ drink the cup? Do you remember, when, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, he had been tempted in the desert three times, and three times he had chosen to trust his father and remain obedient? As Brian pointed out to me, in Mark, unlike any of the other gospels’ renditions of the temptation passage, the phrase, “And then Satan left him” is conspicuously absent in that first chapter, suggesting that throughout his whole ministry, Christ had been struggling with temptation-- precariously, carefully journeying towards the cross without falling. One wrong move and humanity’s hope for getting out of this mess we’re in would be shattered into trillions of unfixable pieces. And here, in the garden, began Christ’s final temptation: Would he be able to drink this cup?
Precisely because the temptation to give up the cup was so utterly terrifying, because the journey ahead was so dark and desolate, Christ had no other option but to go before his abba, father, placing his trust in Him. He prayed. Communion with his father was the only way that he would not fall into temptation and give up on the redemption plan. It’s a Catch-22/a paradox, however, because the temptation to have the cup taken from him arises precisely from a place of utter trust in his Father-- and knowing that there will come a point on this journey when the Father will leave him. William Lane, in his commentary says, “The dreadful sorrow and anxiety, then, out of which the prayer for the passing of the cup springs, is not an expression of fear before a dark destiny, nor a shrinking from the prospect of physical suffering and death. It is rather the horror of the one who lives wholly for the Father at the prospect of the alienation from God which is entailed in the judgment upon sin which Jesus assumes.”
The answer to the question “Would Jesus be able to drink this cup?” is yes. Not unlike Joe, Jesus knew that hope could only come through his death. For Joe, however, his hope was in death in and of itself to stop the pain of his broken world. For Christ, his hope was not death, but to go beyond death, so that people like Joe could cling to the hope of life being better than the brokenness we see. And there was no other option, no other way except to drink the cup. It’s another Catch-22/paradox: Christ must die forsaken in order that we might live in hope.
The journey towards hope, towards redemption, is a journey dependent upon prayer. Christ modeled that for his disciples and for us in his darkest hours. Christ, even in his darkest hour yet, yearns for his disciples to have the same relationship with the Father in the midst of suffering and trial. He knows that they too will be facing temptations: temptations to abandon, betray and deny within hours. And Christ knows that the only way that they will be able to stay awake in the midst of such temptation is to pray. But we know how the story goes: instead of prayer, Peter, James and John fall asleep on him. Not once-- but three times, Christ asks them to stay awake with him. Were they not able to see how distressed Jesus was? Staying awake to pray was a simple task, compared to the politics, the beatings, the humiliations which hadn’t even begun yet. The first time Jesus finds Peter, James and John asleep, his response is critical: “Simon, do you sleep? Did you not have the strength to stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray that you might not enter into temptation; the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” Notice that Jesus reverts back to Peter’s old, pre-disciple name, Simon. Peter, The Rock, who, that same evening, had rashly and courageously vowed to stand by Jesus, no matter what, is being harshly stripped of the name given to him when he became a disciple. Here, Jesus was reminding his disciples that the only way to face the trials ahead was to pray, to place trust in God.
Not only was he reminding his disciples to pray, he was also asking that they stay awake with him. He has said earlier over supper in no uncertain terms that he was heading towards death and betrayal. And they were falling asleep. It is certainly a very despairing situation to be in to know that the very folks you are planning to save are falling asleep on you when you quite obviously look distressed. But it got worse. From the passive, sleepy abandonment of Peter, James and John to the active, deliberate betrayal of Judas. Judas kisses Christ. A political arena unfolds. And things got even worse: the disciples, unprepared for that which Christ had prepared them for, abandoned Christ. He was alone. Completely abandoned. And it is with this shame of abandonment of Christ that the church enters into Maundy Thursday next week.
Let’s return to the story of Joe. A week after Joe had informed me that he might choose suicide as his route, he walked into my office, and, although he was not boisterous, he stood with resolve and told me that he had decided to move forward rather than choose suicide. When I asked what had prompted that decision, he simply said, “You said you would be devastated.” Joe needed someone who would be willing to walk with him on his dark and difficult journey. That’s human. Christ, as human and as God, wanted his disciples—his friends-- to walk alongside him too.
My dear brothers and sisters, Maundy Thursday is approaching. Traditionally, Maundy Thursday is a time when the church stays awake to pray in order to make up for what the disciples lacked when they fell asleep. We have a second chance to return to Christ in the dark Garden of Gethsemane to make up for the disciples’ abandonment. While we cannot go back to the Garden of Gethsemane, there are those in our midst who have been abandoned, like Joe, and we must begin in prayer—just as Christ began in prayer-- if we are to move towards walking alongside of them on their journey.
May we enter into Maundy Thursday in prayer, rather than in the shame of our abandonment of Christ. May we enter into Maundy Thursday in prayer just as Christ taught us through his actions in the garden and when he told the disciples to pray. May we--in trust, prayer and submission to the father’s perfect will--walk alongside those in our midst who have been abandoned like Christ was abandoned. Insofar as we stay awake to pray on Maundy Thursday, let us not lose sight of the fact that Christ says, “Whatever you do the least of these, you do unto me” and remember that we are called to be moved from prayer into action in Remembrance of Christ.
The journey, although sacred, is dark. May we have the courage that Simon Peter lacked to drink from the cup that offers hope and to eat the bread that sustains us in our journey.
More of Steven's thoughts as he goes deeper into the wonderful journey of the street retreat.
Day 2- Morning
After a later than expected wake up call by the security guard at the church we slept at last night, I spent an hour or so hanging out with my three new friends at the gazebo at Woolrich Park. It was a great chance to hear Ronnie’s story in more detail. Ronnie is a 24 year old African American with three years towards a Forensic’s major at Texas A&M. He seems the most grounded of all the people I have met so far. This could be due to the relatively short period that he has been homeless. He isn’t addicted to drugs and didn’t so much as light a cigarette in the 16 or so hours I spent with him. His friends say he doesn’t even drink. This is in marked contrast to Angelo who lights up, on average, every ten minutes.
Ronnie is the first veteran of the Iraqi war I have ever met. He served on a medical surgeon team in Fallujah where he participated in several s operations, mostly involving soldiers who lost limbs in battle. Unlike the cadavers that he worked with at A&M, cutting into these living bodies, writhing with emotion did not sit well with him. But when his term ended he nevertheless reenlisted because, where else was he going to go? Toward the end of his term, he developed a thyroid condition that caused him to lose about 65 pounds. The Army thought this was the result of PT at first, but when testing made it clear that he had a medical abnormality, he was prevented from staying in Iraq.
Upon returning home, he did not have the option of staying at any relative’s homes. His greatest ambition is to finish college and become a forensic scientist, determining the cause of death of homicides. The problem is, though he is qualified for the GI Bill, the military will not release any money or grants to him unless he can show proof of permanent address. Without access to family, or friends, Ronnie became homeless. He joined forces with Angelo and Jennifer about 4 months ago, determining that they would work together toward housing and success – a set-up probably similar to the kind of team-oriented unit he experienced in the military; certainly the living conditions could not be any more Spartan. This unit is strong and motivated but even after four months of looking, Ronnie has not been able to get a lasting job, the first step toward his goal.
After saying goodbye to these new friends (giving them my number so that we might meet again in the future), a few of the other retreaters and I headed Eastward toward Angel House, a Baptist Church that serves as one of the only permanent coffee sources for the men like me who are addicted to the stuff. Though the supply is abundant the window is short (30 minutes) and we arrived just after they ran out. This was because, on the way, our gang ran into a pleasant distraction. A couple of young dred-lock laden bohemians were dancing on Congress Avenue at 6th street to beats on one of the guys’ laptops. It was an open-invitation dance party that was too much fun to pass by. After a couple of jigs, we began to talk. These guys first met at the Rainbow Festival which was last held in a National Forrest of New Mexico. After meeting there, each felt individually called by God to come to Austin. They rediscovered each other when they arrived. Together, they dance for God as a witness to the “goodness of their Lord and Savior”. One of them was miraculously freed from a drug addiction 8 months ago and told us his testimony. Before we left for breakfast, we held hands at the intersection and prayed a prayer of blessing on our new friend’s ministry. It would have been fun to dance off down the street but, alas, the batteries had run out on the laptop.
Day 2- Afternoon
After the sadness descended on us from the lack of coffee in our immediate future, our hearts were immediately brightened as several of the other homeless hanging out at Angel House gave us pastries that they had wrapped up for later. As an aside, if I haven’t mentioned it before, the generosity of men and women on the street is truly awe inspiring. It seems evident to me that the less you have, the easier it is to give some away.
We stuck nearby to the house and also lunched on the property (being sure to get there in plenty of time to get some this time). Afterward, our group split up and I met up with Alan while meandering north on an aimless time-killing jaunt. We shared stories of the morning and the evening before, and I moved on in search of God.
The afternoon was full of walking for me. Not sure what I was looking for, I walked most of the way from E. Caesar Chavez to 26th Street on the drag and then back down to near 11th. It felt strangely good to stretch my legs and to experience life as an invisible person. I was barely noticed by any but other homeless people who I tried to talk with as often as it seemed welcome.
At 3pm our group rejoined together and talked through our first full day on the streets. I loved hearing everyone’s stories. Afterward, Stubbs BBQ and Mobile Loaves’ partnered at Woolrich Park in serving the first leg of the “Feed the World” tour to raise awareness about hunger and poverty in America. The park was packed with people waiting to get their Stubbs sandwich. While awaiting the truck’s disbursement, a fellow on the team and I sat down and talked with Jerry, who, it turns out, was the third person I met who had recently contemplated or attempted suicide. At near 50 years of age, Jerry lives alone in a camp so remote in the Texas Hill Country that in three years, it has never been disrupted in any way. He is trained in multiple specialist trades but also has several felony charges against him, most from a mentally unstable wife that has come in and out of his life for the last five years. As such, he can’t get a job. Talking with Jerry made me feel ashamed of a recent bout of depression I felt only a few days before. Here is a guy who is being aged out of the career market, has no body for manual labor, and who is completely alone, though coping with thousands of others in similar circumstances. Together they form a silent, heavily burdened horde, who has ambition but no clear sense of direction; seemingly living in the ‘day to day’ so that the’ week to week’ is not too overwhelming.
Day 2- Evening
After the dinner feast, I decided it was time to truly cut ties with everyone. I alerted Alan that I was going on a walkabout and would see him tomorrow. My gut said to travel South so, after a brief restroom stop at the downtown library, I headed for Congress and the pedestrian river to South Austin. Near Congress and 5th, with the intention of catching a bus down SoCo in pursuit of what God wanted me to experience for the night, I felt the distinct call to turn back. One of the guys with us on the trip owned a tract of land on Congress and suggested that it might make a good location for a Downtown community garden. I knew I should go and check this property out before the sun went down. And so I headed north. The empty, grass-covered, lot looks on 11 Street with a clear view of the Capital grounds. It is not large and doesn’t get good sun, but would be a beautiful garden location. Walking around the area, I noticed two men sitting down in the shade. One country-western looking young man was playing a guitar and an old man I who looked homeless was listening. I walked around and pondered the garden’s potential, squeezing the dirt as an impromptu soil test in my hand. All the while, I listened to the music. While pondering one of the historical markers I heard the singer proclaim, “and this is a song about Jesus.” Listening closely at this point, I knew where I was meant to spend my evening.
After the song was concluded, I asked if it was ok to join their group. Upon closer inspection, I recognized the older man. With a thick long gray beard and a soft but commanding voice, he reminded me of John Muir or some prophet out of the Old Testament. As many times as I had seen him, he always seemed to look at me with a “knowing” look. The singer could not have been any more different. He looked young, childish even. He wore the sort of country western wear that spoke of the discount section of a small town western store. Jake was the singer and Josiah was the older fellow.
Jake played ballads, hymns, and folk songs from Woodie Guthrie, to Cash, to several that he had written himself. After a few minutes, I thought I was witnessing an old musical Tent Revival with an audience of one man. Jake had his Bible out and would talk through what he liked about a song and then cut to a Biblical passage that echoed his thought. Josiah would tune in with a correction or to echo Jake’s thought, adding his own rumination. After several songs, it became apparent I wasn’t watching an old school revival but the theological reflections through music of two old friends. The two men had met nine years before through their mutual acquaintances with Duane Severance, known to most as Austin’s Pastor to the Homeless. Duane earned his place in Austin sparring musically with Lesley on the corner of 6th and Congress. Lesley would throw accusations and Duane would return with a song and quiet word from the Bible. Duane passed away a few weeks ago from a car accident- way too young. Lesley was also in an accident recently and barely survived. Josiah observed how ironic it was that God would choose to take one and leave the other. Perhaps it was injustice he noted, or perhaps God’s mercy in giving Lesley a chance to get right before his time to face his maker truly does come.
Nearly two hours elapsed over songs, scripture, edification, and correction. I left well blessed and received much encouragement to pursue the community garden at the sight. God prepared a church for me tonight, made of body, heart, and memory. It was a beautiful time of grace and peace.
I left to wander south. I pondered some of the Bible scriptures that Jake tossed out at Jo’s Coffee, where I was generously provided with a bit sustenance for my breakfast, free of charge. Walking a bit, I found an abandoned church nearby that seems a safe and quiet place for me to make my bed. I gathered some cardboard from behind a few local businesses so the cold ground will not wake me. A plywood board will guard my bed from the street’s view. I think I will sleep in deep rest tonight.
*note: names have been changed