*** What is the one thing a typical homeless person wants, and you said socks and underwear.
Socks and underwear. You mean I tell you what, if that was all we did I think they would be happy, not now because of all the other stuff we do.
*** Do they want to know Jesus?
Many of them do. Some of them are very angry at God. Some of them were brought up in Christian homes that were over zealous and beat on them with the Bible. Used it very improperly, misquoted it, manipulated them with it. And so we are trying to build that trust. We’ve got people who get upset with us because they do not see us all carrying around Bibles, sitting down with scriptures all day, trying to get them to understand that look, they do not want to know how much you know until they see how much you care. Okay, so we have taken a very different approach to it. Believe me, hang around here enough you are going to hear God all the time in this place. We are starting a new program using the Recovery Bible. We are setting up a recovery group right here that meets on Tuesdays for those people who will not go into a program but it is like AA except for the fact that instead of a ‘higher power’ we tell them about Jesus Christ. We do not soften the edges of it.
*** Do you find that once they find Jesus they think their life will become normal?
No, becuase the first thing we tell them is, I cannot tell you if you are ever getting out of the woods and I will personally take someone to the woodshed who tells them otherwise. It is real important to say to them, look, I do not know why God has allowed this. I am one who believes God has ordained or allowed everything. So if he has allowed it all I can see is step back and ask what is he trying to get us to learn? How is He using this. This has been true throughout biblical times so why should that change now? Why would God ask me to walk away from a 6-figure income after I had been homeless? I have been at both ends and because he wanted me to know both.
*** So why do those volunteers come who want nothing to do with the homeless?
Guilt. I think often, guilt. The other is, most are people who do not have much themselves, on the verge of homelessness themselves. They really get it. They understand they are a couple of paychecks away.
***They want to help but they do not want to have anything to do with the actual person?
Well, no they do. I’m saying there are 2 different groups. There are those that want nothing to do with homelessness but all of a sudden it is like ‘oh my gosh’ these are just real people with various strugges, but real people. They are really just a reflection of society. It drives me crazy when the news says a homeless guy killed somebody. If he was stockbrocker would you say a stockbrocker killed somebody? No. No, he did not kill somebody because he is homeless. He killed somebody because he is a murderer who happened to live in the woods. that just makes me crazy. So we’ve got the people who you know have a preconcieved idea, a lot of preconcieved ideas and then you have people who are just so close themselves. They have had illness in their family, they have lost jobs, they have seen careers go down the toilet. They have seen all of these things and so I think they are drawn to be a part of the change. If you came in here and see them you go, okay, alright, yeah, I know they are struggling. Those are also the people that are our money people, too. The people who give the most have the least. It is crazy. It is absolutely crazy. I mean we have had some fairly substantial donations. Our largest two donators, one owns 4 McDonalds and the other is homeless. Is this a crazy world we live in? They both gave us 5,000$. ***Tell me the most encouraging story about a specific person.
Probably someone like Kevin C. KC is a war veteran, decorated soldier who could not deal with the world when he came out of it. He basically just became...he did drugs and alcohol, but alcohol became his thing. He basically stayed pretty fickle for abut 40 years. We just loved on him. He was mean and nasty and gruff. He was an SOB most of the time. You know, you sit there and part of you just says, why am I even bothering. As we got to know him and he got to know us and we got to know his story the door opened and God just opened some really neat doors to minister to him and then Frank G. Frank is here every Tuesday now from about 1 to 4 and Frankie has a street ministry and Matthew’s Hope gave him a chance to touch these people at least twice a week every Tuesday and every Saturday night. He is a former alcholic and drug addict and he is not afraid to go anywhere. He is a lot like I am. God placed Frankie here at a critical time because I could not stretch any further. Frankie came to me and I kind of knew him. I had spoken at a men’s recovery group a couple of years earlier, he remembered me and he contacted me and he just wanted to come and I kind of pushed him off a little bit. I said Frankie I want you see what we are doing first. So he came out, he and his wife, Cindy, she is former marine, former alcoholic as well. They are a mess. They are in the process of loosing their own home. He has been very instrumental in helping getting a place with various programs and he kind of took Kevin under his wing, took it a step further and Kevin, he had veteran’s benefits. We were able to help him to get those and get him into a veteran’s program and he is clean now and now he fell off this last week. 100 days and he fell off. He was so ashamed, but you know what, that’s what happens. He made it 100 days. So you got to kind of look at it that way and if you meet him he looks nothing like he did when he started. He could barely walk. Even well after he quit drinking because his system was so screwed up his equilibrium was like all over the place and we had a hard time because of the weakness of his body to get him in various programs. We finally got him into a VA program and now he is getting ready to go into his next step which I think will be another program, disability. He is living in an RV and he’s got his retirement and he came by here the other day and helped build a desk. In fact he stuck his number inside my desk and he said, you know, anytime you need me just call and so we have had some really neat success stories and there are more and but those are some of the coolest. Every week there is a different cool one and it is different levels and now I have even seen some children and women.
*Most discouraging?
One of the most discouraging stories is Diane. Diane was a crack head when we got ahold of her and we got her clean and got her working at McD’s helped her to get a little RV she was renting. Got her away from her homeless husband, not real husband. Got all of her teeth pulled. Her teeth were just rotten from the meth, got her medical and dental care. Got her all cleaned up. Got her a new set of dentures. She realized she really needed to get out of the area to take her life to the next level and so she had a way to go to I think N.C. Got hold of a McD up there, she said I’m a current employee, they would hire her before she ever came up so at least had her job. She gets up there and lasts a month and she shows up back here with the guy again. When she came back we did not fall all over her. We did it on purpose. We would do it again but they have to make that decision. Much like any other alcholic, drug addict, whatever you are dealing with. Homelessness is almost an addiction, it really is in a weird way. Some of this is real heartbreaking, and then when she was leaving she bit the hands off a lot of people that helped her and even the hands of people here. It was hurtful but it was one of those things that there were people who would say, you know, what the hell. I understand why and what we need to do is say, okay God, this is... once again we need to trust in God’s timing and purpose.
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