Back in 2001, still the early days of Church on the Street, the alumni magazine for my undergrad alma mater, Anderson University, decided to do a feature article on me and my work with the homeless. (You can read that article here http://www.anderson.edu/signatures/fall01/article.html) The cover of the magazine featured me with one of the guys I spent a significant amount of time with, William. William is a great guy, friendly, helpful, fun to be around and he has the best smile. But being uneducated, from an extremely poor background with a broken family, he just couldn’t get over the hump and get off of the streets. There are things that some of us take for granted and find simple, where to others they seem out of reach and complex. When you come into this world with the deck already stacked against you, then everything seems a little more difficult. When you have no family, no resources, no mentors and few who care, then everything is more difficult; sometimes hopeless. This is William. But despite his difficulties, he is always upbeat.

It has been years since I have seen William. I had no idea where he went or what happened to him, I only knew that he wasn’t around. I had several hypotheses: he was older, so maybe the tough life on the streets had gotten the better of him; he had moved on to another shelter in the city or some other town; or in my better moments, that he had found a way off of the streets.

I was out on my parish walk the other day when, wouldn’t you know it, there was William. When I saw him up the sidewalk a ways I was initially glad to see him, but that quickly turned to disappointment. It couldn’t be very good news since I was seeing him where I was seeing him. I approached William and said, “Hey William, it’s great to see you.” After some chit-chat I said to him, “Please tell me you aren’t living down here again.” He said to me, “No, no! I just come down here every once in a while to play cards with some of the men living in the shelter, give them a friend to talk to and to talk with them about never giving up hope like you do. I have my own apartment now. I’ve had it for several years. I just want to give back to the community that I came from.” After being shamed out of my disappointment we continued to talk awhile and reminisce about old times and sharing a magazine cover together. (He insisted back when the magazine came out that I get him several copies.) We hugged and said we hoped to see each other again on his next visit to the streets.

I love to hang out with my friends on the street. But I must admit that my heart warms a bit when I can hang out with my friends who used to be on the street.

While I’m writing to you I might as well give you an update on Donnie. If you remember, Donnie is a homeless, crack addict that students from the Liberty Christian School mission team befriended that I had previously written about. After spending time with the students he was so moved by their love for him that he asked if we could get him into a rehab. Pastor Joe was quick to oblige and helped to get him into St. Jude’s. Any of you who know much about addicts know that they don’t often follow through. Well, Donnie did. He called Pastor Joe this week to tell him that he is half way through his in-patient treatment and is feeling like a new man. He wanted to thank him and the students that took the time to get to know him and to treat him like a human being, rather than to talk down to him and treat him like a project as so many others had done before. I also want to extend my gratitude to those students for their service with us and to Donnie, and to remind them that they have neighbors back home who need their love and attention as much as Donnie.

Please continue to pray for Donnie as he still has a tough road ahead of him.

With a warmed heart,
Pastor Andy