Grace.

this is just a little blog i wrote after spending a night working at the Grace Cafe back in the winter of 2006.


Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Grace.

Over the weekend, I had the humbling experience of working at a newly set-up "night-time drop-in center" for the homeless in our city.
It is simply a place for homeless folks who are, for one reason or another, not ready to come into shelter. It is a place only open during the winter months and it serves as a safe haven for folks to come in and get warm.
Needless to say, these folks may not the be most stable of individuals. These are people who are newly-homeless and may not be aware of or ready to accept the services that are available to them, or they are homeless "old-timers," who may still be too mentally unhealthy to accept treatment and services.
The other night was a "Code Blue" and there were nearly 100 people that had either passed through for some warmth or found a place to lie down on the floor amongst a room of crowded people in an attempt to sleep somewhere "safe and warm" for the few hours a night the place is open.
I encountered many people that night. Some who wanted to talk to me all night and others who didn't want to even look at me, let alone say one word.
Most times, in my regular day job, it's easy to pass through the day and not take one thing out of it to make it all worth while. Some days, it's just a job. I work with people who were formerly homeless, and most likely have come from similar life situations as those I encountered at the safe haven. Too many details (some necessary details) get in the way. The people with whom I am very close to these days have some understanding of my struggles - both personally and professionally.
As part of my ongoing life lesson of taking things along with me and letting go, this experience comes to mind.
After a long needed retreat that I took with my coworkers, I had learned that the phrase, "Be not afraid" is written in the Bible 365 times. There are 365 days in a year.
When closing up the safe haven on Sunday morning, was when I witnessed first hand, a huge group of people that really didn't have a plan of where they could go next. It was breakfast time, and they didn't even know what they were going to eat or where they were going to find food. Luckily, a few of the folks knew about a church that distributes breakfast to the homeless on Sunday mornings and they happily spread the word. A few others approached me and asked, "Where should I go? Where can I go?"
Of course, I refered them to Outreach. I grabbed some pieces of paper and a pen and began to write down the address and the phone number for Project H.O.M.E. And that was when one woman approached me again. She handed me the small piece of paper that I had just written some information on for her and turned it over. Printed on the back was a prompt to write your own prayer for the day.
"Write a prayer for me today," she says to me.
"Write a prayer for you today?" I respond.
"Yes ma'am. Write a prayer for me to have with me today. Write something about being scared."
I was caught offguard. With my experience as a social worker, I realize that this is one of those "ethical conflicts" that we are suppose to redirect clients back to setting their own goals as per their own beliefs.
But I was moved. I took the pen and wrote on her paper.
I wrote, "Be not afraid."
I shared with her what I learned. She smiled.
I think that's just what we both needed right then and there.