Pour House

Last night I got to serve with the Pour House. I have gone out to hand things out to the men on the street quite a few times since I have been home, but I have been lacking direction or better yet, I was just wingin it. I like wingin it, but it was cool to see Andrea direct and interact with the people as she talked to them and made notes or maybe it was emails she was writing on her cell phone? I am grateful Larry connected me with her and Chad. I enjoyed talking with Chad and hearing his story. We had a lot to talk about since our stories are relatively similar and we both like working out. Correction, love working out.

A cool thing happened to me the other day before I went into the gym. I was searching through my bag and I noticed a key with a little white tag on it. We were up in Toronto a little over a week ago and Holy Trinity had a service where people could get a key and write something on it. I got one of the last ones and mine had nothing on it. I had forgotten about it and when I pulled it out a few days ago it said,"Homeless men and women in Cananda and US." I had those goose bumps that us Christians like to call,"Holy Spirit bumps." If there is such a thing? How did that writing get on the tag, for real, who did that? If you did it confess! I just took it as a nudge from God and I was encouraged. I needed encouragement as this season of life has been increasingly challenging and frustrating.

I met a young man who was 26 years old last night. He said hello to me and then mumbled some things to me. I leaned in to better hear him and he mumble some more. I said,"Whats up man, my name is Bryan." He didn't reply, he just looked at me. I was like,"that was strange," and turned away. This happened twice and it was a extremely weird interaction. The guy was talking to me perfectly fine then he went into saying completely off the wall things that I won't repeat. I felt strange and I continued to keep my eye on him, mostly because I was half wondering if he was ok and the other thoughts I was having had to do with wondering if I was losing it myself. I thought my ears were popping and that I was having troubles seeing during the interaction I had with him. It was a strange phenomenon. Well, I sat down and talked to him some more. Chad came up and spoke with him as well. As we asked him some questions about his life it came out that he had schizophrenia and did not have his meds. "Ok," I thought to myself, now this makes sense. I am increasingly becoming aware since being in training school how much I judge people on one interaction or just on how I perceive them. It is so imperative to learn someones story first. Not so you can then judge them, but because after you learn someones story you increasingly relate and grow compassion for the person. It is amazing how much we all have in common as well.

I heard God speak to me about my complaining and ungratefulness as well as I sat and talked to him. He is living out on the streets and his parents wont let him back in the house. He asked me where I lived and I told him that I was staying at my folk's place. He asked me how it was going and as I began to say how it sucks at times, that I was speaking to a man that ached inside because his parent's would not let him stay at their place. His response was what I expected,"I would give anything to stay at my parents place." I knew that was coming. I shook my head and agreement and I recognized with utter quickness how I have no reason to complain.