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Greeting from Capitol Hill, 11/09
A Story From Today’s Network Shift: There are many assorted clients in, having a cup of coffee. We are all visiting. Some people are resting. Some listening to the music. Some are even praying. There is one guy who is preaching. No one is listening to him. It’s not very good news.
My friend “BOB” is here. No one calls him Bob. People love him and make special room for him. He has epilepsy, a great deal of schizophrenic ideation, lots of paranoid suspicions, and a complex kind of turrets that sends him into cursing “spells” that could take the skin off a buffalo. He has fallen down so many times that he has other physical limitations. He is also a chronic pain victim.
Last winter he went out walking on one of those horribly cold nights. The police found him out wandering and brought him back home. (He lived at that time in subsidized housing.) He just couldn’t stay indoors and had to go back out onto the streets. He was found again and returned home. On his third trip out into the merciless night, he had a seizure in a place that was out of the public view. By the time that he was “found,” his fingers had the black appearance of frostbite.
In the coming months, he would loose all the fingers on one hand. He would in subsequent procedures lose most of the other hand. Pain and agony are his constant companions.
We have a volunteer that comes all the way from Elizabeth, CO. Her name is Marilyn. She comes every week to enter into the fray for an hour. She prays. She serves. She visits. She wants to knit mittens for folks as it gets cold.
She asked me if I would lend her a ruler so that she could measure what’s left of Bob’s hands. She wanted to make him a pair of custom gloves. Sarah, one of the other Network staff who spends a ton of time caring for Bob, thought of a better idea. They carefully drew an outline of the shape of his hands. Marilyn showed me the paper, folded it up and took it home.
Wow! Whatever you do to the least of these! Way to be, Marilyn. Good thinking, Sarah!
Am I in the presence of tragedy or Christ himself?
With Tons of Thanksgiving,
Under the Mercy,
John
Greetings from Capitol Hill, 8/09
I’ve been pondering the words of Jesus; “I tell you the solemn truth, before there was an Abraham, I AM!” Jesus lived with the awareness that he preexisted Christmas. Jesus is always present, through the ministry of His Spirit.
Network tries to communicate some of the presence of Christ. We do a poor shadowy job of this. But, one of the main tools in our tool box is listening to the stories. We collect them. We hold them. We have piles of them. And we call it love.
So. A story. Michael had been living on a shelf above the aquarium, by the gazebo. He was homeless for the better part of 6 years. Just before Easter, we had a bad stretch of wet snow. Michael was drying out his camp on Easter Sunday. He was reading a book.
A moment later Michael awakened in a hospital room. He freaked out and pulled out all the tubes that seemed to hold him. He read his chart that listed him as a John Doe with trauma. He hurt from head to toe. He had funny marks on his chest. He found a set of scrubs w a pair of paper booties to fill out the ensemble, and fled the scene. When the cold air hit his face, some sense started to emerge. He felt the stitched up wound on the back of his head. He saw a friend that told him that it was now Monday 4pm. Wow, a missing day! Head for Network!
A week later, Michael was walking by the Capitol, when one of Denver’s finest called out to him. “Hey, have you been admitted to the hospital as of late?” That’s when Michael found out the rest of the story. The cop, John, had found him naked, lying on the ground, bleeding. He was “dead” enough that John used his emergency defibrillator to shock him back to life. In that startled half awareness, Michael slugged John, but all is forgiven for those brought back from the dead. In fact they have been out to dinner several times.
Apparently someone had hit Michael over the head, stealing his Carhartt coveralls, Columbia jacket and warm down bag. They also took his bike and the brand new boots that we had just given him. They had left him for dead in the cold.
This story is outstanding because Michael became our new caretaker. We’re so glad he came back from the dead. He is trustworthy and a hard worker.
Thanks for all your prayers. Thanks for all of your financial support. Thanks for listening to our words. Thanks for holding our story. It feels like love.
Under the Mercy,
John |
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