Homeless Hearts

It has been a very busy, very full, very emotionally draining four days. I don't even know where to start, or how much to actually write. I'll just start and see where I stop.

On Saturday morning the four of us left for our weekend in Houston. The three interns had no idea what to expect, which was probably a good thing in hind sight. Our group met up with another group of interns from the CMS, another non-profit organization that works to help homeless there in Houston. Houston is the forth largest city in the U.S. and is home to the forth largest homeless population with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 homeless people. That is a staggering statistic that breaks my heart.

Our first stop was at The Beacon, an organization that provides meals, showers, laundry, and social services to the homeless. Our task at The Beacon was to help wherever they needed us. A couple girls helped check people in, a couple people deboned chicken, three guys bussed tables, one girl swept, and I passed out sugar, Sweet and Low, and creamer packets. This was possibly the hardest job I have ever had to do, and not just because I wasn't good at following the rule of only giving them one creamer and three sugar or Sweet and Low.

In all my life, I have never had to put a face to homelessness. Saturday in a three hour time block, I saw 700 faces of homelessness.

It was hard, but there was one moment, one smile that made everything okay. There was a family of four that passed through the line. I didn't expect to see children there, which is stupid. But this one little boy looked back at me, and I smiled, he smiled back, big old grin. His face seemed to say, "I get to eat lunch! And thanks for noticing me." Such joy in a smile, it took me off guard and made my heart a little happier.

After we finished at The Beacon and ate some lunch, we took a prayer walk around the neighborhood we stayed in. There was such poverty on those streets, but the two buildings that affected me the most were the Adult Modeling Agency and the Cozy Spa. Don't be fooled by the names --- brothels. There are 27 known brothels in Houston where young girls who have been human trafficked are trapped, brainwashed, and abused. And right across the street was a family having a barbecue in their front yard, kids playing on their bikes. It made my stomach churn. .

Later that night we took a driving tour of Houston, saw the government housing projects where poverty struck people are stuck, saw the home for runaway girls fortunate enough to find safety before human traffickers found them, saw the giant sports stadiums that displaced thousands of homeless people and cost millions of dollars to build, saw the schools with no windows that had unbelievably high dropout rates and burnt out teachers, saw the homeless population trying to get a bed in a shelter or find a place on the sidewalk to sleep -- I saw life, really ugly, hard, unbelievable, true life. And it left me speechless.

That was all in one day. I have never had such a hard day emotionally.

Sunday we were blessed with the chance to attend two vastly different churches. The first was Lord of the Streets, a service specifically for homeless people. There were some very passionate, very loving homeless people there to worship God, and then there were some who came for the breakfast afterwards. The second church was St. John's Downtown, a very exuberant African American church (where Beyonce happened to go when she lived in Houston, where her family still goes). There was yelling, dancing, and singing that filled the room with joy. It was such a drastic difference, but so cool to see both of them.

The sermon at St. John's was to not do too much, to take instructions for today and do them, not worrying about tomorrow. Good lesson for this summer. God knows what we need to hear. That concluded our time in Houston. It was amazing, and we were tired.

Today we have mostly been getting oriented to Mission Waco, getting a tour of Waco. There is so much poverty here. At times it seemed like we were looking at Houston.

This evening the five interns had a very neat experience. We led a devotional time at My Brother's Keeper, the homeless shelter run by Mission Waco. I was a bundle of nerves. But, praise God, it worked out in such an amazing way. We read through Psalm 139, giving them all a lot of opportunities to discuss it with us, share what they got from the reading. There were a lot of really great things brought up, a lot of really amazing people that have had a rough time at it, but a lot of faith in that room.

I've been learning a lot, mostly that people are people. We are more alike than we are different, and it's the things that make us alike that make us connect and love each other.

And God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

So, until next time, connect with someone, take a journey.