Tear Down The Walls MinistriesReaching Out To Those In Need & Sharing The Love Of Jesus Christ…

I really love hangin’ out with the young chicks! Erica, Jena and I hung out together doing what we love to do, find people that aren’t looking for us, to share some love with. We had fresh vegetable beef soup, chicken sandwiches, brownies and chips donated from Chic Filet. It was cold, so the hot soup hit the spot. We found ourselves at our regular camps visiting friends we love to spend time just talking and sharing ‘life stuff’ with, while also meeting several new people. It’s so great to meet people that right away, get you and get why you are there. Everyone was grateful to recieve food from us and even though it was very cold out, they stuck around to talk for awhile to get to know us. At Davidson Street, we arrived to find three police cars there under the bridge. We stayed back for a minute to allow them to do whatever it was they came there to do and to not get in their way. Turned out they had received a 911 call from the bridge, someone needed help. I approached the officers as they were leaving and thanked them for looking out after our friends. Not even one of them acknowledged my comment or even my presence. That’s okay, they came when called and did their job.

We visited Jim. Our friend with Parkinson’s. It will be March 28th before he sees his first disability check. He has very little money coming in and that has to go towards keeping his apartment and the electricity on. We provided some food items so that he will have some food to eat. We also brought him some detergent to wash up his clothing. Jim is so humble, I see he is taking a hit to his pride by accepting these things from us. I told him tonight that we want to help in through this tough period and when his gets on his feet, it would please us to see him do the same for someone else in his shoes. Pay it forward!

Several weeks ago on a Saturday night, in an alley between Delaware and Pennsylvania Streets, we found Steve McGuyer. It was -1 degrees and snowing. We found him layered up in several blankets, with the top layer being a couple inches of snow. Looking around where he layed we could see where several outreach workers had dropped off food and provisions for him. Tom Travis and I began pushing the snow off of him only to find the top several blankets to be wet and frozen together. We pulled the frozen layers off and replaced them with clean, dry ones. It was quite obvious that he had not moved from that spot in days. We gave him a pillow for his head and spoke briefly with him. As we often find, he did not want to go to the shelter. We left him, we had no choice. This is when it’s so difficult to walk away. Tom and I both believe that we just may have saved a life that night. Where I am going with this, is this. Several times we returned to see Steve and he was gone. I just hoped that someone had convinced him to go to the shelter. I wondered if I would ever run into him again.~ It’s been several weeks, there are a coulple hundred people living on the streets in Indy right now, and this is a big city. During outreach on Wednesday evening we had decided to walk downtown and serve those we would be fortunate to find. We walked several hours, and it was cold! We walked into a stairwell that is above the street level, however it is attached to the under ground parking garage just north of the Greyhound bus terminal. As soon as we walked in, there in the corner stood Steve Mcguyer. I was so happy to see him. I recognized him by his beard! I was thankful to Jesus for giving me an answer on Steve’s whereabouts.
We left him with food and blankets and told him we would see him again for a return visit on Saturday.

Tonight, we arrived to find him laying on the cold cement. We asked him about the blankets we had given him a few day ago. He explained they were stolen. Starting all over again, we provided a couple of blankets and loaded him up with several cups of soup, lots of saltine crackers, and water bottles. I’m not convinced he had even eaten today. We told him we would return on Wednesday. We prayed together and I told him I loved him, and that Jesus loves him. As I walked away, I felt so heartbroken for this man. I hope I get the opportunity to spend time getting to know Steve. Everyone has a story. I pray for a chance to help him find his way to a better place.

As we drove and walked downtown tonight, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Many of them may recall being loved, maybe many will remember having never felt loved. Were there once spouses, children, friends that loved them? Of course. Many may not even know tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. My prayer is that they feel and know that the greatest love they will ever know is Christ’s love for them. And they didn’t have to do a thing to earn it.

[Kimberly -- TDWM]

Every trip down East Washington Street, still has me looking at the place where Wilda sat, selling her trinkets and goods to earn a little cash for the day. I met her in the spring of 2009, the woman sitting on the hot pavement, waiting for a customer or even just a friend to have a conversation with. From the time I met her I felt like she already knew me. She never hesitated to share a huge smile, when clearly, many days she had little to smile about. Oh, but wait! If Wilda heard me say that she would say, “Are you kidding, I have Jesus!” ~ I would find her sitting in her usual spot, just west of Temple on E Washington. Perched in the center of her possessions for sale. She was so proud of her hand knitted baby blankets, pot holders, and other items most of us would have taken to Good Will or thrown in a garage sale, or possibly in the trash. These things were precious and meant everything to her. Outside of a few clothing items, it was all she owned. Wilda would sit out on the sidewalk and the ground, from very early in the morning until the sun would set. I never saw her without her bible! She would pass the time by writing in journals, interpreting scriptures and creating poetry. The last time I saw her she was on her 7th journal. She would make up crossword puzzles related to the bible. Her skin was dark and weathered from long days sitting in the hot summer sun, and years of being on the streets. But her attitude and love for her God was like a beaming ray of sunshine. I never saw her as anything but grateful, appreciative to see outreach volunteers and talk with friends that would stop by to see her. It was evident that her peers thought the world of her and looked up to her. I witnessed this on several occasions and wondered just how a person in her situation could be so happy. After getting to know her for several months, it was clear to me. It was her relationship with Jesus Christ. Wow! If I could just see my world through Wilda’s eyes. I admit, many times I left her feeling not very good about my own thoughts. I felt selfish and guilty. She changed my pattern of thinking many times!

Lewis was her ‘husband’, not legally married but she was committed to him and loved him very much. Sadly enough, Wilda was completely in his control. It was difficult for me to understand how a woman with such strength and faith could allow herself to be manipulated and taken advantage of as she was by Lewis. We learned that she received a monthly disability check of more that $650, that would have provided for decent housing, food and living expenses. Wilda would never see that check spend for those purposes, it was drug money to support Lewis’ drug habit. After 12 plus hours each day selling her goods in the hot sun, she would return ‘home’ to the front porch of an abandoned house just a block away. So much uncertainty in her life, but she had the love of Christ in her heart and I guess that was enough for her. One day last summer, Wilda disappeared. To my knowledge, noone has seen or heard from her. She had many people in the outreach community that loved her and we all pray and believe that she is simply in a better place. She is a beautiful person. She touched my life in a way I will not forget.

In my outreach journey I have met many people that share their story and my heart tells me to question why they are where they are, why they chose this life, how could things fall apart so badly to the point of homelessness. I wonder why noone was there to catch them as they were falling. Why? In the beginning of my journey, many nights on my way home from outreach I would cry for them. Did anyone cry for them? It is by God’s grace that through Him and my spiritual mentors, Brian, Derek and Laura , Rick, Tom and Ricky, I have learned to put my faith before my flesh and lean on Jesus for the strength that I need to do this work Jesus has entrusted me with. The answer is serenity.

We were blessed by a copy of Wilda’s poems. This is one of several of her poems. This one is just my favorite.

Those Who Are Born Again

When you face life’s difficulties, go to God your father in prayer.
While your are living and before you pass,
Make sure your sins are covered by Christ’s shed blood.
You need not die in your sins,
Christ paid the price for your soul’s salvation instead.
You never need to fear what man can do to you,
Rather reference God to the highest degree you can.
Always acknowledge God in all your ways.
He will direct your path.
And when you get to heaven,
You will not be put to shame!
There are victories throughout this life
In Jesus Christ our savior,
For those who are born again.

Wilda Bivins Miller
July 24, 2008

I finally got to have a conversation with Jacob…well, as close as we’re going to get to a conversation for now. I talked, he wrote.

The first thing he wrote was this…

His name is NOT Jacob! What! He didn’t seem to know how “Jacob” got started, but he was just rollin’ with it. Haha.

I went out to eat with some friends the other night and had some wings left over. I figured I’d stop and drop them off to a friend. Jacob…I mean, Jude…was sitting up, which is rare, so I hopped out and asked if he wanted them. Usually he will give you that big smile, shake his head, and lay back down…but not this time, so I asked him if he wanted to talk for a minute. I ran and grabbed my journal out of my car and he didn’t hesitate at all to write down “Jude Lopez”. I apologized over and over for calling him Jacob all this time, but he didn’t seem to mind, just tried to laugh.

I finally feel like I got to know a little bit of his story and a little bit about who he was. He’s 28 and from Fort Worth, TX. He has a 2 year old daughter here in Indianapolis, but doesn’t speak to her or her mother, which stinks. We talked about the track in Dallas/Fort Worth, faith, what I do with TDWM, our parents, the newspaper, our nicknames, experiences in the shelter, plans for the future, dogs, and tons of other stuff. Finally I asked what I’d been wondering the whole time…what happened to his voice? About 3 months ago he got knocked out in a fight and ever since then it has hurt too much for him to speak. He kept clearing his throat and I was like…ohh, is he going to say something? But he didn’t. He said he did go to the doctor, but didn’t say much more, so I guess I still don’t know exactly what is wrong.

Right now, Jude says he is happy with where he is. He doesn’t want to go into a shelter and he doesn’t want to look for a job…and with his situation, I can understand that. But, either way, I’m still going to continue to love on him and get to know him. He really is a sweet guy…and I just can’t get enough of his big smile!

[Jena -- TDWM]

“I found the big one and the little nine!”

 As frustrating as my adventures in urban youth ministry are, there are just those moments that make every bit of craziness more than worth it.

 After Christmas break, I took a whole new approach to The Surf…which is our 1st-6th grade group. I guess my new approach could be called…organization.

 Part of that organization is keeping some consistency in the evening. So, something we do each week now is look up 3 or 4 verses that go with our lesson. A few of the kids have a basic understanding of the Bible, but for most of the kids it’s the first time they’ve ever looked up a specific verse or maybe even the first time they’ve opened a Bible.

One of our little boys, who is probably in 1st or 2nd grade, is incredibly hyper…and I’m not exagetaing anything, at all. He would run around and do back flips all night if we would let him. The last couple weeks I’ve spent a lot of time helping him look up our verses, but it’s a bit of a challenge to keep his attention. This week I helped him with the first two verses and tried to pick out the important parts for him to write down…he doesn’t like writing at all; I guess it’s too much like school.

I walked away to check on some of the other kids and then made my way back to Rahiem to see him underlining something in his Bible. I asked him what he was doing and he said…”I found the big one and the little nine!” That’s exactly how I’ve been explaining it to him over and over…find the big ‘whatever number’ and then find the little ‘whatever number’! My heart just melted. Even though he was underlining Ephesians 1:9, and not 1 John 1:9, which was the verse we were on. But hey, he got the big one and little nine part right and that is good enough for me.

I think it only took about ten minutes until I had to yell at little Rahiem to get off the pool table and stop doing back flips, but that’s okay. It’s nothing new. I’m just so thankful for that little bit of encouragement and joy God blessed me with…it was perfect timing.

[Jena -- TDWM]

I wrote a little bit about my friend Bob not too long ago…and now I want to share with you a gift he recently blessed me with.I was visiting with him last week and he told me he has something for me. He pulled out this 8×10 photo and told me that some guy came under the bridge asking to take pictures…I wish I knew who this guy was. I’d love to give him credit for his photo, but I’d REALLY love to thank him for being so sweet to my friend. Bob told me the guy stayed and talked to him for a couple hours and brought him donuts. When Bob handed me this photo I was so excited that he wanted ME to have it…it was the only copy he had! I asked him over and over again if he was sure, and he promised he was. He told me he wanted me to have something to remember him by.

As if I’d forget him…we’ve had some good conversations…and LOTS of good jokes. Hey, I bet if you ever meet Bob and mention me, he’ll tell you about the “horrible” book I brought him to read! I’ll admit I’d only read the first couple of chapters, but it seemed like an interesting book…Riding Toward Everywhere…it was a book about a guy who rode the rails, just a snapshot of his story. Well, turns out he was a bit of a “wild” guy…Bob couldn’t believe that I would give him a book that talked about prostitutes and used the ‘f’-word. Ooops! Haha, but we joke about it almost every time I see him.

[Jena -- TDWM]

As I look back and reflect on how I feel about my time spent serving the homeless with TDTW in Indianapolis, I don’t hesitate to admit that this is where I know Jesus wants me to serve Him. I have felt as though He wants me to explore other entities of this work, so I am praying for clarity. Having patience has always been a personal struggle for me. Yet, I have grown in that department over the last year! The homeless individuals that I have been so blessed to spend time with, have taught me a lot about being patient. That’s a whole different note, what they have taught me.

I hadn’t been out on the streets or visited any of our homeless camps in about 1 1/2 weeks, so needless to say, I was looking forward to catching up with many of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. We started out at about 7:30 with Brian, Jena, Erica, Bonnie, Jon and myself. We also were being shadowed by another outreach ministry called ‘Meet Me Under The Bridge’. I had never met Kim or Marsha before so I enjoyed spending time with them. As always, I learned a few things from them. The greatest thing we have in common with other outreach teams is the way we love the homeless. It’s really amazing! It’s personal, it’s about Jesus.

Our plan was to make a quick visit to Davidson Street bridge and drop off some packaged meals and cold weather items if they were needed. Then we were going to do street outreach downtown. Before we arrived at Davidson Street we believed there may be about 5 people residing there. Since the fire, and the clearing of the bridge several weeks ago, that is all the people that we have been serving at this camp. Surprisingly, as we arrived, we were greeted by at least 20! There were a few of our friends that have never left the bridge, Scott, Mike, Eric, James, Melissa, and several others. Scott referred to himself last night as a ’staple’ under this bridge! Meaning, this is his home and he will stay no matter what. I have been concerned about Scott for a few months. This night I found him to be in good spirits, grateful for the warmer weather. It was good to see him laughing. He continues to heal from third degree burns, and he has been visiting a friend lately that has allowed him to rest, shower and gain strength. For the first time I was able to have a lengthy conversation with one of our friends that I have not had the opportunity to really get to know. Skinner. A veteran. He is a man very warn and tattered looking, from his life on the streets and his alcohol addiction. He recently had been involved in a detox and recovery program and just didn’t make it through. Now back on the streets and has fallen back into the arms of his addiction. He is a mouthwash drinker. Common with many homeless alcoholics. Much cheaper, and much more toxic, but it has a hold on him. We did get to talk a little, he and I. Kathy, another outreach friend has been serving him for a long time, and he really loves her. He talked about her a lot! He told me several times that he was going to die and he didn’t want Kathy to find him under the bridge. I reassured him, that he can get out from under this bridge and change his life, but he had to want to live more than he wanted to get high. I also told him he needs to trust Jesus. He repeatedly told me he was going to die. I hope he and I can get to know each other better and maybe I can be just one more friend to offer hope and strength to him. Maybe next time.
There were many new faces, with stories that I was unable to hear on this night, so I will hopefully catch them the next time and try to begin building a friendship and trust if they are interested in doing so.

I have had two very disturbing dreams regarding the Pine Street bridge. It has become a place I no longer feel safe or comfortable visiting. There are only a few people left living there now. I have two friends that live there and I have had a wonderful relationship with both of them. Tammy and Michael. They no longer seem to want me to visit, I feel that they feel threatened by me now. I had seen so much improvement in Tammy. When I first met her, she barely could look me in the eye. She is a woman that has very low self-worth. Over the past five months or so, she had a more positive demeanor and talked about seeing her daughters and getting out of her homeless situation. She talked about rehab often. For whatever reason, she has regressed. The last couple visits I have made to the bridge, she hasn’t come out from behind her tarped off area to see me. I will continue to pray for her safety and that she will allow me to talk with her soon with God’s grace gently hovering.

Brian had worked all day at the new ministry building in the Riverside neighborhood. He was attempting to do outreach with us! He had to call it quits around 8:45! Crazy night do walk the streets of Indy serving our homeless friends while there is a NFL playoff game the next day! There were thousands of people out on the town. People were clearly excited about the game on Sunday! As always, we have a great time together. We met several new friends. Kelly, pan handling, sitting on the sidewalk on a crate. I have thought about her huge smile and great attitude all day. She was very sweet. I asked her where she sleeps at night. She answered “Wherever”. Many times they don’t want others to know where they are. They often don’t want attention drawn to that location. I asked her about all the people downtown, was she making any money? Were people acknowledging her presence? Smiling and jovial, she said, “Everybody’s been great!” I wanted to stay and chat with her longer but it was cold and getting late.~~ As we were talking with a couple of homeless men, two young ladies stopped and asked our friends if they would like to have their leftovers from dinner. James and Parris gladly accepted and thanked them, and I did as well. I so love to witness that kind of reaching out. They wanted to be involved and all they had to give was kind words and a meal, and that was more than enough.~~ And there was Gary, sitting on the pavement. When I first approached and got down on my knees, I realized he really didn’t want me that close! I backed up a tiny bit and told him my name. He gave me an awkward glance and asked me, “Do I know you?” I smiled. We offered him a meal and we chatted for a while. He offered a little about himself and sadly,a couple times he apologized to me for being homeless. As if I were judging him. That really bothered me. Few people chose to live this way. I wanted to get to know him. I wanted to hear his story.~~ Billy Ray, he was sitting in a wheelchair holding a cup with only a few coins in it. Collecting co-pay money for his medications. waiting for his disability to be approved. He asked me to feel his leg, it was firm and he had obvious bad circulation. He carried a small, dirty bag for his medications. There were five, at least one was completely empty. His co-pay is only $3.65 cents for each of his medicines. He acknowledged that $3.65 cents isn’t much, but he said “It’s alot when you don’t have anything.” There have been times where I have had to hold back my tears, this was certainly one of those times.

As I drove home, I continued to think about our homeless friends, the ones typically sitting on the corner or occupying a 3 by 3 ft section of sidewalk beside the street. As I though about all those people visiting downtown last night, doing the bar hopping and hanging out with there friends. I wondered just how many of them were effected by the sight of a person sitting on the ground, begging for money, or sleeping on cardboard, or maybe they saw my wonderful friend Bruce, standing up inside a sleeping bag leaning against his bicycle. It just effects you.

As I was reading my bible Sunday morning, what came to me was this. I know that faith opens our eyes to a different kind of awareness of the life around us. Faith enables us to see things the way Jesus would see things. So seeing doesn’t make you believe. Believing makes you see.

The peace that I have been searching for comes from not knowing the end or the outcome or even the answers to all of their problems and the circumstances which I find them in. It is faith in my walk with Him as I serve. He will place the right words on my lips. He will provide the strength I need. Knowing I’m never walking alone.

[Kimberly -- TDWM]

As I walked under the Pennsylvania Street bridge tonight I started quickly scanning either side, looking for friends among the heaps of clothes and blankets and piles of empty to-go boxes and scattered pieces of trash. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if what I’m seeing is a person crouched over under a mountain of blankets or just a conglomeration of mere “stuff”.

The first person I spotted was, Bob. I’ve known Bob for a couple months now…and as far as I can tell, the farthest he’s moved these past couple months has been from the one side of the bridge to the other. He sits in his spot all day, everyday…reading. I still remember our first conversation. He had recently lost his home and had been walking back and forth from Greenwood to Indianapolis every day. That night was going to be the first night he would actually sleep on the streets, before he had been staying in “his” house…until the bank finally locked it up. He wasn’t interested in going into a shelter, as much as I insisted he should give it a try, he just wasn’t going to go. We talked for a while about his life and family and him being a veteran…then we started talk about what I was doing on the streets. I always hear, “What church are you with?” I started explaining who I was and what I do which naturally led me down a perfect avenue to ask him about his faith.

Bob told me he grew up in church, but when he was 13 he walked away from it all. He started to shut the conversation down, so I switched topics and continued talking with him for a few more minutes. When I saw everyone hopping back in the cars, I figured it was time to wrap things up. I asked Bob if I could pray with him…which, if you know me, would totally push me out of my “comfort zone”. I just really felt like I needed to ask him though. He ended up telling me no. Told me he thought “Someone else could use it more…” and that “All stuff wasn’t really for him…”

Tonight Bob was out of books. I took him four books a couple weeks ago and he’s read them three times already. I keep promising him some Frank Peretti books, because he loves the Sci-Fi/Thriller type stuff…just haven’t been able to snag any of those yet. Jokingly, I told him I had a Bible in my bag that he was welcome to. There we go, open door. He starts telling me about his Catholic cousin and gay evangelical brother and how the red letters in the Bible really irk him. Here’s the problem, according to Bob…How could it even be possible for someone to quote everything Jesus said word-for-word. I’m not sure where he came up with some of the timelines and statistics about literacy back in Jesus’ day, but he was sure that it was impossible for those to be Jesus’ exact words. The only explanation he would somewhat agree with me on was the fact that the overall ideas in Jesus’ teachings are way more important than whether or not his words were written down verbatim. And I’ll take that…I will take his half-satisfied, almost-agreement.

Wait now, here is the kicker. The man who told me two months ago that all this stuff really wasn’t for him, tells me that us doing what we do and coming out every week has made him think that “…maybe we’re right…” And you know, that may not seem like anything huge, but it sure brought a smile to my heart.

My prayer for now is that Bob would continue to ask questions and seek God…and maybe even let us pray with him soon.

P.S. If anyone has any good books I could pass along to Bob, that would be awesome! And if you’d like to come with me to deliver them and meet my friend, that would be even better!

[Jena -- TDWM]

Mickey ended up back in the hospital a couple weeks ago after feeling like he was having yet ANOTHER heart attack! Come to find out, he may have even had another small stroke…the doctors weren’t ruling that out.

But, that’s not all…they found a growth on his spine that has affected feeling in his feet and may have something to do with him losing almost 100 pounds this past year and not being able to keep food down from time to time. He also has a rare strand of TB and is the 9th person in Indianapolis to have contracted it. He is being treated for it, but visitors sill have to wear those pretty “duck masks”.

He will be having surgery in a month to try and deal with the growth on his spine. And there are talks of him being placed in some sort of housing so that his health can continue to be monitored. That would be a blessing in itself.

As unpleasant as his situation sounds, Mickey is such a happy soul. He lifts my spirits EVERY time I get to hear him talk or just see his smile. I feel like I could just sit and listen to him all day…like a little kid with their grandpa! He has some really neat stories about his life and family and careers and is so knowledgeable about the Bible. Mickey is much more of a blessing in my life than I could ever be in his…and I’m willing to be that a lot of other people who know him feel something similar!

~Because of several commitments during the holidays, I was unable to do outreach for almost two weeks. I was looking forward to catching up with some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. Being so cold, I prepared several gallons of potatoe cheddar soup to take out and serve. It is safe for me to make soup when Plainfield UMC isn’t out because Phil’s soup kicks my butt every time!! I don’t claim to be a great cook, Jesus must think I am ’cause he continues to drive my heart to do it! Our outreach team has a ‘normal’ routine that we kinda fell into over the last several months in terms of what bridge we go to first to meet up with our friends, and as always, we hit Davidson Street first. In the warmer months we may see up to 50 people there at this one location. Last night, maybe 15 were residing there, however only about 6 came out to greet us and share a cup of hot soup. Scott, Eric and Mike are some of our closest friends and they were there, and a couple guys we were not familiar with. Most everyone else was possibly in the overflow shelters or bunked up some place out of the freezing temperatures. I was so grateful to see them, and likewise!

Our conversation always seems to pick up just where it left off. The one thing that I so love about these people is there concern for us, our lives, our families, our ‘real’ jobs, and our problems. It’s amazing how our issues are even in the forefront of their thoughts, but they seem to have room in their hearts to want to share in our ’stuff’ as we do theirs. I consider many of my homeless friends to be my dearest friends. I can share my faith and understanding with some of them better than many of my friends and family. There seems to be little or no vulnerability that exists with us. I am a ’say what you need to say’ kind of person. I make no excuses for where they are. I don’t sugar coat what I see to be wrong or unacceptable in the place they are. They know that I will speak with love and that isn’t always easy for them to hear, but they listen anyway. There are times when laughter turns to tears and many times with tears turn into laughter. Scott just lost his sister to cancer, and he is greiving huge right now. He and I are not sharing a lot of serious discussions about his life right now, we have, but for now we just spend friend time together. He cries, I hug. That is okay. His destroyer is alcohol. I pray that this will be the year he chooses to deal with it. I want to be there for him.

Micky was asleep when we arrived at the bridge, so I didn’t want to wake him. Micky is dying, so selfishly I wanted to talk with him, but it was so cold, I let him sleep. I pray each time that I visit that I will be blessed one more time, and he will still be there. I have accepted that there will come a time that I will arrive to hear that he is gone. I’m the one with all the sadness, because Micky is so at peace with his condition. He looked at me the last time we were together, took my hand in his and told me to not be sad. He expressed that he is ready to go to heaven and spend eternity with Carol, his wife, and with his ‘Dad’. That is how he sees Christ. He is so full of joy. It’s so wonderful. I’m still praying for the beautiful white grand piano waiting for him in heaven!

Last night Jena and I decided to drive around in the downtown area after visiting some of our usual camps. We hoped that we would be able to get a few people off the street and into shelters. We did meet up with some of our friends and shared soup and visited for a while. There were two homeless individuals who desired to get into a shelter, but because they have no identification, they will not be accepted. Sad but true. We were able to give him a warmer blanket, but had to leave him where we found him. We also found Bruce, stubborn but kind! He has identification and chooses to stay out in the cold and sleep standing up, leaning over his bicycle! It took me several months to get him to talk with me, now we are friends. Tough on the outside, but a beautiful soul is what I have found.

From Pennsylvania Street underpass we went directly to Monument Circle. Our ministry isn’t allowed to feed the homeless at any city park or monument area. We have been denied a permit by the city of Indianapolis. Stupid, I know! Anyway, our goal was to find anyone needing shelter or food, which ever we found we would do our best to help.( I haven’t been to jail yet). As we were serving some of our friends, I noticed a woman who was carrying a large duffle bag, almost larger than herself, struggling to walk. I approached her and she literally fell to her knees. She was in tremendous pain and it was difficult to understand her. I knew she needed to get to the hospital. We loaded her up and took her to Wishard. We were fortunate to get her registered and seen my a few doctors fairly quickly. She had been released on Christmas day for what was to be a return visit for the same condition. Jesus never fails to place us where we are needed. Love that! It turned out to be her birthday, she turned 34 and her name is Mary. I’m sure I will see her again.

[Kimberly -- TDWM]

I received a startling text message this morning from my friend Kim telling me that she had just received a starling e-mail saying there were emergency vehicles at Davidson Street — one of the bigger homeless camps in our city. We have a number of friends living under that bridge, so we were obviously concerned. I went out and drove under the bridge to find…NOTHING! Everything was gone, it was bare…I’d never seen it so empty! Where was everyone? What happened!

I saw my friend Darvin moving his stuff back to his spot and asked him what was going on? Apparently a tent had somehow caught on fire and the city felt the need to extinguish more than the burning tent. The whole bridge…cleared out…the entire thing! Really! You’re going to take people’s tents, blankets, clothes, water…EVERYTHING! And do it when it’s below freezing outside…

If you watch the clip from 6News & TheIndyChannel.com you can see them carrying it all off. My favorite part is the man on probation, doing this community service and trowing away everything these people have, “I gotta ask forgiveness for doin this. This ain’t right…” Oh, wait, no…an even better part is Mayor Ballard’s feelings of frustration “with groups who make life on the streets possible”. Hmm. Guilty. I mean, I’d rather make LIFE on the streets possible, instead of making DEATH on the streets a reality.

But there is really no point in bashing the government or our politicians, it is what it is. And I will continue to do what I feel is right and I will continue to go where the Lord leads. I’m sorry, but I won’t quit loving people because someone else doesn’t think I’m going about it in the right way. That’s just not going to happen. If someone is hungry or thirsty or cold or sad or mad or whatever…I am going to give them food or water or a blanket or shoulder on which to cry. It’s that simple. When God breaks your heart for something or someone, there is just no escaping it.

Tonight Curly, Birdman, and myself went out with One Body Ministries to check up on some of our friends…especially those at Davidson Street. It was pretty bare at the bridge. We gave out some blankets and bottled water to a few guys. Mike and Carlton were awake, so I was able to chat with them for a little while. A couple other outreach teams had already been out and brought big pieces of cardboard and Visqueen to help block the wind and elements. I’m not sure where everyone took off to, but I hope we can find most of them tomorrow night.

I also got word that Micky was taken to the hospital on Sunday. I am going to do some checking around tomorrow and see what I can’t find out. Please keep Micky in your prayers. His health seems to be going downhill and I just don’t know that his body can take an entire winter on the streets. As far as I know, he has no intention of going in off the streets this winter.

I don’t know what is going to happen at Davidson Street this winter, but I know I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure the next time the news crews make a visit down there it isn’t to report a story about one of MY FRIENDS who has frozen to death!

[Jena -- TDWM]