OC Reach Out

7.22.10

2010-07-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Ways to help displaced Tent City residents
July 22, 2010 by Amos House Community

We recently set up a “Care Calendar” for volunteers to sign up to help some of the displaced Tent City residents who are living at Hobson United Methodist’s parsonage in East Nashville.

We currently need volunteers who are willing to stay overnight with us at the parsonage as “Inn Keepers” each day from now until the end of August, provide dinner for about 20 people, and/or help to transport residents to appointments, especially in the morning hours. Being an Inn Keeper involves getting to the house sometime around/after dinner, spending time with the residents, sleeping on the cots provided in the living room, and then leaving sometime the next day. If you stay overnight, you should bring your pillow and sleeping bag. We also have wireless at the house.

To sign up for one of these volunteer opportunities, please visit out Tent City Care Calendar site at http://www.carecalendar.org/logon/45351 and enter the following
information in the appropriate spaces:

CALENDAR ID : 45351
SECURITY CODE : 6077

The address for the parsonage is 1716 Greenwood Ave., Nashville, TN 37206. If you have any questions about these opportunities, please e-mail amoshousemercyfund@gmail.com.

7.12.10

2010-07-15T05:10:00.002-05:00

These past few weeks of resettlement of the Tent City folks off the Beaman property have been long days for everyone involved – especially the folks that have had to pack up and move again. How frustrating it must be to not be in a position to provide for yourself, your companion or your spouse and be at the mercy of other people (and if you’re reading this and think that all someone needs to do is try harder, get a job, stop drinking and start acting like a “normal” person in society then I’d love to have you spend part of a day with me and get to really know a few of the folks that are trying to get back up on their feet). I’m haunted by the thought of such vulnerability.

Each person struggling to find their place in community is a unique soul with a story of happiness and sadness, success and failures, struggles and victories. With all the differences in personalities it’s no surprise that there are conflicts when groups are brought together, either voluntarily or not. No different than you and me, some folks are not ready for living on their own or in close proximity to each other or being asked to share in chores. That’s why different models of support are so important. With assistance from trained and caring providers each person’s personality and needs should be assessed so that they can be offered support where it’s needed. For some that may mean the Rescue Mission, for others Father Strobel’s Campus and Room in the Inn, still others look to the Salvation Army for shelter and support. Each of those organizations is a different model of support. Being forced to accept shelter where your personality clashes with the program but having no choice creates fear and mistrust. I’m haunted by the thought of my friends trying to adapt to inappropriate living situations and feeling helpless to tell anyone how they are feeling.

And then when someone has taken all they can and put up with all they feel they can, they feel they have no choice but to fall back on their own survival skills. Trust no one, get what you can and take care of number one. Knowing that they need to get their meds refilled so their mood swings and potentially violent outbursts can be controlled but realizing they don’t have the transportation or money for the refill and adamant that they are not going to ask anyone for charity, they let their words and actions go where they will and then they face the consequences of arrest or isolation from their peers. What shelter has been provided is taken away and they face the reality of life back on the streets and in the woods. With the closing of Tent City and a sanctioned place for retreat I’ve had to take some of my friends to unauthorized camping sites where they know they face being told to move or, even worse, get arrested with the potential of losing their personal belongings. I drive away having given them a tent, a sleeping bag, some food and water. I’m haunted as I drive back to my air-conditioned house by the thought of them in the heat, living a subsistence life and wondering if there’s any hope.

Decisions are being made by people that will have long term implications on the lives of my friends. What support services will be provided? What shelter and housing options will be approved and which will not be allowed? How receptive will the community be to programs that will reeducate, retrain, rehabilitate and reintegrate these folks back into the life of the city? Who is going to champion their cause and be a voice for those whose voice is not only not heard but not even acknowledged? Is there enough vision and courage to see how developing a comprehensive program to address Nashville’s most vulnerable can be as positive an investment of time and money as a new convention center or medical mall? Or will the fear that creating a compassionate program will open the floodgates and welcome even more poor, vulnerable, marginalized people to our city and that will be seen as a negative by those driving the economic engines of our city? I’m haunted by the thought that the progress we have the potential to make will be short-lived and pushed aside when the voices of opposition and threats of votes raises its ugly head.

And yet, we are called to be people of faith. To work within the areas we have influence and not waste our time and energy by lamenting areas over which we have concern but no ability to effect. Many of the people serving the marginalized in our community are serving with a motivation that seems counter-intuitive to many others. We’re marching to a different drum, answering a different call. Are we naïve? That thought does not haunt me. We’re following in the steps of one who saw a community of compassion and equality. Not where everyone was the same, but where differences were valued for the contribution they made the whole. There’s energy and resources to help that vision take shape. But mostly there’s faith. Let’s keep that thought in mind when we are tempted to feel haunted…

6.10.10

2010-06-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

This week a few of my friends and I went camping in one of my friend’s RV. We spent the day in various activities and wrapped up the day with a light dinner and got ready for bed. As we were about to head to bed the carbon monoxide alarm starting going off. We pushed the reset button and silenced it and went on about our business. About 5 minutes later it went off again. We silenced it again. 5 minutes later it went off again. By this time it occurred to us that this alarm was probably going to be going off all night unless we either 1) figured out why it was going off and address the root cause ; or 2) disconnect the alarm. A quick assessment of the environment lead us to believe that we were in no danger and that the alarm was either ultra sensitive to something in the air or malfunctioning. But the real issue was that the alarm was hard-wired into the RV so it was no simple matter to disconnect it.

It was already late in the night and we were ready to go to bed. Frustrations begin to rapidly grow as every few minutes the alarm would go off. All I could think about was how my planned night’s sleep was going to be regularly interrupted by the alarm. This was not good!! We all needed our sleep. And to think about having to sleep with one ear listening for the alarm so as to not be scared to death when it went off was just not acceptable. We read the owner’s manual to try and figure out how to disconnect the alarm but there was nothing giving us those instructions.

As we jumped up every few minutes to hit the reset button on the alarm it occurred to me that this must be something like my friends living on the street experience every night. They’d love to have a good night’s sleep – uninterrupted and quiet. But most of them lay down for the evening in fear of being woken up by passers-by, by the weather or by the police. They know they can’t get too comfortable because a siren might come screaming by and wake them up. That’s life on the street – not just one night but every night.

Within about a hour we found the fuse box for the RV and pulled the fuse powering the alarms so we had our quiet night’s sleep. Simple solution once we were able to figure it out. I just wish it was that simple for the people looking for a good night’s sleep on the streets of Nashville.

6.8.10

2010-06-11T09:50:00.000-05:00

It’s been about a little over 3 weeks since the Red Cross shelter closed and two week since about 50 people had no other choice but to move onto the property in Antioch generously offered by Lee Beaman. Make no mistake about it this was not how it was supposed to happen…
From the day after the flood there was no doubt that a need would exist for another emergency and transitional living arrangement to take the place of Tent City. Those most familiar with the homeless situation in Nashville saw the “opportunity” afforded by the flood to change the model of Tent City while some saw it as a chance to eliminate that particular rung altogether.

So while meetings were going on during the time in the shelter the focus was on long term housing solutions, namely Section 8 vouchers. Make no mistake about this either – eventually having 70 vouchers allocated to help homeless people displaced by the flood is a great thing. But it has not and will not eliminate the need for the rung on the ladder to housing that was filled by an emergency and transitional arrangement. Rationalizing that the Mission or the Campus can fill that rung is just not the truth. Both of those organizations fill an important role but they admit themselves that they are not structured to be an emergency and transitional housing model like that envisioned by the “new Tent City”.

Everyone associated with the old Tent City knows that model was not working as well as it could. There was both a perceived and real image problem – alcohol, drugs, violence and lack of respect for law and order. And so when the people of Antioch heard that Tent City was being relocated to their community they screamed. No one ever thought to call the Red Cross shelter that had been in the middle of Green Hills by the name of Tent City. It was an emergency shelter and folks were OK with that. There were rules and security that had to be enforced. Yes people could come and go, they could walk down the streets around David Lipscomb and yet there was no neighborhood outcry. There were no community meetings to debate the merits of opening the shelter. It was an emergency and that’s just what people do.

If there was a failure on the part of Metro and the faith-based groups trying to work behind the scenes as the shelter was closing perhaps it was a failure to communicate that an emergency still existed and there was a real need for another kind of shelter. What was set up in Antioch is NOT Tent City. There are rules and registration and security. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. And neither was the arrangement at Lipscomb or the prior arrangement on the Cumberland River called Tent City.

What really happened was that politics got ahead of love for our neighbors. The folks flooded out of Tent City are not taxpayers or voters (although most would love to be). When faced with disasters in residential, commercial, entertainment and business areas all on the heels of the CMA, it makes perfect sense that the priority would be on those areas. No one argues that. But prioritizing and intentionally ignoring are very different. No one is going to step up and say who made the decision to ignore the impending disaster when the shelter closed and there was no place for the folks to go. The response by the faith community to step up and not let it be swept away has brought it to light and the powers that were in control are pretty frustrated with us. (That’s not speculation – I’ve been told that to my face). What’s interesting to me is why the frustration is with us. Just because we didn’t walk away? Did they really think that people of God would do that? Does that say more about the faith groups or the power groups?
Listen to the words by Derek Webb from his song Love is Not Against the Law:

Politics or love can make you blind or make you see
Make you a slave or make you free
And only one does it all
And it’s giving up your life
For the ones you hate the most
It’s giving them your gown when they’ve taken your clothes
It’s learning to admit when you’ve had a hand in setting them up
And knocking them down
Because love is not against the love
Are we defending life when we just pick and choose
Lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend
Because you cannot choose your friends
But you choose your enemies
And what if they were one and the same
Could you find a way to love them both the same
To give them your name because
Love is not against the law

But that’s all water under the bridge (sorry for the pun). There are solutions to the issue at hand. Antioch can rest easy to know their image is back in their hands. The emergency shelter on the Beaman property will be gone by July 5. But just like the powers in control, that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. There still is a need for this rung in the ladder and it’s not going away. Perhaps we’ve come to place that we can all sit down together and come to short-term and long-term solution.

5.27.10

2010-05-28T05:39:00.000-05:00

These past few weeks have been so totally consuming that I decided to reprioritize and not spend the time to post to my blog in order to have enough time to handle the other urgent matters of flood relief coordination for Otter Creek members; friends, family and neighbors of Otter Creekers; the general population of Nashville (our teams worked in Bellevue, Pennington Bend, Antioch and Bordeaux just to name a few areas; helping with converting the fellowship hall at our Granny White building into a disaster supply distribution facility & food preparation kitchen for supplying meals to volunteers and people who lost everything; working with Tent City people who were completely displaced and left with no place to go.

Otter Creek rose to every call for support – people, supplies and money to help pay for all kinds of needs. I continue to thank God for the blessing of an active, caring and engaged congregation. There are definite disadvantages of being a large, wealthy, suburban church in one of the wealthiest counties in the country. As a ministry staff and part of the leadership team we wrestle with that every day. But there are also many advantages IF we are able to allow God to direct those resources and control our hearts and our spirits and continue to keep the focus off ourselves and onto him, our neighbors and the purposes and goal of the kingdom.

So over the next few please start to check back to the site and I’ll do my best to recap what all has been going on how Otter Creek has been trying to listen and follow God into the world in order to be salt and light and show community to ourselves and to people who are crying out for an environment of trust, compassion, accountability and engagement.

5.11.10

2010-05-11T21:51:00.001-05:00

The last week has been a blur of activity, reaction and planned response. It’s been a balancing (or maybe juggling) act of reaching out to Otter Creek members touched by the flood, friends and family of Otter Creek members, members of the Nashville community who simply call our office for help because they’ve heard we are on the scene, and members of the homeless community who are so very vulnerable after losing everything and being help in a shelter with nowhere to go.

There are more stories of sacrifice and triumph and of loss and disappointment than you can imagine. We’ve met people who have shown us a faith that has inspired us and challenged us as we struggle with the guilt of not having had to see most of our “stuff” lost in the flood waters.
We’re still trying to find a piece of land for the Tent City residents. Lipscomb University has opened its doors so that the Red Cross can keep a shelter open for the folks to have a place to sleep and eat. But when it closes (as it soon will) there’s literally no place for nearly 120 people to go. If you know of a 2-3 acre tract of land in the central business district, please let us know.

The members of Otter Creek are responding to the challenge of need in ways that many of us have never seen. People are stepping up to organize and volunteer the time and labor. I know there are lots of churches helping people across the city, but I couldn’t be more proud of Otter Creek – reaching out in times of need is a part of who we are. And it’s at times like this that it shows…..

5.2.10

2010-05-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Tent City is gone…. The floods of the last few days have caused the waters of the Cumberland to raise higher than many long-time Nashvillians can remember. As many of you know, Tent City is built in the flood plane of the Cumberland under the Sylman-Evans bridges. Until today it was hard for me to imagine that the water could ever really be high enough to flood that area. But now I’m a believer. I started getting calls late yesterday that the water was rising but really had no idea that it was as serious as it turned out to be. So starting this morning Inner City Ministries provided a school bus and we started evacuating Tent City residents and their animals. The Red Cross sat up a shelter at Lipscomb and the Humane Shelter provided a trailer for pets. I took 2 loads of folks and their pets and they were more than happy to get out of there. They were wet and frustrated – they had lost everything except what they could carry out – tents, shacks, beds, clothes, books, everything. By the time I got there, the portable toilets were floating in over four feet of water. But the good news is that everyone that wanted to leave for the shelter was able to get out. A few folks decided they would go to higher ground and stay and a few went to stay with friends. There were a few other camps that we also evacuated yesterday. Since the shelters had not yet been set up we ended up taking them to the Drake Motel. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help.

But this means that once the water recedes we’ll be faced with helping nearly 140 people get their lives back together. If you are reading this would you consider getting your church and your place of business to start a tent and sleeping bag drive? We’ll also be needing clothing and just about everything else you can imagine.

I want to say I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of Otter Creek. For the past several months Otter Creek has been working towards today as the culmination of a fundraiser for a new kindergarten addition. There was a big breakfast planned along with a service centered on asking folks to make pledges for the campaign. But the weather had different plans. Early this morning the power went off at the building. The caterers were already there setting up the breakfast. The organizers were there putting the final touches on the events for the day. But no sooner had the power gone off and the flood warnings started to come in than the folks put their heads together and started trying to figure out what to do. Within an hour it was clear that the event would not take place today. That could be rescheduled. But what to do with the breakfast? With no hesitation or concern for the investment, the call was made and plans were put in place to take an incredible breakfast to the Red Cross shelter where the Tent City folks were staying. Almost sounds biblical… And then the organizers decided that it was more important to get everyone together to pray for the people affected by the storm than worry about the fundraiser. There was tremendous effort put into the plans for today. But without any hesitation, those plans were delayed so we could all pray and roll up our sleeves to help our community. Now that’s the Otter Creek I know and love and am proud to serve. They’ll be plenty of time for the fundraiser, but for now let’s focus on helping others – I think that’s what Jesus would be doing…

4.26.10

2010-04-26T21:36:00.002-05:00

A week ago I had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn cartilage and meniscus as well as clean up arthritis and remove a small cyst. It was done as outpatient surgery by one of the top orthopedic surgeons in Nashville. I’m blessed to have health insurance and even though it’s a high deductible policy we have the resources to cover the cost and insurance pays for the rest. I was dismissed with a special cold water ice wrap on my knee and enough prescription drugs to make a street junkie go bonkers. I rested the afternoon of my surgery and was back at work the next day. I intentionally did not make a big deal out of my situation – not because I didn’t want the sympathy or the praise from people who just couldn’t believe I was back at work the day after surgery – but because I have experienced a form of relativism in the past year that help me put everything in better perspective.

I’d love to have you meet my friend Joe (not his real name). I first met Joe when he was fresh off the street and enrolled in the Odyssey program at the Campus for Human Development. There was something about Joe that drew the two of us together and over teaching in the Odyssey program the next few years we became pretty good friends. Joe struggled with his addictions and his mental illnesses. He relapsed a few times and ultimately was dismissed from the Odyssey program. He ended up in and out of jail but we always stayed in touch. I’d pick him up and buy him a cup of coffee of take him to get a pair of shoes. Joe wasn’t able to get a job and lived off friends and the few dollars he could panhandle. The pounding from the years on the street started to take their toll and Joe started having hip problems. There were times he could barely walk. He’d go the free clinic and they’d give him something for it but nothing worked. He lived in constant pain with both hips.

Finally he had to go the emergency room where they decided his hips were bad enough that they would replace them. They scheduled him for surgery about 90 days out in the future and released him to hobble the streets until time for surgery. I’d see Joe sleeping under a bridge with a cane or a walker trying to survive until time for his surgery. Finally the day for total hip replacement came and Joe checked into the hospital to learn that they would only do one of his hips at a time. He would have to recover before they’d do the other one. He had surgery and stayed in the hospital a few days. He was released to the Campus where they took care of him for a few days and then he was back on the street. Less than a week after hip replacement surgery he was sleeping under a bridge still with a cane to support his other hip.

I talked to Joe today who asked me how I was doing. I didn’t even tell him I’d had knee surgery. He’s the one we need to be asking how he’s doing. There’s something wrong with a system where Joe can’t have a bed to sleep in – at least while he’s nursing a hip replacement. I don’t deny there’s plenty of blame to go around, but I really don’t care. Joe is on the streets tonight waiting for another 30 days for his second hip replacement. Am I OK? You bet…I’m blessed thanks to Joe to have a perspective on my surgery that lets me know it’s all relative. Keep Joe in your prayers…

4.24.10

2010-04-25T06:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the Music City Marathon in Nashville. 35,000 people in town along with thunder, lightning and torrential rain. I started getting calls from folks in Tent City the night before looking for additional tarps and flashlights. About mid-morning I got a call from a middle aged woman who used to live in Tent City but got into a rehab program over a year ago and who now has her own apartment and job. She called from Tent City. Seems she had gotten lonely and decided to visit her friends at Tent City where she relapsed and had spent the last week on a drinking binge. She called to ask if I would come get her and take her home. She said she knew she had really messed up but was hoping I wouldn’t be too mad to come get her. That’s what being broken is all about – knowing when you have messed up, confessing the mistakes and then starting over. I drove to Tent City in the pouring rain, wrapped a warm blanket around her and took her home. There will be plenty of time for talking with her about what happened, the triggers and how to try and not make the same mistake again, but for yesterday it was just time to be thankful that she called and give her a ride home.

Later that day I grabbed some fresh “D” batteries and a couple of clean, dry sleeping bags that have been donated by the folks at Otter Creek and headed back to Tent City to distribute to people who were trying to stay dry and warm in the tents. The wind was unbelievable under the bridges and folks were desperately trying to keep their possessions dry but not having a lot of success. Even though it was 60 degrees it was wet and folks were cold. I handed out blankets and some towels as well.

Finally I had the chance to visit with an older woman who had called Otter Creek last week looking for help with her rent. As we talked I learned she had been living in a hotel for over 3 years. I sat up a time to visit her for yesterday. As we talked I learned she had lost her job in December and now her unemployment was running out so she was calling churches to get help. She had almost no community and no one willing to help her. We talked about how she was (or was not) helping herself by trying to find a job. Honestly it didn’t sound like she was trying too hard. She had no police record, a high school degree, her id and a car. Even in today’s economy a person should be able to get some kind of job with those factors to your advantage. I showed her how to create a work history so she could be more effective in filling out applications and I pointer her towards several career centers. But in the end I told her that I just didn’t feel like Otter Creek could help pay her rent right now. She needed to show some greater initiative and give us a chance to get to know her better. I gave her $20 in a gas card to help her get to a few job sites, prayed with her and said good-bye. It will be interesting to see if she follows up on the next steps we agreed to take. I left thankful for the resources given by Otter Creek to help people in need and aware that with those resources comes responsibility to be wise and kind. I pray I lived up to that challenge…

4.15.10

2010-04-16T22:01:00.000-05:00

I was finally able to make it to Tent City for the AA meeting. As we gathered in the room and before we actually began the meeting we were discussing whether or not to start the Inner City meeting as a formal meeting. We looked up the zip code and found out there is no meeting held within the Inner City zip code. So it was decided to set it up and begin getting the word out about the meeting.

There are now over 100 people staying in Tent City. Lots of reasons why but most have to do with the ending of Room in the Inn and that Metro PD are making a concerted effort to close down all other encampments in the central precinct and are encouraging people to move to Tent City – quite the change from just a few months ago when the police were advocating a cap on the number of residents. Ultimately the new model for Tent City is going to be a structured environment where people wanting to get back on their feet are welcome. Those just wanting a place to stay so they can get drunk or high are not going to be able to stay at Tent City. But with the increased number of people comes the “problems” that must be addressed. First is the need for tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses.

But with a limited budget it’s important that we use volunteers and resources not commonly thought of as ties to the need. So starting today I’m asking everyone reading this blog to check with your church community and see if they would be willing to Put on a campaign to collect tents. Every size and shape would be welcome. If you are able to collect tents and need to have them picked then email me and we’ll come get them. People coming to Tent City need a place to sleep. Tents are expensive. And yet there are hundreds of tents available to donate.

Let’s get the word out and let’s make plans to collect at least 100 tents.

4.11.10

2010-04-11T20:42:00.001-05:00

After services today I headed to Tent City to meet a couple that has now saved enough money to get housing. They were ready to make plans to move out this week. This is what Tent City is intended to be – a place for folks to be able to start over and then get back on the journey. They have worked on their budgets and their needs and are ready to go. They’ve thought about which person at Tent City would benefit the most form being able to move into their tent/structure and have made arrangements to make that transition. Since making the decision to move they are totally different people – they now have hope!!! And the source of that hope comes as a direct result of them making money selling The Contributor paper. These folks are focused and see the income from selling papers as their way out of Tent City. They don’t plan for selling newspapers to be their job forever, but it is the assistance they needed. Like most of the folks at Tent City, they aren’t looking for a handout except to get them by in an emergency. They are looking for partnerships and relationships to help them where our systems work to keep them pushed down. And thanks to the folks that are buying The Contributor it’s working.

I also had the chance to meet another Otter Creek couple who wanted to see Tent City and use their gifts to help. These folks have a talent to shoot video footage. So when one of the Tent City residents came to me last week and said he’s like to come to Otter Creek to tell the members thank you for all that they’ve done to help Tent City my first thought was to not only give him the chance to speak but to get his thoughts on video as well. So I met the Otter Creek couple and introduced them to Vegas. It was an awesome time to hear him share his heart. But it was equally awesome to see this couple have their eyes opened to the people and the stories of Tent City. Nothing is as simple as we think it is when we only look at the surface. Through taking the time to ask questions and film his responses this couple was blessed to get to see a little deeper into the humanity of Tent City. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to post the edited footage to this blog so you can experience it for yourself. In the meantime I just want to thank the folks at Otter Creek who have give their time, money, energy and hearts to helping make a difference in the lives of the people at Tent City. After hearing Vegas today it’s evident that it is recognized and appreciated. As I drove off this evening I couldn’t help but feel like Jesus would be pleased with the work going on.

4.8.10

2010-04-09T05:56:00.000-05:00

Over the past several months I’ve gotten calls from different people telling me about women and her child that they encountered at a grocery store or convenience market who needed help. The women appeared to be in late 40’s or early 50’s and the child was pre-teen. But what made the situation so touching and concerning was that the child had Down syndrome. It was obvious they were either homeless and/or experiencing pretty severe poverty. I would get a call from the store manager or from the person trying to help asking me for advice or recommendations. There have been several times I asked them to see if they could keep the lady occupied with a cup of coffee while I tried to get to her. I even asked the folks to give the woman my name and number and on one occasion I got a message from her asking for help but not telling me where she was. So she knew my name but we had never met – until today…

I got a call from one of the best outreach workers in Nashville to say she had lady in her office with a child who had Down syndrome. She called to say she’d like me to come over rand see if we could figure out how to help. I headed to her office and finally met the mom and her daughter. We talked for a while and could tell she was very nervous about trusting us. I felt we were pushing her a little too hard to allow us to help so we backed off and just asked if we could provide her and her daughter a hotel room for the week. Eventually she agree. We talked about her need for food and offered to take her to Kroger where she could buy what she wanted and warm it in her room on the microwave. That her off about not wanting a hotel room with a microwave because of the smell.

We headed to a hotel that we have used before. I didn’t know for sure but I thought that they had some rooms with microwaves and some without. When we got there we found out that all the rooms had microwaves and she started to leave. We calmed her down and she agreed to try another hotel provided that it had outside room entrances and she could be on the first floor. Finally we found a hotel that met all her expectations. As I drove from the check-in desk around to her room I looked in my mirror and expected to see her following me in her car. But what I saw touched my heart. The mom and her daughter had left their car in the front of the building and she was carrying her daughter on her back in the parking lot and literally running to the room to meet us. Maybe I was imagining but I could see joy and love in that mom’s face that was beyond anything I’d recently experienced. It felt like we had broken through with her and she was beginning to trust us…

Where this goes with this family only God knows. She seems to have quite a few needs – bother personally and for her daughter. We’ll start on those tomorrow. For the rest of the day we told her she could just enjoy the room and relax. She deserves it. Be praying that she will continue to trust us and let us walk with her. I’m sure God will be teaching us as we try to be his hands and feet with this family.

2010-04-04T14:02:00.001-05:00

Resurrection Day/ Easter Sunday – I ran across a quote from one of my favorite modern philosophers, Pete Rollins, that I used at the end of services today after we listened to Josh talk to us about the hope that the resurrection introduced to us – a paradigm shift even more dramatic than the parting of the Red Sea when the Israelites thought all hope was gone because they couldn’t imagine a way out, more mind-expanding than manna from heaven when the same group of people that had walked through the Red Sea began to question again how God was ever going to get them out the mess that Moses had led them into. So on that first Easter morning Jesus’ followers got to experience something that still gives us hope – they were witnesses to “life after life after death”. That’s what we live for – not a set of angel wings, a harp and a home in the clouds, but a life like we see in Jesus as he walked among his followers offering peace and encouragement – in other words, the fulfillment of the kingdom. It was in that context that the following quote has power:

“Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me well could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think...
I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.
However there are moments when I affirm the resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed."
- Peter Rollins

Let’s be about the business of affirming the resurrection today and tomorrow not by just our confession of belief but by our actions and our words…

4.3.10

2010-04-03T19:48:00.000-05:00

Holy Week on the Streets – starting at 10PM Thursday until 4:30PM Saturday I walked with 2 different groups of folks as we lived together on the streets of Nashville trying – in some small way – to identify with and put ourselves along with the homeless community. We took no money and only our ID in a backpack. We had to find where our next meal would come from as well as where we would sleep, use the bathroom and stay out of the weather. We intentionally looked for the spirituality in where we were and what our actions pointed us towards (something that most of our homeless brothers and sister don’t have the luxury to do). If you look back on my blogs to this time last year you’ll see this is the second year for Holy Week on the Streets. Many of the observations from last year are still applicable to this year. Only last year I stayed out for 24 hours. This year the additional day provided a few different insights that I wanted to share…

I confess I am a workaholic. Spending 48 hours on the street is serious rehab for me. We spend time with folks who’s days are spent with just a few things (if any) to do. The time to walk between locations, the time to wait in line, all conspire to create a slow pace that is more than I can imagine. Having a day or two with the leisure to be able to be hospitable to folks that just show up is teaching me a new way to think and live. I am convicted that there are elements of that pace of life that are more in line with the life of Jesus than what I’m living. I don’t remember Jesus ever saying he was too busy. In fact I remember him being at ease with interruptions to his schedule. He seemed to embrace those times and be able to focus on those as easily as he could the original plans he had made. Yet he never lost sight of the original plan. I’m too busy. I know it can’t change all at once, but over the next several months I want to continue to craft a life and a schedule that will allow me the time to enjoy interruptions and see the holy moments they usher in.

We are creatures of habit even more than we realize. Both groups that I was with for 24 hours struggled to stay focused and engaged for the 24 hours due to the reduced amount of sleep and the poor sleeping conditions. In both cases we got 5 hours or so of light sleep. We slept on the front steps of McKendrie UMC (thank you McKendrie for removing your “no trespassing” warrant and allowing folks to sleep on your property). But as we neared the 20 hour mark on our day on the streets both groups showed signs of fatigue due to a change of sleep schedules. I doubt many homeless folks get more hours of sleep or much better sleep that our groups. Yet we expect them to be able to move from appointment to appointment and be alert so that they can “get a job and get back on their feet”. Our group was literally falling asleep as we sat and talked about the day. Why should we expect anything more from our homeless brothers and sisters. But I then remembered that we serve a God that neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps 121:4). That’s who I want on my side…

3.31.10

2010-03-31T22:00:00.000-05:00

I attended a meeting today called by Habitat for Humanity who was looking for faith groups (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc) interested in coming together in an “interfaith build” to help construct a house for a qualified family. I can’t tell you how proud I was to walk into a room, introduce myself as being from Otter Creek Church and have most of the group recognize our church family. Over the next few months we’ll be signing up volunteers interested in working side-by-side with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other faith groups to build a Habitat house. After the Tennessean article form a few months ago and the outcry from several churches and individuals within the Church of Christ tribe I suspect we may be offered more words of judgment and advice. What’s interesting is that it’s only a small group from within the Church of Christ that wants to tell us we should be keeping to ourselves and be alert to being too much in the world. While I learned early on not to get into a debate over this (no one is going to convince anybody) I can’t help but wonder how Jesus would respond to this. Actually I don’t have to wonder – I just have to read form the four gospels and see that his actions of spending time in the world and hanging around with questionable folks brought out the critics from within his own tribe as well. Maybe we’re in good company.

A few weeks ago I was asked to offer the “family prayer” at the Sunday service at Otter Creek. Several folks have asked me for a copy of the prayer so I thought I’d post it to this blog for your reflection and comments:

Lord God, we gather today both as a product of our prior week – whether that be a week of worship or a week of struggles – and as a plea for the week to come – that our lives might be more aligned with what you have called us to be. Not that anything we do will increase your love or favor with us – we strive to live each day out of the love that you have for us – whether or not we recognize or accept that love.
We acknowledge our need for community with you and with our brothers and sisters even though many of us fear and resist that community – we question how you could accept us after all that we have done and we struggle to truly trust our family to love us and not judge and gossip about us – because, we confess, that’s what many of us do – forgive us and change us. You created us for community so we gather today with our insecurities and fears and ask for an extra measure of your Spirit to allow us to move closer to being one with you and one with our brothers and sisters. As we confirm our shepherds today who will lead this community for the next season may we as a community unite with them and under them to give you the glory and honor in all that we say and do.
We ask you to show us your peace as we face illness, death, setbacks and disappointments. Give us wisdom to see the path to your peace and faith to accept that peace as you provide it to us.
And now Lord show us your presence as we raise our worship to you – for you are always with us, and so we say together and in faith the prayer that you taught your disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
As it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever
Amen

3.29.10

2010-03-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend we were notified that the police department had demanded that a 10 person encampment under a bridge in downtown Nashville be vacated. They say there’s been complaints about the camp. I visited the camp and met the folks and it is the most organized and clean camp that I’ve ever seen!! True, the people living there are trespassing. But they have nowhere else to go. They don’t want to go to Tent City because of the size and the chaos. I can’t really blame them after visiting their camp.

The police indicated they had to vacate by this morning or they would be arrested and their personal possessions thrown away – just like they’ve done at other camps. We started making calls over the weekend and finally got in touch with enough people that we’ve been given 30 days to help find them alternative locations or housing. The problem is that when the police arbitrarily target an encampment (they’ve since refused to allow us to see the “complaint” they claim had been filed but have now said they had the problem with the camp) they change the priorities of all the work being done in case management with other folks. This is not to say that these folks don’t need and want housing but they are not in as critical shape as others.

So for the next week or so the focus will be on finding housing or another location for these folks and efforts will be diverted from Tent City. If anyone reading this email wants to help with the funding necessary to pay deposits and rent please consider making a donation to Amos House (http://amoshouse.wordpress.com/) and they will make sure it goes to help these good folks.
Please keep the homeless AND the police in your prayers. I know there’s evil in this world and I know there are rules under which society must operate. But the way that the homeless are being targeted when they have virtually no alternatives is heartless and cruel. We are told by Jesus not to judge but to be peacemakers. So I’ll refrain from judging the actions of some of the leaders of our law enforcement but I can say with certainty that the person I follow would not be taking this course of action when faced with issues of poverty and homelessness. He’d be working to resolve the hurt with compassion and kindness. Let’s work together to follow that path..

3.25.10

2010-03-26T05:58:00.001-05:00

We held our first AA meeting at Tent City tonight night. I had high hopes but was also realistic that the requests by the residents to start the meeting may have been more hype than reality. I was not surprised to find that no one showed up. A few of the Tent City council members came by the room (provided by the good people at Inner City Ministries) to tell me that everyone who needed to be there was already drinking and not wanting to come to the meeting. The council had gone through the camp telling people about the meeting and encouraging people to come. But rather than turn off the lights and go home the 2 men who came to lead the meeting and I sat around and talked with 4 or 5 of the council members about what was going on in the camp and how the 12 steps could be used to create a better community – not just help drunks get better control of their lives. And it turned out to be a great evening of conversation, sharing and prayer that was probably what God had in mind all along!!

I’ve never witnessed any of the council members that were at the AA meeting being drunk. I think they initially stayed at the meeting out of respect for me and the guests that came. But I am also convinced that by the end of the hour they left with a greater understanding of how the 12 steps work. It was obvious they had each been to plenty of AA group meetings – they knew the routine and the structure of the discussion and they all talked about their vision for community at Tent City even thought they all admitted they would really like to move ahead on the journey out of there and into permanent housing. What’s that going to take? It’s not simple but the first step is pretty basic – JOBS… sure, most of the folks at Tent City need transportation means to get to and from a job on a reliable basis, they need a current address, they need an ID, and they would love to have a bank account. We’re working on most of those with them. But mostly they (and we) need a group of understanding employers willing to give each person another chance to prove themselves – not just once, but several times. These folks are no different than you and me – we need second, third and fourth chances. We need forgiveness and we need community. That’s what they need. So if you’re reading this and have the ability and willingness to consider giving one of these folks a chance at a job, please email me and we’ll work together to create a situation that is both realistic but compassionate.

We ended the meeting by standing in a circle, holding hands and saying the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Think about that today – can you be an instrument of helping God’s will take effect on earth? Reaching out to the least of these is one way – helping them find a job is one way. Let’s be careful what we pray for if we’re not ready to make it happen.

3.22.10

2010-03-23T21:25:00.002-05:00

This past Sunday Josh talked about the Last Supper but with a twist that I really appreciated. He spoke about the emphasis on the table and then reflected how the story of Israel was one of being welcomed back to the table. Specifically he talked about the exodus and the struggles Israel with leaving Egypt. You see, when in Egypt they were slaves, mistreated and abused in all kinds of ways. They wanted to leave. But it was no sooner than they were standing at the Red Sea than they starting giving Moses grief. They wanted to go back!! It was what they knew. And while it was painful and degrading it was a sure thing. Moses reminded them that it wasn’t their might that delivered them but it was God and that they needed to trust God. They got across the Red Sea and saw a great miracle. You’d think that would be enough to give them confidence to trust in God. But then they started to get hungry and they started the same complaints again – we want to go back to Egypt!! God delivered and manna was provided. The cycle continued for the entire 40 years.

For me the application is too obvious. As I try to journey towards looking more like Jesus I find I have to trust to take the next step. What I really want to do is go back to Egypt. In the recovery community that called relapse. I know it’s not good for me but it’s what I know. Walking by faith, even when confronted with miracles of deliverance, is never easy. We want to know what’s going to happen.

One of the women we work with is going through the same struggles. As we try to be Jesus to her, we are asking her to trust us more than she trusts her past. She wants to move forward but the call of Egypt is strong. How do you finally walk away from Egypt? Only by replacing it with something else – not by just trying to forget it. New relationships that offer acceptance, unconditional love, accountability and love are the answer. God offered that to Israel and they struggled to accept it. Why should any of us be any different? Can we be the one to offer that new relationship to another person? Or are we talking behind their backs, looking down our noses at how they act, dress or smell? Can we accept someone like we want God to accept us – warts and all? It’s not until we see how broken we are that we can be humble enough to accept someone else. And we’ll never see ourselves as broken until we see that it’s all about God and his love for us – not about us and how we are able to do anything. Step one is to admit we are powerless. As long as we think we can go back to Egypt we are never powerless.

3.18.10

2010-03-19T07:20:00.001-05:00

I was asked to speak at Lipscomb’s Reclaim Tomorrow Center. This is a little known effort from the university to help displaced and unemployed alumni and others have a place to call an office and work towards finding employment – kind of like a professional career center. They ask different speakers to come in and talk with the folks using the center. I talked about what it takes to persevere during difficult times. I guess we all have had some of those times but for many of us we’ve never experienced anything like the struggles, frustration, anger, embarrassment and guilt that many of these folks have to handle. I made the point that it is maturity that allows one to hang in there. And that we make progress on the road to maturity as we work in 3 critical areas – achieving peace with God, ourselves and others – it’s what I call the “three-legged stool”. I pray that a few of the words, the personal confessions and the encouragement gave the folks in attendance a measure of hope that they needed for the day. As I talked about the work that Otter Creek is doing in our Real Community ministry to help our members look for work and maintain a level of sanity in the tough times I felt blessed to be able to represent our church family to them.

From there I was asked to be one of several speakers at the Nashville Coalition on Homelessness. A few other outreach workers were there as well as several friends from Tent City and a few other homeless folks. The Coalition is made up of service providers from the Nashville area – mostly groups that work with people just coming off the streets – halfway houses, veteran’s assistance programs, offender re-entry programs, etc. The people in attendance seemed genuinely interested and engaged in asking questions and learning more about what those of us that are on the streets everyday (living there or working there) observe and think about how to address the many issues that we all face. Once again, as the only minister in the group I felt blessed to be able to represent Otter Creek in the work that I believe represents a critical part of the life and ministry of Jesus.

Tent City sure looks different after this week. Thanks to the hard work of a lot of people Metro Public Works brought a tractor and mower to the area and cleared about 3 acres of brush and undergrowth so that it’s easier to move around in the camp and we can make room for more folks. There’s currently about 80 people living at Tent City. Next week we’re hoping that the Sheriff’s Department will be down with a front-end loader and dump truck to pick up several large piles of trash. We need to get that picked up and then I’m convinced that the folks living there will be able to keep the place pretty clean. Right now it’s not safe to pick up the trash piles by hand. There are hundreds of HUGE rats living in the trash and really causing safety and health problems. Getting equipment to make the initial sweep will be a big help.

More to come on Tent City in the nest few posts. In the meantime if you have questions about what’s going on in Tent City feel free to email me or reply to a post and I’ll do my best to get you an answer. Be blessed….

3.15.10

2010-03-15T21:12:00.002-05:00

I’m not sure what’s going on but it seems to me that the walk-in traffic of folks looking for assistance from Otter Creek has increased in the last few weeks. Last week a young girl showed up asking to meet with me. She was Kurdish and struggled with English to tell me that she was coming to ask for help with her family’s NES bill. Her story is that she is a senior in high school and since she is on spring break her mom and dad are talking her around to churches to ask for help. She says they can’t speak English. Her mom is disabled and her dad has lost his job. She has one older brother who is married with a child. He has lost his job (he is drawing unemployment so has some limited income) and they have moved back in with her parents. She has 4 other siblings living in the same house. That adds up to 10 people living in one house with no income other than one unemployment check. They’ve borrowed from everyone they know and have even gotten assistance from another Christian church where they have attended. It’s not easy to sit and listen to a 17 year old ask for help to keep the lights on.

The very next day a woman showed up with a 2 year old asleep on her shoulder. She said and her family (husband and 2 other children) had come from Ohio based on a call from her estranged father that she hadn’t seen but 3 times in her life. Her grandmother (the father’s mother) had died and left an estate to be divided between her and her father. But when the will was read the father objected to the division of the money and refused to help pay for the gas for the daughter and family to get home. I asked a lot of questions and she had all the right answers. I told her I needed 30 minutes to make some calls to check out her story and that she should come back and we’d see what we could do. I suppose she didn’t expect me to actually make the calls because when I did I found out that her story was not truthful. Needless to say she didn’t come back in 30 minutes.

And then today a man and his wife showed up from Indianapolis on their way to Dallas. They were asking for help with gas. I asked them a lot of questions as well and checked out their story. From what I could tell it checked out. So we gave them a gift card they could use for gas. As we chatted the man became pretty angry at what he considered the failure of the system and the church to help people like him. I quickly told him that I disagreed with him. The system hadn’t failed as much as he had dropped out of the system. I explained to him that we have people at Otter Creek who have lost jobs, battled addictions and struggled with emotional issues. I told him the difference between him and them was that they were a part of a community that loved them and was willing to walk with them. He didn’t have a community. In fact, he had intentionally withdrawn from community. So when he had setbacks (as we all do) he had nowhere to turn. That wasn’t the system’s fault. That was his shame, pride, fear, guilt – but mostly his lack of relationship with God and God’s people. I encouraged him when he got to Dallas to find a community and engage with it. Be praying that he heard what was said…

3.11.10

2010-03-11T20:38:00.000-06:00

Much of the ministry with the folks at Tent City involves the day-to-day work of advocating for a group that has, historically, been left to fend for themselves. As I look at the life and work of Jesus that’s a big part of what he did. He did it not just to help the poor and marginalized have a hope for a better life but as a way to initiate community and relationship with them. The evidence is how the different communities of followers evolved in the years after he ascended.

A group of advocates and outreach workers along with several residents of Tent City met with representatives of the Metro Homeless Commission, the Metro police, the Davidson County Sheriff’s office and the Mayor’s office to talk about what was going on at Tent City. I was so proud of how the residents conducted themselves. What a change from just a few years ago. We were able to talk about folks getting housing in the past few weeks, the addition of a storage trailer and a hot water shower, plans for a trash clean-up day, plans for Metro Public Works to bush hog between the two bridges in order to allow for a few more people. We were able to talk about plans to relocate Tent City over the next 6 months through the work of a site selection committee and a transitional housing model committee.

I was particularly excited to talk about the plans to start an AA/NA meeting at Tent City. Most of the residents recognize that violence and trouble at Tent City is centered around alcohol and drugs. And several of them want a better life. They are asking for help with starting recovery meetings!! And while none of us would claim to be Jesus and capable of performing miracles, what I saw today was a close to a miracle that I’ve seen in a while. We are seeing lives being transformed right before our lives. Will it continue without a hitch? No way – there are going to be setbacks and relapses - but what’s so surprising about that? Those disappointments happen in my life so why shouldn’t they happen with folks from Tent City?

And then late this afternoon I got a call from another church here in the Nashville area that wants to get involved in Tent City. They have a ministry that builds 12 x 16 structures in Mexico and feel that this might be a local opportunity for them. I hung up the phone envisioning a new site for Tent City (we’ll definitely NOT be calling it Tent City once we move) lined with these structures that offer dignity and respect for people trying to get back on their feet. Now that’s what I call the body of Jesus in action!!

3.10.10

2010-03-11T15:30:00.000-06:00

There’s now a hot water shower at Tent City. This is a big deal and one that should be seen as a kind of celebration of cooperation between different groups. When I first visited Tent City over two years ago I witnessed a type of lawlessness and selfishness that comes from the need to survive in an environment of complete untrustworthiness. It was every man/every woman for him/her self. If a group decided to stop by and make donations then the first people on the scene were the ones that grabbed up all they could carry (of whatever it was – even if they didn’t need it) to take back to their tent to squirrel it away in case they ever needed it. Little to no thought about others. And for the few people that did try to look out for the needs of others – most of them had to be extremely shrewd or they’d end up being taken advantage of by the others looking out for themselves. The idea of serving others was way down on the list of priorities.

But through the work of folks like Jeannie Alexander, Lindsey Krinks, Laurie Green, Steve Samra and many others (forgive me for not mentioning all the names) as well as the generous donations from churches and other caring groups, there’s a transformation starting to take place. It didn’t come solely because the immediate needs were being met by these donations. I believe it has begun because the Holy Spirit is at work in the lives of the people living in Tent City and in those serving at Tent City. I’m convinced that’s the only power capable of changing people at the core level. It comes both mysteriously and openly. We see it most clearly in the lives of people now trying to serve others.

The shower is a great example of that. Donations of time and material came from outside groups. Inner City Ministries allowed for the water line to be connected to their service. The talented people of Tent City actually designed and built the shower. And now they are trying to self-manage the use of the shower to help assure that it stays clean and that everyone who wants to get a shower will have the time slot available. Yea, it’s a shower, but it’s so much more. To me I see a transforming environment where the Spirit of God is at work.

Holy Weeek on the Streets - 2010

2010-03-07T14:08:00.001-06:00

During the week leading up to Easter, traditionally known as “Holy Week,” you’re invited to join Amos House Community as we engage in an exercise of spiritual awakening and understanding on the streets of Nashville. Just as Jesus intentionally turned toward Jerusalem and embraced the conflict and suffering that would lead to his crucifixion, we will turn toward the City and embrace the conflict and suffering that the poor and homeless are met with on a daily basis, a conflict and suffering that often leads to the crucifixion of the Poorest of the Poor.

Every day, a different group of up to 10 people, co-led by housed and unhoused disciples of Jesus, will spend 24 hours on foot walking the streets of Nashville, reading scripture, praying, breaking bread, and journeying to important places in the lives of our brothers and sisters on the streets.

Holy Week is not an urban plunge; rather, it is a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts, intended to be an interactive and conversational time of listening, learning, and reverence. In the spirit of Lenten fasting, those participating will not be allowed to bring money, food, cell phones, extra clothing, or other supplies with them. Participants can, however, bring identification, a water bottle, journal, and Bible. Each group will depend on the hospitality of others and will decide how to get around town, what and where to eat, where to sleep, and where to use the bathroom.

For additional information or questions, please contact us at amoshousemercyfund@gmail.com. Spots for each 24 hour period will fill up quickly so please contact us soon and let us know which day you would like to commit to as follows:

Wednesday, March 31st at 4:30pm- Thursday at 4:30pm (Group Leader: Doug Sanders)
Thursday, April 1st at 4:30pm- Friday at 4:30pm (Group Leader: Jeannie Alexander)
Friday, April 2nd at 4:00pm- Saturday at 4:30pm (Group Leader: Lindsey and Andrew Krinks)*
Saturday, April 3rd at 4:30pm- Sunday at 4:30pm (Group Leader: Matt Preston)

We ask that you commit to an entire 24 hour period of time, even if that means taking a day off work or from school. After you sign up, we will send a follow-up e-mail with more details (where to meet each day, etc.).

*Friday will also be the City-wide Stations of the Cross event, which the Friday group will participate in.

3.7.10

2010-03-07T07:37:00.002-06:00

The weather is warming up and the rains seem to be dissipating. When that happens most of us step out in the sunshine and see Spring starting to be born. And with the nights not below freezing we can tend to forget that the same people we were concerned about in the winter are still living on the streets and in their tents still trying to survive. Sure, there’s less chance that they are going to freeze to death but there are still some basic needs that we must not forget about. One of the most important needs is firewood. Maybe they won’t need to keep a fire going all night in order to survive, but they still need a fire for light at night (batteries are expensive) and for cooking their food. The reality is that as the weather warms up the firewood donations to Tent City and other encampments slows down to a trickle.

This past week I was called by a few of the folks at Tent City asking for firewood. They had depleted all the donations and were literally breaking twigs off the scrub brush in order to be able to boil water. So with a few phone calls to the great folks at Otter Creek, we arranged for several loads to be delivered on the weekend. I also got a call from a downtown brick manufacturer who had about 200 pallets they were willing to donate – pallets not only make great kindling and firewood, they are used for construction of structures as well as floors in the tents to get the sleeping bags off the ground and the water (when it rains). The catch is that the pallets can only be picked up from 7AM – 3:30PM Monday thru Friday. This presents a real challenge to most of the men who volunteer to help - they are working during those times. So if you read this and are available to help during the day, please email me and let’s see if we can figure out how to take advantage of this donation.

Holy Week on the Streets is being held again this year on March 31 – April 4. This is a way for you to experience the passion of the last week of Jesus in a real and practical way. Spend 24 hours with a group of 10 people walking the streets of Nashville with a very intentional focus on places in our city tied to scriptures and readings that recall the last days of Jesus as well as how we continue to crucify others who are in need and hurting. The flyer with all the details is attached as a new posting to this blog.

3.5.10

2010-03-05T17:10:00.001-06:00

I met a group of outreach workers and homeless folks at the downtown library at 9AM. That’s what time the library opens and uncharacteristically for me, I arrived for the meeting a few minutes before the library opened. So I got to wait outside with about 30 other people – a combination of homeless and non-homeless folks. It occurred to me how dependent many of the homeless are on the library. It’s where they can stay warm, use the bathroom and get on the computer to check their email. It’s an address where they can arrange to meet friends and folks interested in helping them. It’s on the bus route and pretty central to the city so walking is not too much of an inconvenience.

We met at 9 to talk with a group of homeless men who had their camps destroyed this past week by Metro employees. They were given no notice and no opportunity to remove their belongings. The few that were at the encampment with the “clean up” crew arrived were told to stand back and not say anything or they would be arrested. Their tents, sleeping bags, clothes, personal belongings and even their food was carried off and thrown away!! No warning, no notice. Now don’t get me wrong – we all know these folks are trespassing. But basic human decency and the law demand that you at least give someone a chance to move before you take such drastic action. As one of the men who experienced the “robbery” stated, “the folks that did this in effect said they wanted us dead. They took away our food, clothing and shelter on a day that the temperature was twenty-five degrees. What else should we read into their actions?”

For me, I want to put a face with the folks that gave the order to do this as well as the men that actually carried out the act. I want to look in their eyes and remind myself that God loves these folks as much as he loves the people who’s lives they just devastated. I want to remind myself that these folks have families and people who care for them just like the men who’s possessions they destroyed. I’m not interested in asking them why. Interestingly enough, the men who lost everything - while emotionally and materially hurt – seem to harbor very little anger and resentment over the actions. I expect much of that is because of the journey they’ve been on and the realization they have been able to grasp that they are not dependent on their possessions for their state of mind. They’ve come to understand the old saying that it’s not what someone can do to you that’s important, it’s how you respond to what they’ve done to you. I continue to learn and be blessed by the lives and stories of my friends on the street. And I’m convinced that God can take tragedies and acts of hate like this and use them for good if we will but open our eyes and start today to make better decisions – ones that help us all to look a little more like Jesus. One group is intentionally making those decisions and one group may be choosing to ignore the call. Let’s be praying for both…

3.1.10

2010-03-01T16:04:00.001-06:00

If you haven’t read The Shack, please take the time and read it. Be aware that the first few chapters are emotionally tough to read and for many of us will be hard to get through. Commit to reading the first 4 chapters without putting down the book. I promise it will be worth the touch read for the joy that comes as you get into the book. I’ve had the chance to hear the author speak about the background of the book and I’m a huge fan of his work. This book can be therapeutic for many of us and it’s also a great teaching tool for anyone struggling with forgiveness or trying to understand evil and God’s role in the world.

I’ve taught lessons from The Shack to the women of Mending Hearts and found it a great resource to open up discussions about deep and personal issues that, for many of us, get in the way of really trusting God. For those of you interested in looking for an ice breaker with co-workers or people you know through different encounters (social settings, recreational, schools, etc.) this is a great way to begin. Ask someone if they’ve read it. If not, give them a copy (I picked up 3 copies this weekend at the used book store). If they have ask them what they thought of it and let the discussions begin. Be forewarned – you need to be prepared to talk about “your shack” before you can expect them to open up. That may take some reflection and processing so read the book and be prepared to be changed…

2.26.10

2010-02-26T21:06:00.002-06:00

Started off this morning at Mental Health Court with the young woman I’ve mentioned before in past blogs. She’s 23 years old with 6 kids. She had her probation violated for testing positive for drugs 3 out of 4 times in the past month. Her mom is keeping the kids and doing a pretty good job but it’s stressing to her. She’d really like her to get out of jail and come home. No doubt in my mind that once she gets out of jail she will be evicted from her apartment in the projects. An aunt accompanied the grandmother of the kids to court today. She was convinced that the best thing to do was to get her out of jail. The judge thought otherwise and has offered the young mom the chance to go to a court administered in-patient drug rehab program called DC4 and then to a halfway house for 6 months. If she refuses to accept that offer then she will serve her 11/29 sentence and be out in about 5 months. In my mind the young mom needs to go to rehab where she can not only get clean but get help with her GED as well as some job training. She feels that 9 months is too long. Please be in prayer for this young mom and ask that she will put aside her fear and accept the offer being made to her.

Later that morning a committee formed to recommend a new model for the new Tent City had our initial meeting. We talked about all the different models currently in place throughout the country to provide shelter for homeless. We divided up the task of learning what those groups are doing right and what might work for Nashville. Our goal is to make a recommendation to the Homeless Commission as to what model would best fit the site that is selected.

From there a few of us met a TV crew from London that is doing a piece for UK television looking at a day in the life of Tent City. They will spend the next several days getting to know the folks at Tent City as well as other homeless folks in Nashville. We are trusting that the report will be done with respect and dignity for the people. We spent a part of the afternoon at Tent City where we tried to encourage the folks and help meet simple needs.

I’ve been reading about the need for compassion to evolve into companionship. That’s what it’s all about – relational compassion. I plan to speak to that on Sunday when I lead communion. Did you know that the world companion comes from the phrase that means “with bread”. How appropriate is that for the Eucharist?

2.25.10

2010-02-26T21:06:00.001-06:00

Travelled to Dallas today to offer my sympathies to the Ross family on the death of their daughter/sister, Jenny Bazillion. Seems just a few weeks ago she thought she was getting the flu which progressed into pneumonia which put her in the hospital. The virus/infection spread and developed into sepsis (I’m sure that’s not how to spell it) which totally destroyed her body in less than a week. A 31 year old mother and wife of a 10 year old. The funeral was unbelievable and incredibly powerful. Josh Ross, Jenny’s sister, spoke for 20 minutes about his sister in a way that had us laughing and crying. I never knew Jenny but by the time Josh finished speaking I felt like she was someone I had known for several years.

I was able to meet several ministers who also attended the funeral. A bunch of great guys with great hearts. One told the story of an African missionary who was getting ready to furlough back to the states after several years. A father and his son who lived 30 miles away wanted to give the missionary a gift before he left. So they walked to him and brought him a box of pencils. The missionary was appreciative but confused about the rationale for the pencils. The African replied that it wasn’t the pencils but rather the journey that was the gift. What a concept to view the journey as the gift. That’s what we’re called to offer to our brothers and sisters – the gift of journeying together.

One of my favorite songs was played at the funeral although I’ve never heard it played or sung at a funeral. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is haunting and moving. Hope you enjoy it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q&feature=player_embedded

2.24.10

2010-02-24T21:31:00.001-06:00

Over the past several months I’ve talked about Otter Creek’s furniture ministry. We take donations of furniture and other household supplies so that we can help folks set up their apartments when they move from homelessness to the first stage of getting back on their feet. We get these donations from members at Otter Creek, from other people that have heard about our ministry and from people who Otter Creeker’s have told about the ministry. We now have a volunteer organizer and point person who takes the calls for pickup’s and deliveries and seeks out other volunteers to help him. As I’ve said before I know this ministry blesses the people to whom furniture is given – we actually delivered a chair and end table and an ottoman to a gentleman we first met during the Christmas holidays. The Otter Creek youth group went to sing Christmas carols at a local low income apartment. A man came to sit and hear the kids sing. Through their songs and words of encouragement I was able to make contact with this man (I happened to be the bus driver for the youth group) who asked if we might be able to help him with some furniture. But soon after the first of the year he got very sick and was in the hospital for over 5 weeks. He’s just gotten back to his place and followed up with us. He was literally in tears as we brought in his furniture and then prayed with him.

But this ministry also blesses the people who make the donations. Sure, they can give it to one of the thrift stores around town. But by giving it to our furniture ministry you can be assured that it’s going to people who need it and to who the opportunity for community and relationship is being offered. We’re not in the furniture business. We’re in the relationship business and we use furniture as a form of compassion that allows us to walk with people we might not ever meet. Those people making donations should know who their gifts are making that possible.
So this is a call for everyone reading this blog to look through their homes and garages and find a few pieces of furniture or an appliance that they can do without. We need your donations. It’s what makes this ministry possible. So find what you can give and send me an email. I’ll pass your call to our volunteer and he’ll be in touch to coordinate a pick up. Thank you in advance for your donations.

2.23.10 (2)

2010-02-23T21:25:00.000-06:00

We read through and listened for God in Psalms 13 today during our minister’s meeting. It was a moving experience as we heard David cry out to God, question God, be angry at God and beg God to come to his rescue. The last few verses of the Psalm show the faith of David to trust in the one who loves him even in the tough times. I took Psalms 13 and used it as the teaching base for tonight’s class at Mending Hearts (http://www.mendingheartsinc.org/). I was able to spend an hour with 15 women who all have questions about God and where he is and if he still loves them. Most of them had never heard Psalms 13. Many were moved to tears as we let the Spirit talk to us through the words of David. Most of the women commented how they could identify with David. Many talked about their faith struggle and desire to keep a glimmer of hope as they fight to gain some stability in their lives. It was a holy time tonight and one that I felt privileged to be a part of. If some of you would like to visit the class with me, please email me. Several Otter Creeker’s have visited, some are regular attendees, a few have actually taught a class and a number are planning on going to teach a class. Topics like budgeting, use of the computer, how to write a resume, how to dress for a job interview, couponing and how to stretch your food dollars are just a few of the topics that some of our members have taught.

Yesterday I got a call from a woman I’ve referred to before in my blog. Before Christmas she had been picked up by the police and sent to an in-patient drug rehab facility run by the Metro court system called DC4. It’s a 90 day program and she seemed to be doing really well and on her way to moving out and getting back on her feet. Somewhere around day 75 the participants are sent out to start looking for a job. She left and never came back. She called me a few days ago to tell me she had relapsed on her first day out while looking for a job. Just too much temptation for her to resist. She was so sad that she had failed and was hopeful she’d be allowed back in DC4 to start over. She called today to tell me DC4 was not letting her back in. So she’s on the streets again living wherever she can find a bed and doing what it takes to survive and create an identity for herself. She knows who she is and although she’s not proud of it she seems resigned at this point to not be able to imagine a better future for herself. She was so low and so alone that she called me tonight to ask if I could bring her some feminine hygiene products since she couldn’t get a few dollars to buy them for herself. I stopped at the store, purchased them for her and met her on the streets where I tried to encourage her to stay clean. That’s my prayer for her, but the likelihood is low. Keep her in your prayers….

2.23.10

2010-02-23T13:55:00.002-06:00

Confession –

If you’ve been a follower of my blog then I owe you an apology for going off line with no explanation. The truth is that I got myself overloaded and had to make time from somewhere so this is one of those “important but not urgent” areas that I cut. No excuses, just confession that I had gotten myself way too busy. A few days ago I read a quote that has shocked me and convicted me and is pushing me to make some significant and radical changes in my calendar – “Busyness is to ministry what adultery is to marriage”. I’m afraid that’s more true than I want to confess. But confession without repentance (making a change) is not very powerful. So I’m making some changes. It will take some time to delegate and prioritize but the process has begun. Posting to my blog will begin again because it’s a discipline that forces me to be much more intentional about my activities.

Thanks for your patience. We’ll be talking soon..

2.1.10

2010-02-01T22:01:00.001-06:00

These past few days have been a blur but thanks to several Otter Creeker’s who pitched in to help. The annual homeless census count performed for DHS & HUD took place last Wednesday. Volunteers started at 1AM canvassing the city streets to look for people sleeping outside. Our group started a few hours later and focused on encampments scattered around the city. Still not sure of the total number but it seemed like we did a much better job of getting into the camps and getting a good count of the folks that are staying there. For those of you that have been following the different stories of Tent City the count revealed there are 97 people in Tent City made up of 17 women and 80 men.

Thursday proved to be a pretty normal day except that late in the day I got a call from an outreach worker letting me know that the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) had called a special meeting to put together a plan to house homeless people during the anticipated winter storm starting on Friday. I was called and asked to be available starting on Friday evening at 5PM to head up a team going into the streets and camps offering people a warm place to stay. As the snow started to fall on Friday we got a call the seven Room in the Inn churches had cancelled their night because their members were not able to make it to the church. This left RITI with nearly 60 men and women expecting a place to stay but with “no room in the inn”. We opened up the old Otter Creek building and asked a couple of Otter Creekers to stay the night with about 15 men. With the help of a few other churches we got all the RITI folks into a warm place. The Sheriff’s Department brought the folks to the churches, OEM and the Red Cross provided the cots and blankets and 2nd Harvest provided the meals – really great cooperation between several groups. In addition we housed over 30 men and women that we picked up at camps and right off the street. Everyone was genuinely thankful to have the option to come in for the night.

One complication from the last minute scrambling to get the RITI folks housed was that we failed to remember about getting them back downtown the following morning. So after getting home around midnight on Friday night, we were back out at 6AM picking up folks in our cars and trucks and taking them downtown. We finished that up by about 10AM. I met up with another Otter Creeker and header to Tent City to deliver batteries, candles and propane to help the folks that decided to stay in their tents and shelters be ready for Saturday night’s single digit temperatures. We gathered again at 5PM on Saturday night and headed out on the streets. Lots of stories but one that especially touched me. I was driving near Titan Stadium and saw an older man come out of a convenience store and start walking down the street. I stopped and asked him if he had a warm place to sleep for the night. As we talked I noticed that he was carrying 2 big bottles of mouthwash. He said he was going to drink the mouthwash and head to sleep under the bridge. He gladly accepted the offer of a cot and a meal and that’s how I met Charles from New Orleans. Quite the character but a soul with a real story. It was after midnight Saturday when we filled up the shelters and called it a night.

After an abbreviated Sunday service at Otter Creek our teams assembled again and prepared for the final night on the streets. By now several of the homeless folks knew what we were doing so they assembled at the downtown library to make it easier for us to pick them up. When we arrived on Sunday evening there were 25 people waiting to go inside! McKendree United Methodist, Holy Name Catholic and Woodland Presbyterian had all opened up their churches. Once again, OEM, the Red Cross and 2nd Harvest provided the support. And once again several Otter Creekers volunteered to stay over night with the men and women. Once again, lots of stories but here’s one more. I arrived this morning at Woodland Pres to help deliver the folks back downtown. A man named Dan had come in the previous night with severe alcohol withdrawals. He said he wanted to go to treatment and get better but had to be detoxed first. We had planned to let him stay for a few hours and then call an ambulance to take him to the hospital where he could get the detox medication. When I got there this morning he was still there! So I talked with him a while and we called an ambulance. They ended up taking him to the closest hospital which did not have detox capabilities so one of the Otter Creek outreach workers had to go pick him up and take him to another hospital where he was admitted and is currently undergoing detox. We’ll meet him in a few days and get him into a treatment facility. Keep Dan in your prayers.

There’s an incredible spiritual ministry to this work. It’s so much more than just social hospitality if we will just allow the Spirit to work through us and have the courage to follow where we are led. The work is not for everyone but I was really proud of the Otter Creek folks that called and volunteered even though most had no idea what they were getting into. That’s following the Spirit and being the hands and feet of Jesus.

1.23.10

2010-01-23T21:08:00.002-06:00

Otter Creekers came out in force today to help at Tent City. The Monday morning men’s study group, known as the Barnabas group, called me earlier in the week offering to help with firewood at Tent City. We’ve had several of our members with trees down in their yard which have already been cut up. So what we were needing were volunteers with pick-up trucks to load up and deliver the wood. Now the Barnabas group is a bunch of men that I have a tremendous respect for. And while there are a few near the age of 50, I’d guess the average age is over 60. So when they called and asked about bringing firewood to Tent City I was thankful for the help but a little concerned that they might be getting into more physical work than they realized. But these men are the real thing. Like clockwork, they showed up with two pick-up truckloads of firewood which they not only loaded and delivered but also unloaded. It was a pleasure being able to introduce them to a number of Tent City residents and give them a brief walking tour of some parts of the camp. The questions, the concern and the love that these men showed for the people living in Tent City was no surprise to me. But it was a real joy to see them interacting and laughing with the men and women. I’m looking forward to seeing them on another trip. It’s the hands and feet of Jesus in the form of Otter Creek caring and making a difference.

Last Saturday a group of men dug a water line ditch and buried a water line from the water spicket provided by Inner City Ministry over to the shower inside Tent City. Now this is not your average shower. Up until now it was simply a water hose run into an acrylic shower stall that was donated. So obviously once the temperature starts to fall, there’s no way to take a shower. One of the biggest blessing a resident of Tent City can experience is a hot shower. So last week a group of us buried a water line so it wouldn’t freeze and started the construction of an enclosure to house a propane, on-demand hot water heater for the shower. Thanks to a supporter of Tent City for providing the heater and to one great plumber for offering his time and expertise to doing the actual installation. The construction of the enclosure will be handled by a few of the talented men who live in Tent City. We hope to have the project complete next week.

One of my good friends at Otter Creek helped with the installation of the water line and was asking me about how he might be able to get his 8th grade daughter and a few of her friends involved in helping at Tent City. I suggested they put together “individual shower kits” (soap, shampoo, wash cloth, etc.) that they could give out to the residents in anticipation of a hot shower. So in addition to the Barnabas group visiting Tent City today we also had my friend, his daughter and one of her friends come down with about 20 shower kits. I introduced the girls to Stacey, one of the women on the Tent City council who escorted them around the camp and introduced them to several of the residents. Stacey is going to hold on to the shower kits until the shower installation project is finished and then hand out the kits. But seeing those two 8th graders walking through the camp, I couldn’t help but wonder what impressions were being made on them. They could have been doing a lot of other things that “normal” 8th grade girls do on a Saturday afternoon but they chose to spend their time in service and getting to know a few folks that they would never have stopped to meet in other circumstances. Just like the Barnabas group, it’s the hand and feet of Jesus in the form of Otter Creek caring and making a difference in the lives of other people while being transformed ourself. I think that’s what Jesus would have been doing this afternoon.

1.21.10

2010-01-21T19:54:00.000-06:00

If you’ve been following my blog you/ll know about the Stone family that was featured in the Christmas day edition of the Tennessean. Over the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of developments going on with them. A family stepped up and offered them 6 months free rent at a house. Another person heard about their need and, because of getting remarried, had an entire hose of furniture that he donated. Then this past week I got a call from another ministry who has a practice to tithe 10% of the donations they receive. They heard about the Stones and contacted us wanting to use their fund to purchase them a mini-van. We picked up the van last night and they now have their own vehicle. I can’t wait to call the reporter and ask her to do a follow up story to the original one that was run less than a month ago. The next big thing that Danny needs is a fulltime job. He had been working some temp jobs but with the house, the furniture, the move and getting their daughter in school he felt he needed to get all that taken care of. With that done he now needs a job. He’s had several interviews but no offers. If any of you reading this would be willing to give Danny an interview and a chance I really feel you’d be getting a hard working, dedicated employee.

This past Tuesday night Otter Creek hosted our regular Room in the Inn night. For the second time in 4 weeks we were blessed to have a man and his two children as our guests. The two boys are about 15 months and 24 months old and just precious. Can you imagine having your 2 young children on the streets with you? I’ve been in contact with the Campus trying to better understand the situation and trying to help get them off the streets. As with most situations, it’s more complicated than you can imagine. None of them have their birth certificates of shot records which makes getting them services almost impossible. There’s even a dispute if the man has legal custody of the kids or even if he is their natural rather. There’s no question that the boys see him as their father. This man certainly cares for the children. And regardless of all that, having 2 young boys on the streets is simply not acceptable. Several folks at Otter Creek are stepping up and offering assistance. While those of us closely associated with the situation want to be careful we also want to do what it takes to get the off the street. Be praying for Maurice and his two boys.

We’re making plans for the annual homeless count here in Nashville. Next Wednesday morning starting at 1AM we’ll hit the streets trying to get a count of how many men and women are sleeping outside. As I understand it, this number is critical as it determines the level of government funding and support for many of the programs and groups serving Nashville’s homeless. If you’re interested in joining a team and counting, send me an email and I’ll get you in touch with the right people. We held a training class a few nights ago for the first time volunteers. I was struck by one of the guidelines:

If you see a lump of cardboard or plastic…, it’s worth a closer look. Don’t assume that there’s not a person sleeping beneath. Always remember that the individuals you are interacting with are human and deserve to be treated kindly.

Whether or not you’re able or interested or feel called to be involved in the count, please take a few minutes and say a prayer for the folks that are counting and especially for the folks that are being counted. We are all children of God…

1.18.10

2010-01-18T20:12:00.000-06:00

Spent the day with my good friend and mentor, Charles McGowan. For the second year he and I headed out to Jefferson Street Baptist Church where we assembled and then marched to the TSU Gentry Center for (what I was told is) the 2nd largest MLK convocation in the US (Atlanta is larger). What an interesting and inspiring experience. To be welcomed by our brothers and sisters as we join arms, listen to stories and enjoy a few hours being the minority. It’s an experience I would encourage everyone to seek out.

As we were walking it occurred to me how much I have learned and grown from the times I have spent with my black brothers and sisters. And it then occurred to me how none of that was in the context of organized religion or tied to Sunday mornings. It takes place on the street, in the coffee shops, at AA and NA meetings, at Tent City, at Martha O’Bryan and in the public schools. Is there something wrong with that picture? Not that all of the non-religious places aren’t great places to learn and grow, but that the one place that most of us enter with the intent to become more of a human that has been created in the image of God is the one place that this type of growth and learning does not take place.

I was in Detroit last week taking my one week intensive Master’s course at Rochester College. On Wednesday night we were invited to attend the MLK celebration at the Rochester Church of Christ. While I don’t know the percentages, this congregation is as integrated a Church of Christ as I’ve ever visited so it was good and proper that they took time to celebrate. I came away convicted that we at Otter Creek are poorer for not being more intentional in our efforts to integrate. I’m not so naïve as to believe that we can create some programs, send out some invitations and we’ll start that move. That’s not how it happens. My friend Charles told me today that he regrets he didn’t see more clearly the way to move towards church integration when he was pastoring fulltime. He feels it starts with the minister seeking out a qualified black pastor and then handing him the pulpit with the commitment to walk in his shadow and serve him. I’m not saying this is where we need to be at Otter Creek – personally I love where we are with Josh Graves and see great potential for the kingdom with him in our pulpit. But the message was loud and clear – it takes courage and sacrifice if we expect to move that way. And doesn’t that sound like the same characteristics our black brothers and sisters had to muster to being to move towards civil rights? I don’t know the answer but I do know that I felt like I caught a glimpse of the kingdom of God walking down Jefferson Street today and I long for the day I get that same vision when I walk into Otter Creek on Sunday mornings.

1.7.10

2010-01-07T21:47:00.001-06:00

Today was one of those days when amazing things happen and you can see God in action. Today was the day that Danny Stone and his family (featured in the Christmas day Tennessean) were to move out of the motel they’ve been in for almost 4 weeks and into a 3 bedroom house. Due to the exposure of their story in the Tennessean there have been almost a hundred offers of help. This is everything for toys, to food, clothing, job interviews, and the use of a house, rent free for 6 months. On the day that the house offer came in I got a call from an Otter Creek member who had a friend that was getting remarried after his wife’s death to a widow woman. They were combining houses so he was asking the Otter Creek member if he knew if Otter Creek might be able to use some of the furniture. By the time he was told of the story of the Stone family he had agreed to donate just about the entire house of furniture. The few things that he wanted to sell the Otter Creek member ended up buying and just including with the rest of the items. So in less than a day Danny and his family got a fully furnished house absolutely free!!

Being given an entire house of furniture is a great blessing. Having to move an entire house of furniture is a different issue! But once again, God is at work. My son had already made plans to have about twenty members of his fraternity from UT meet at Otter Creek to plan the upcoming school semester. They just happened to be meeting on the day that Danny was moving and they just happened to be looking for a community service project to help with during a part of their meeting time. So we ended up with almost twenty college men all pitching in to load and unload a full house of furniture. In spite of snow and slippery roads we accomplished the whole project in less than four hours!! Not sure how to thank the fraternity but I am so proud of my son and these young men. They are not your typical large state college fraternity – they are really trying to cast a new mold of what that type community is all about. This is Delta Tau Delta. If you know of anyone looking at UT and fraternities, check out these guys.

And all of this was going on today while a group of outreach and street workers were making plans to offer a warm place to sleep to anyone and everyone living on the streets while we are in sub-freezing temperatures here in Nashville. If you are reading this and have an interest in staying overnight at one of the locations, please email me. We are looking for volunteers for Friday and Saturday night. Having friends who live on the streets and are exposed to the weather has definitely changed my romantic views of snow and cold weather. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

1.4.10

2010-01-04T21:28:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the new year and to really cold weather. The last few nights different groups of us have headed out on the streets to look for folks that haven’t been able to find shelter and are having to stay outside. We’re taking blankets, sleeping bags, hats, gloves and had warmers, but I’m still not sure that’s enough. I have no idea what folks do up north when single temperatures roll in.

Starting later this week we’ll start opening up our old church building’s fellowship hall to house folks that aren’t able to get in other shelters. It makes no sense to have a place that’s heated and not make it available. We were given almost 100 mattresses a few weeks ago from the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex that we’re storing at the old building. That means we can invite people into a warm place, give them a mattress and a pillow (they also gave us a bunch of pillows) and some friends to stay with them.

As for the folks at Tent City, they are going through firewood like crazy. We took a few loads down yesterday and they swarmed the truck. Within just a few minutes it was all gone and folks were looking for more. There’s a lot of creativity going on with construction of tents, tarps and shelters in an effort to stay warm and out of the wind. We’re starting to collect propane bottles like the ones that come on a grill. We plan to purchase the small heater attachments and give them out to folks in Tent City. If you have a propane bottle stuck in the corner of your garage, think about bringing it by Otter Creek. We’ll take it to Tent City. It would be even greater if you would fill the tank up before you drop it off. We’re also collecting tents. With the wind and storms of the last few weeks there have been a lot of tents being torn up and in need of replacement. If you have a tent with all the poles that’s still in decent shape, consider donating it and dropping it off at Otter Creek. We’ll deliver it to Tent City.

Quick update on the family featured on the Christmas Day Tennessean. This weekend they signed the lease on a house for 6 months rent free!! An Otter Creek member overheard a co-worker mention he was getting married and needing to consolidate two houses of furniture. He told him about the family we’re trying to help and his friend has agreed to give the family enough furniture to outfit the entire house. We plan to unload his house and load in to the new house on Thursday. A University of Tennessee fraternity is in town that day for meeting and they’ve agreed to send 25 young men to help with the furniture pick up and delivery. Talk about high levels of involvement!!

Keep the folks on the streets in your thoughts and prayers. Stop and buy a bunch of hand-warmers (they are in the checkout lane at WalMart) and hand them out to the folks standing on the street corner. And if you see someone late in the evening looking like they don’t have any place to go for the night, stop and ask them if they need a warm place to stay for the night and if they say yes, drop me an email – I’ll be listening for incoming messages. Thanks for caring…

12.27.09

2009-12-27T17:24:00.002-06:00

Spent the afternoon with my brothers and sisters at Tent City. We’ve had 30-50mph winds over the last few days which have destroyed several tents and made life pretty miserable for the folks living by the river. However, every time I visit I come away inspired, touched and a better person. A few weeks ago we met a young woman who just showed up and asked for tent. She was given a tent, an air mattress and a sleeping bag. Since that time she’s pretty much kept to herself except to come out of her tent to eat. She has been given a small portable heater which she uses in to keep the inside of the tent above freezing. I intentionally stop by each time I’m there just to say hi and make sure she’s OK. A few of the folks tell me that she is coming out of a difficult situation and seems most comfortable just keeping to herself. The few times I have met her while walking around the camp it’s easy to tell she doesn’t like crowds. Not sure what can be done to help her other than let her know that she is being prayed for and that someone is there for her when and if she needs help. Keep her in your prayers.

With the winds of the past few days we are in need of tents. I was able to purchase 5 tents from Wal-Mart, but at nearly $40 each that can quickly deplete a budget. How many of you reading this blog have a tent in your garage that you haven’t used in a couple of years? If you do and would be willing to donate it, the folks at Tent City could use it. If you’d consider donating it, please make sure it’s in decent condition and all the poles are together. They are living in some tough conditions and don’t need our throw-away junk. They can take leftovers in many areas and are happy to have them. But in the case of shelter, let’s try and provide them with something that will keep them dry and warm.

And speaking of warm, if you have a spare propane bottle, we’d love to have those. Many of the folks have a heater attachment they can use to keep their tents livable during the sub-freezing nights. If you’re like me I have a few extra propane bottles that I’ve collected from buying new grills. Now is the time to round them up, FILL THEM UP WITH PROPANE and drop them off at Otter Creek church (409 Franklin Rd., Brentwood). If you want to deliver them to Tent City and don’t know how to get there, call me.

And finally, a big request for a special donation. With the increasing notoriety of Tent City there has been an increase in people making donations of all types. And with the increase in donations comes new people making the decision to move into Tent City. There’s also the rumor that the police are now telling people who have been living on the streets in Nashville to consider moving into Tent City. All that to say, there’s a need to better organize many of the items being donated. We’re looking for a metal shipping container that we can place in Tent City and use as the central point to gather donations. We have a plan to lock the container and provide several of the more responsible residents with keys. If you know of someone willing to give us one of these containers, please email or call me.

Like every other community there are a few bad apples at Tent City. But overall the mood and attitude towards trying to have a civil and respectable place to live is greatly improving. Being able to organize the donations and have a ready supply of tents and propane bottles will continue to help towards that end. As the temperatures drop, the rain and snow comes and the winds start to blow, please take a few minutes to stop and say a prayer for your brothers and sisters trying to survive and move up. Be blessed…

12.25.09

2009-12-25T10:14:00.001-06:00

I couldn’t be more proud of the Otter Creek family. I know that as a community of folks trying to live in a way that honors the life and teachings of Jesus we have our faults and our failures. We have folks that are a part of our family that are living with guilt, fear and hypocrisy. But we also have many, many folks that are struggling to figure out how to live each day in a way that looks more and more like Jesus – not just blindly obeying what the Bible says, but really trying to let the gospel story become our story at this time and in this place.
The lead story in the Christmas edition of the Tennessean tells a little about 2 families whose lives are being touched by the people of Otter Creek church (http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091225/NEWS01/912250343/Family+that+lost+home+finds+hope+in+Nashville+).

To be sure, there are lots of other people and groups reaching out to help these families as well as many other men, women and children around the Nashville area. But for today and for this article one of the points of focus is on Otter Creek and how they are using the gifts, talents and blessing to make a difference in the lives of others. While as a congregation we look pretty much all the same, we really are a diverse group in many ways other than how we look. And it’s those differences and how they come together to complement each other that forms a picture of Jesus that we are trying to become.

God is continuing to being people across our paths that help us as we reach out to help them. Most of us recognize that we are all pilgrims on a journey. And while we may not all be at the same place on the journey, we are in this life together. And it’s as much the journey as it is the destination that creates community. Whether it’s a family struggling to get back on their feet, a mom and her kids looking for a place to live or a Brentwood family trying to come to grips with living a life of integrity to principles of generosity and hospitality, it’s all about community. We can not get through this life on our own. Inherently we all know this. But a life of disappointments, betrayals and broken trusts push us to close the doors and retreat into our own shell for what we think will be protection. That doesn’t work. The challenge is not to retreat but to find a real community where we can be accepted for who we are, not judged for what we have done, be held accountable for where we are going and seen as having value to the others in the community. That’s what church is supposed to be. And that’s what Otter Creek is trying to embody. Are we perfect at it? Absolutely not. Are we trying? I think we are trying and that’s the journey we’re all on. Not the destination of perfection – that’s up to God.
Have a great Christmas….

12.24.09

2009-12-24T16:24:00.001-06:00

For the past few days we’ve had rain. Not a bad thing unless you live at Tent City. With the large number of visitors to Tent City since Thanksgiving the entrance to Tent City has become a muddy loblolly. I started calling Metro late last week asking if they would be able to get one of the chipper trucks to come by and dump a load or two so that the mud could be absorbed. The ideal thing to have would be several loads of gravel, but we had gotten a commitment from a member at Covenant Presbyterian to give us several loads on the first Monday in 2010. So we were simply trying to get by until we could get the gravel. When it became apparent that we weren’t going to get the chips, I called an Otter Creek member who works for the City of Brentwood and asked if they might be able to help with wood chips. With just a few calls he was able to get one of the trucks to dump us 4 truck loads of chips on the lot by the church building.
We then assembled 7 men to show up this morning to shovel chips into pickup trucks. Easier said than done but we got it done and delivered the chips to Tent City this morning. A very practical gift of time and labor that certainly helped folks get around with a little less mess.

With all the Christmas Eve services around time, we also thought it would be good idea to hold a Christmas communion service at Tent City. I asked a friend familiar with Eucharist liturgy to pull together some readings that we could use. We decided to hold the gathering at noon. I was proud to see about 6 Otter Creekers show up to break bread with our Tent City brothers and sisters. As we started to set up it became apparent that the idea of a formal liturgy in the midst of the chaos of Tent City would not work. So we sat aside the liturgy and everyone assembled. We had a few comments about the power of community, the commonality we all share together and the significance of Advent and the celebration of the birth of Christ. The group recited the Lord’s Prayer and then we broke bread and drank juice. I had one of the residents say that this was the first time he remembered celebrating Holy Communion at Tent City and how much he enjoyed it.

For Christmas Eve tonight we’re supposed to have rain, high winds and dropping temperatures. Keep the folks that live in Tent City in your thoughts and prayers. Thinking about Santa Claus coming tonight is a luxury that they will not be able to enjoy while they try to stay dry, stay warm and hold their tents in place.

12.19.09

2009-12-19T20:05:00.000-06:00

It’s that time of year when Otter Creek gets lots of calls from people asking if we can help them with Christmas - mostly for their kids, but occasionally for themselves. Our standard reply is that we don’t “do Christmas”. We try to let people know that we intend to be around 365 days a year trying to provide compassion and relationship. We tell them if they have a need then we’d love to try and help. But that providing gifts to their children is not the focus of our ministry. We point them to a number of organizations who do provide gifts for children at Christmas and we encourage them to call them but to remember that we’re here in January.

Now please don’t take what I’ve said to be critical of the groups that provide gifts during the Christmas season. There are real needs and some of what is given will meet those needs. But I’ve been in the projects and at encampments the week after Christmas and I see what happens to most of the toys and gifts that are given in the Christmas spirit. They are packaged up and sold to pawn stores and second-hand shops so that the folks can get cash to help with basic needs as well as support their addictions. I’m sure that the people who have sacrificed to provide the items as well as those who took the time to deliver them have gotten the satisfaction of serving and giving. That is real and it should not be overlooked. And I know it’s not our role to judge who is going to be appreciative of the gifts and use them versus those who will take the toys away from the child the day after Christmas and trade them or cash them in. But if we are in relationship with the people to whom we are offering assistance then we have some better idea of how the offer of help will be received. But that takes a lot more than spending a few dollars and a little time during December. Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to store up all the goodwill and offers of assistance that come in December so that they can be offered from January to November when a real need arises and coupled with a relationship that seeks to walk along with the person or family?

I was at Tent City today with 2 Otter Creek dads and their sons who were delivering firewood. We intentionally got there pretty early. As I suspected by the time we unloaded the firewood there were dozens of cars coming through the gates loaded down with all manner of gifts. What most of the people did not realize is that the people at Tent City (for the most part) have all the coats and food they need. One group that called me to ask what they could bring. I suggested they go out and buy first aid supplies and build first aid kits for the different camps and put them in waterproof containers. That’s a real need that the people at Tent City will use and will make a difference in their lives. It’s not very glamorous, but it’s very practical. I’m thankful they had the humility to ask. That showed me they were looking to the needs of the people they were serving.

And thanks to the Otter Creek dads and their sons who got up early, got wet in the cold rain and loaded up firewood to take to Tent City. The verse that says it’s more blessed to give than receive took on real meaning for these folks today. I’m proud of being a part of a community that is willing to roll up their sleeves, look beyond their own comfort and step up to serve in a way that offers hope. I think that’s what Jesus would have been doing this morning….

12.12.09

2009-12-12T16:53:00.001-06:00

Community is a great thing, and something who’s power I tend to overlook far too often. With the recent bout of really cold weather at Tent City the folks have been going through firewood faster than the donors can get it to them. At Otter Creek we have a firewood collection bin on the property beside our building so that members from our church and the community can drop off limbs and wood they have and we’ll take it to Tent City. We’ve been reminding our members about this for the last few weeks and several people have offered to donate trees that have fallen and are in their yards. So a few weeks ago we formed a firewood-cutting team of volunteers – guys and their young sons who have trucks, trailers and chainsaws..quite the dangerous combination. Today six of us piled in our trucks and headed to the great outdoors to cut up trees that had fallen on one of our member’s cabin lot near Center Hill Lake.

The conversation in the truck that I was in was great – we talked about “guy” stuff, caught up on what each other was doing and I got to let them know a few of the outreach ministries that OCC is involved in that don’t get much press on Sunday. We had 2 pickup trucks, 2 trailers and 3 chainsaws. We got to the lot and starting cutting and loading wood. A lot of the wood had already been cut so it was workout time as we tossed logs to each other and then into the trucks. As you might expect with a bunch of weekend lumberjacks we ended up with just one chainsaw really working. But in about 2 hours we loaded up as much wood as our trucks could pull and headed for Tent City.

We got to Tent City and began the unloading process. The folks were very appreciative of having good logs to burn. Recently a few tree cutting companies have come to Tent City to dump their brush and leaves!! It’s hard to believe that some business would allow their folks to dump junk on top of other people rather than pay the disposal fee. I’m sure they justify it by the few decent logs that they toss in with the unusable brush. As soon as we pulled up the folks started bringing their wagons and wheelbarrows and jumped right in to help us unload. The guys that went with me got to meet several folks and take a tour of a few of their campsites. I was really proud of both groups for how they treated each other with respect and appreciation. There’s a world of difference between paternal benevolence and really offering your time and your labor to help someone out. Most of the time the folks at Tent City get dumped on. I came away from today’s work feeling like this was something that Jesus would have joined it with us. Service to others has benefits that are far-reaching. Today we got to experience community with each other and with new friends. Community is an great thing…

12.6.09

2009-12-07T22:27:00.000-06:00

I had a young man come into my office recently telling me about his plans to create a documentary about homelessness. He wanted to ask me to consider being in the film as well as adding whatever wisdom and experience I could to the project. As we talked about the state of homelessness in Nashville he made this most interesting comment: “I’ve seen the pamphlets and brochures telling folks what they should know about homelessness and giving them tips on how to even help eliminate homelessness. But what I’ve never quite understood is what causes a person to be homeless in the first place.”

As soon as he asked me that question I caught myself starting to formulate all the standard reasons for why a person is homeless. Personally, I know men and women who are homeless after losing their job, after a break-up in the family, after facing a medical issue that caused bills to escalate out of control and out of reach and as a result of the on-going battles with all sorts of addictions. There could be more “reasons”, but as I prepared to start reciting the list I found myself realizing that these were symptoms but weren’t the cause. I know this because just as I know men and women who are homeless and fighting these different “reasons”, I also know men and women who are not homeless and are also struggling with these same “reasons”. So if it’s not any of these issues that ultimately cause homelessness, then what is it?

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the foundational cause of homelessness is a lack of community. If there’s one thing that I hear on a consistent basis when I’m listening to homeless men and women tell me their story, it’s that these folks are trying to make it through life by themselves. As much as I pray that my family and I will never have to face the loss of a job, the breakup of a relationship, the devastating effects of a medical epic or the struggle with a demon of addiction, I have no doubt that I will ever be homeless. I’m blessed to have a community of friends that love me and will walk with me no matter what – and they will always have a place for me to sleep. But contrast that with the island that virtually every homeless brother and sister that I know has to live on. The innate desire for community results in dysfunctional communities like Tent City. I love the people in Tent City but I also realize that almost none of them really want to be there. They are there because they know they need community and it’s all they have.

So what’s the “justice” issue of homelessness? It’s a call to you and me to jump in and start to be planters and nurturers of true community. That’s much easier said than done. Over the next several weeks I’ll be posting some ideas of what Jesus has to say about how we build true community. In the meantime, let’s not forget about the “mercy” issues of homelessness. Let’s work together to get folks jobs that provide a living wage, to help rebuild healthy, loving relationship, to get the medical attention they need so as to avoid the medical meltdowns of life and to walk with them as they battle the demons of addiction. We can’t avoid the day-to-day needs as we look to the big picture and we can’t just focus on the big picture as we walk by the downtrodden and hopeless on our streets. May God give us eyes to see and hearts to feel and the courage to fight for change.

11.30.09

2009-11-30T21:09:00.001-06:00

Got the word a few days ago about a young mother who committed suicide. As I reflected on the tragedy for her family and the community I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last time such news is reported. But for the first time (and I’m ashamed to admit it) I really started to wonder why. What in the world is going on? As I sat in services Sunday I wanted to jump up on stage, grab the mic and say, “No matter how bad you feel, no matter how dark the night that you are experiencing, no matter how deep the hole you feel you are in, please know that there is way out that does not include taking your own life. Forgive us – your community- for not seeing your pain and your desperation. We all do a pretty good job of putting on our masks and making things look a lot better than they are. But for the sake of everyone that knows and loves you, if someone is not walking along beside you and offering you some hope, then raise your hand, grab a minister or an elder, or just stand up and scream so that we can know your pain. There are alternatives to your dilemma that you cannot see from where you are. And the alternatives are not just an encouragement to “trust Jesus and be free…”. While I totally believe it that statement may not have enough skin on it to give you the hope you need to get through tonight. Let some of us who are travelling on the journey with you and trying to let Jesus live in us be the person you can hang on to. Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. We promise to not judge, condemn or even ask questions. Just let us sit with you and feel your pain. The time will come for confronting those demons, but that may not be right now. I promise that unless Jesus returns tonight, the sun will come up tomorrow, people we get out of bed and fix breakfast, dress the kids for school and go to work. Let us stay with you until you can start to see the sun. Whether it’s chemical, relational, medical, financial or some other function, there is a solution that results in life and hope and a future.”

Depression is real and is serious. It’s amazing to me that we will so easily and readily look for medicine to treat the flu but we’ll tell ourselves that we can just get over depression by trying harder to look on the bright side. If you’re reading this and feel that you’re at the end of your rope or if you even think you know someone who is, then call someone and get help. Don’t wait and don’t tell yourself that it’ll just get better – or worse, don’t tell yourself that it’ll never get better. There is hope. Ultimately that hope comes through the grace of Jesus. But for today that hope may have to come from somebody trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

11.25.09

2009-11-28T17:21:00.000-06:00

Reaching out comes in many forms at Otter Creek. This past week I was blessed to go to Guatemala with a group of 6 other Otter Creeker’s and one from another congregation. This was the second year of a “business missions” trip. The idea came about 3 years ago from a medical mission trip several of us took. After spending several days in the rural countryside helping people with various medical issues, we spent the last few days in Guatemala City. As we travelled around the city we noticed a couple of interesting observations. First, there seemed to be a sufficient level of medical options for people living in the city. In fact, many of the medical options are quite sophisticated. Secondly, we noticed as we visited the local church that Otter Creek helps support that there were very few middle aged men. As we began to ask around we found that many of them had come to the US to look for work. They were small business owners and entrepreneurs who were unable to find work in the city. In leaving their family we learned that many of them never returned. This left many of the local church families broken and hurting and susceptible to local gangs who were moving in and looking for vulnerable women.

As our team thought about all of this we began to dream about a form of a “medical mission” trip revised to a “business mission: trip where instead of doctors and other trained medical professionals helping people in need of physical assistance, we would invite business owners, managers and trainers to come to the assistance of people in need of marketing, financial and general business assistance. Our belief is that by helping local church members who may be struggling in their business and family finances we would be able to help build a foundation for the church.

So this past week we travelled with a Dale Carnegie trainer, a financial investment professional, a health insurance administrator, a Habitat for Humanity family financial counselor and a single mom who is both a school nurse and runs her family’s finances. We met with members to discuss issues such as how to develop an income and expense statement, how to evaluate fixed and variable expenses, how to calculate costs of products that must be assembled prior to selling. We also met with singles moms, single fathers and husband & wife couples to discuss family finances and how to get their debt under control. We learned that credit card debt is a huge problem with interest rates around 60% - there is no truth in lending laws in Guatemala!! We also invited a micro-loan Guatemalan organization that we’re working with on several water well projects to come and present the basic business requirements they expect their loan applicants to adhere to.

We were blessed to hear one man who attended out conference last year tell us that he was out of debt based on the lessons we covered last year. We were able to spend a Sunday morning worship with our brothers and sisters in a multi-language service that humbled and inspired us. We’ve been invited back next year and are looking forward to who will step up and offer their services. If you’re interested in learning more, drop me an email.

11.14.09

2009-11-15T06:59:00.001-06:00

Got to meet a young family with 5 kids that called to ask for help with finding a new place to live. After being evicted from a previous house they were renting he’s finally gotten a job. To keep a roof over their heads when no one was working they had to move into a place that was not especially welcoming to a family with 5 kids. Now they are looking to relocate. They felt that with the husband making $12/hr they were ready. As I sat down with them to get to know them and them to know us it became apparent that, like most cases, what appears on the surface is not what is really taking place at all. We talked about budgeting and the need for planning and that where the opportunities started. They told me they had two cars, but they really just had one (the other had be repossessed the prior week), and the one they had was not running and it had a title loan on it. The more we talked the more I tried to get them to see that to keep from ending back up on the streets they probably needed to stay put for a while and save up some money to get themselves on a little more solid footing. This was not what they wanted to hear. I asked them to get their bills together as well as all their sources of income and that we’d meet again. But for now I recommended they stay where they were. I hope and pray they will call back, but many folks find it easier to keep looking for the answers they want to hear rather than a realistic answer that involves sacrifice, discomfort and some delaying of gratification – interesting that this sounds like me….

I was asked to speak with several different groups this week. I was blessed to get to meet with brothers and sister from Eastwood Christian Church to talk about the state of homelessness in Nashville and what individual churches can do to make a difference. I got to tell a little of Otter Creek’s journey over the past 3 years and where we now find ourselves. What a blessing to be welcomed into their fellowship and what potential for our two congregations to partner together to use the unique blessing God has given each of us to help the faith families in Nashville come together.

I was invited to speak to a social work class at Vol State in Gallatin. I spoke about the background of homelessness and poverty and the different motivations for survival. If you’ve never looked into Maslow’s hierarch of needs, it’s worth a read. Getting your arms around those basic principles helps to partially understand how much of the world lives and how many of us can step in and offer compassion in a way that encourages rather than enables.

A group of Vanderbilt grad students asked me to speak with them about the homeless moms & kids project that is underway through Otter Creek and The Shalom Foundation. Most people in Nashville cannot conceive that there are 2,200 homeless children in our city. Most of them have a homeless mom trying to make ends meet. While the solution is complicated many of use believe the answers start with available and affordable housing wrapped within a support structure that builds relationships in a new environment of community and trust. That’s what this project is all about. Stay tuned for more information or email me if you want to personally learn more.

On Saturday we were able to help three of the men in the Odyssey program at Room in the Inn get several hours of work by helping a friend of an Otter Creek member pack up and move. What a blessing to everyone involved. Thanks for thinking to ask. We gave several pieces of furniture to another church group looking to help a family moving from Tent City into an apartment. And we delivered a sofa, love seat, tables and chairs to a 23 year old mother of 6 that had to throw away all of her furniture due to bed bugs. She had spent the past few days scrubbing and cleaning the house and the kids and called to ask if we could help her get started again. We need 2 or 3 sets beds for this family as well. Right now we don’t have any bunk beds but we sure have the need. The kids are sleeping on a mattress on the floor. If you’d like to help, let me know.

11.7.09

2009-11-07T20:57:00.000-06:00

This past 10 days has been quite the journey for me and my family. The first part of last week was “business as usual” with some really exciting developments and connections being made towards gaining additional support for the homeless moms and kids housing project and for Tent City. I was asked to meet with the Vanderbilt Hillel Center to discuss with them how they might get more involved with Tent City. This is the Jewish student group on the Vandy campus and they have a real heart to reach out and offer service and support for people that are hurting. We discussed them pulling together students from several different disciplines that might use their education and talents to help address needs for Tent City and the people living there. For example, we’re working on a land plan for the TDOT property and they’ve offered to engage some of their engineering students to assist. They are thinking how some of their education majors could help with reading, math and GED training for folks that want to move ahead in areas they have ignored for many years. It’s an exciting opportunity for Otter Creek and the Jewish community to be partnering together.

On Thursday morning we were loading furniture from our storage house to a church group in Columbia to help them reach out to a family trying to get settled in an apartment. I got a call from my brother telling me to come to Vanderbilt hospital because my mother had been in an accident. When I got there I got the news that it appeared she had suffered a heart attack which resulted in her wrecking her car. The paramedics worked with her at the scene and at the ER but she never came around and died that morning. This is the first of my parents or my wife’s parents to die so it was a new chapter in our family’s journey. The next several days have been a blur of arrangements and details mixed with sadness, loss and grief. I know more of that will come in the days and weeks ahead. Having a church family like Otter Creek is a true blessing at times like this. Almost immediately we had offers of help pouring in. Cards and food starting arriving. Calls offering help in any way came to the house and to my cell phone.

It took a day to get the arrangements made but we had visitation on Friday and Saturday. Hundreds of people came to express their sympathy and support. Many people came who did not even know my mother – they came to support me or my brother. One of the most touching visits came when I looked up and saw 5 of my friends from Tent City walk in the funeral home. A friend from Otter Creek who has worked with me in Tent City had called to let that community know what had happened and offered to bring some of them to see me. I was humbled when I saw them. They came in and spent some time talking with me, meeting other members of my family and offering their condolences. I felt like I was being visited by the Holy Spirit. There was no reason for them to be at the funeral home other than to show their desire to weep with me. That’s what community is all about. I continue to learn more about life from some of the most unlikely places than I ever imagined. And I thank God for Otter Creek and for the opportunity to represent that community to many other communities around Nashville. We can all learn something from each other. And it’s at times like I’ve experienced that we can learn one of the most important lessons of all – love is the glue that binds us together. As we walk through good times and tough times, let’s take the time to show and accept love to all who cross our paths…

10.26.09

2009-10-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

This past week was the 2nd annual homeless vulnerability survey. Starting on Monday groups of folks arrive at Woodland Presbyterian church at 3:30AM to pair up and get their geographic assignments. We head out into the night looking for Nashville’s homeless. The idea is that we will actually survey each person (as opposed to just doing a head count) in order to gather answers to vital information. By asking questions such as a person’s age, how long they’ve been on the street and an in-depth series of medical, mental and addiction questions we determine their “vulnerability”. It’s well documented that hospital emergency rooms spend a disproportionate amount of their budgets dealing with repeat visitors who are chronically sick. Many of these are homeless men and women who have been classified as the most “vulnerable”. If our surveys and analysis of their answers can point us to the most “vulnerable” then (the theory goes) we should be able to first target these individuals for housing and other support services and reduce the visits they will have to the ER.

Personally I love going out and meeting folks sleeping on the streets and under bridges. Only occasionally do you run into someone who is belligerent. We take a thermos of hot coffee and a biscuit with us as well as offer them a McDonalds coupon for their cooperation. My experience is that they appreciate being respected and listened to. As I gave instructions to my team on how to interview I stressed that it was to be a conversation – not a series of questions to be answered so that you can get on to the next person. Listen to who they are and their stories. And what stories…

We met a man at 4AM sitting on a bench in downtown Nashville who had just been released from jail!! He wasn’t even from Nashville but had been arrested for a trespassing charge, held for a few hours and then put back out on the streets. We were able to point him to Room in the Inn where he was able to get something to eat and some directions for the rest of the day. At the back of the Municipal Auditorium we got to talk with 3 people sleeping on the heating vents (it was cold at 4AM in the morning!). Two women and a man watching out for each other and trying to figure out how to get housing. On a different day my team went to a WalMart where we met several people sleeping under the bridges leading into the parking lot. One man had been on the streets for 10 years. But what I noticed this year that I didn’t see last year was the number of women sleeping in their cars in the WalMart parking lots. Regardless of how you feel about WalMart, they do allow people to park and camp in their parking lots. I met a women who’s daughter had kicked her out of the house and another women who had lost her job, lost her house and simply knew of no other place to stay.

We turn in the survey results each morning where the answers are input into a computer and each question has a value assigned to it. Depending on the severity of the answer the computer totals the results and a list is made of the most “vulnerable”. As we walked the streets and climbed under the bridges and looked under the bushes for people, I reminded my team that the term “vulnerability” was nothing more than a nice way to say “the most likely to die”. The reality is that some of the folks that I interviewed will not see 2010. I pray that the time we were able to spend together while completing the vulnerability survey was a few minutes of dignity and respect that they will remember. I know I won’t forget it. Thanks to several other Otter Creeker’s who responded to my call for volunteers. I was moved and encouraged that we have people willing to get outside their comfort zone to serve “the least of these”.

10.24.09

2009-10-24T13:34:00.002-05:00

It was about 6 months ago that a fellow Otter Creek met me for breakfast with a copy of the front page of the Tennessean in hand. He laid it in front of me and asked “is this right?” The article was on homeless children in Nashville. It reported that the best estimate was 2,200 homeless children in the city. I told him I definitely thought it was right and probably even more than that. His next set of questions started a series of events that brings us to today…
“what’s the problem?” “There’s not enough housing for moms and their kids much less just for kids”
“how much is not enough?” “Not counting the women’s mission there are less than 100 rooms for homeless moms and their children”
“what would it take to have more housing?” “Money and a group willing to take the lead to pull together a consortium of service providers – there’s some great service providers that would gladly add service capacity but can’t afford to do that when they have to handle the cost of additional facilities”
“what’s a reasonable number of housing units that could be brought on before it gets cold later this year?” “probably another 100 or so rooms, but that would take a commitment of money that would be tied up in government bureaucracy for months or for private dollars to come available that hasn’t stepped up before now”
“How much money would you need?” “somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000”
“I’ll make some calls, get started putting the program together”

Since that time he has assembled a group of his friends from his business connections. We’ve had an organizational meeting, divided up into subgroups and had a few subgroup meetings. We’ve looked at several sites but not found anything until 2 weeks ago. We were contacted by a Christian real estate developer and investor who had 40 units of a 250 unit complex available. Over the phone we talked arrangements for a 12 month lease. I called the leadership group of three who conferred for less than 10 minutes and committed to a significant amount of money to not only lease the units but hire a case manager. The units are not furnished but I made one call and got a significant commitment from another congregation to lead that charge as well as head up making the arrangements for a daily evening community meal for all the moms and kids. We met this week with a group of service providers and have started to form up the vision for the “hole” that these units will fill – emergency stabilization housing for moms and kids that want to begin the transition process of getting housing along with the services they need to address their needs. The more we get into this project the more we learn that there is nothing else like this.

The need is huge and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of moms and kids is significant. The synergistic ties to establish relationships between service providers, between the moms and kids, between the churches offering assistance and between the moms and the churches is becoming a phenomenon that is approaching “holy status”. More to come on this later. For one way you can get involved check out Josh Graves blog and the invitation to jump in (http://www.joshuagraves.com/). I can’t express how proud I am of Otter Creek and how its members are stepping up and looking for ways to connect their gifts and their sense of need to the greater call of justice and mercy.

10.23.09

2009-10-23T08:23:00.001-05:00

The past few weeks have been quite the journey. I help my regular 12-step class at Mending Hearts (www.mendingheartsinc.org) on Tuesday Oct 6. I had intended to show a DVD but the player was broken so we ended up talking. One of the women who had just been released from prison talked about her “spiritual awakening”. This proved to be a topic of interest to many of the women so we explored what that meant to different people. Do you consider yourself to have had a spiritual awakening? How would you explain that to someone? An awakening implies that you were previously asleep. How would you describe that portion of your journey? What was it that caused the awakening? This is one of the reasons I love learning and teaching 12-step programs. These are questions that everyone should be considering.

On Thursday afternoon I got a call from one of the women who had been in Tuesday’s class to tell me that another one of the women had just died in her room at Mending Hearts. They were at the ER and asked me to come over. I hurried to the ER to see 20 women standing in the parking lot with tears in their eyes all hugging each other and sobbing. It seems that one of the women who had struggled with eating disorders and drugs had come in from school (she was going back to college) and laid down to rest and 15 minutes later was dead. We still don’t know what caused her to die. We took all the women back to the campus and met in the group room for the next several hours to process their thoughts and feelings. I was humbled and felt as if I was on holy ground as I listened to stores about this woman and how she was loved. I heard stories of regret and recommitments to a different way of life because of this tragedy. There are no answers to events like this. My counsel was for each of us to not run away from the pain but to be willing to be in it for a few days and be aware of how God might be talking to us and to learn from this time.

On Monday of the following week we took a group of the women to Kentucky to participate in the funeral and burial. We got to meet family members and friends who were mourning and hurting. Many had not seen this young woman for a long time. We got to her stories from her childhood and see pictures of her before the disease and the drugs started to destroy her. It reminded me that babies and children are beautiful and that we have such a responsibility to nurture and raise them so that they have the chance to ask good questions and make good decisions (I realize that “good” is subjective, but it would be hard to argue that somewhere in this woman’s life she began to make less-than-good decisions). But we also have to realize that even the best parenting and environments are still no guarantee that children will not make serious, life-changing mistakes. While evil is ultimately not as powerful as God, it is real and it does exert an influence on us that can take us off the course that God would desire. We saw the effects of that in this woman’s life. It has made an impact on me and on many of the women who knew her. How will we live from this day forward as a result of having been through this experience? Will the learning from this time soon fade away as the pressures of the present push the past away? Do we grasp that one day we will be the one that others are seeing at the funeral home? How will our lives be remembered? I believe I was able to talk with the Mending Hearts women and tell about a view of life from the mind of Jesus. I now realize I need to be able to talk about a view of death and resurrection from that same perspective. There’s got to more to this journey than what we experienced in this woman’s life. Surely there is hope for a tomorrow. I believe there is and I believe that those of us who put our hope in Jesus need to know that story and be ready to offer it as comfort to our fellow sojourners on the road of life…

10.9.09

2009-10-09T08:35:00.003-05:00

Just got word from the organizers of the Festival of Shelters event mentioned in my prior blog that they have decided to delay the event until a future date. Seems a lot of details weren't coming together and there were a number of other events going on that made participation difficult for a lot of people. If you planned to attend, stay tuned for the new date. If you invited people, please get the word out about the delay.

10.6.09

2009-10-06T22:11:00.001-05:00

If you’re looking for way to learn more about and get a real sense of homelessness in Nashville
consider joining many of us for this coming Sunday’s celebration of Sukkot. Here’s the details:

A Festival of Shelters:
Public Witness and Dangerous Memory in the Heart of the City

Amos House and friends invite you to join us Sunday, October 11th on the Metro Courthouse lawn from 4:00p.m. – 11p.m. as we celebrate the Festival of Shelters. The Festival of Shelters is a harvest celebration based on the Jewish holy pilgrimage festival of Sukkot. It is a time of dangerous memory when one is called to remember the forty years in the wilderness when the people of God were homeless and lived in temporary shelters, yet were provided for with manna from God. (“Dangerous” because by remembering and re-enacting we risk opening ourselves to the work of a God who has been known to interrupt the order and comfort of both individuals and societies).

We invite you to celebrate the festival with us as we set up temporary shelters on the lawn of the Metro Courthouse so that we may witness and remember that we are all the anawim, the poor of God, and that in our affluent city where so many live in such excess, thousands of our brothers and sisters go without food, shelter, and adequate clothing every day of their lives.
Within our temporary shelters we will celebrate God’s economy where there is enough for all and where God’s Kingdom, the Beloved Community, will be revealed in the midst of empire. Join us to proclaim life in the face of death and to share the good news of liberation. Bring your tents, cardboard boxes, or plastic sheets and help us set up a community of hope, mercy, love, and dangerous memory. Around 11:00p.m., for those who are able, we will exodus the Courthouse lawn and walk to Tent City where we will camp for the night and share in the hospitality of our brothers and sisters who live in temporary shelters every day of their lives.

Schedule of Events:
1:45p.m., meet in the parking lot of the Nashville Rescue Mission
2:00, partake in Eucharist at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church next door. Walk to the Courthouse lawn carrying our tents and other supplies.
3:30-ish, set-up tents and dinner
5:00, dinner: soup and sandwiches/bread
6:00, worship:
7:30 prayer.
… (Break-out groups 8:00-10:30)…
10:30p.m. Exodus of participants and walk to Tent City to camp overnight.

email me if you have questions about this event. Hope to see you there...

10.3.09

2009-10-05T07:19:00.002-05:00

Excuse the catch up blog, but that what this week has been for me since getting back from vacation. This past Tuesday night I was blessed to be able to teach a spirituality class to about 20 women living at Mending Hearts – a transitional living facility for women in recovery. Over the past several months I’ve been buying up used copies of The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott Peck. It seems unbelievable to me but I’ve been able to buy about 20 copies for $.25 each (that’s a quarter). For a book with the wisdom found in jus the first 3 pages, that is too good a deal to pass up. If you don’t have a copy, go buy one. We spent an hour on the first 3 pages and the conversation, insight and confessions were amazing. Here’s a summary of what Peck says:

“…Life is a series of problems…Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems..What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one…It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn…Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems…This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness…let us teach ourselves the necessity for suffering and the value thereof, the need to face problems directly and to experience the pain involved… The four tools of discipline: delaying gratification; acceptance of responsibility; dedication to the truth; balancing… the will to use them which is love”
The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck

One of the effects of teaching is that the teacher is influenced as much (maybe even more) than the students. To be privileged to be trusted enough to have some of these women feel free enough to tell their stories and then ask for advice is true “holy ground” for me.

Wed night I was invited to speak at the Natchez Trace Church of Christ. They were interested in hearing more about Otter Creek’s work in the homeless community with the idea of how they might become more involved. I have presentation that I have used at churches for similar invitations. But earlier that day something told me to think about a different topic. The idea of really counting the cost of following Jesus came to my mind. There’s a big difference in being a believer and being a follower of Jesus. It costs a lot to be a follower. Jesus talked about that in Luke 14. It’s an uncomfortable passage, one of those that we like to rationalize and generalize and compromise to say it really doesn’t mean what it says. But I really think it does. As individuals and churches get wind of opportunities to reach out it becomes the responsibility of leadership to count the cost. If we’re not ready to be a follower of Jesus then be careful about jumping in. It gets messy real fast - in lots of ways. It’s good to be a believer of Jesus. We need more followers.

And Friday night about 40 members of Otter Creek visited The Temple to worship with and celebrate Succkot with our Jewish brothers and sisters. It was an incredible time of worship and hospitality. This all started thanks to an art exhibit by an Otter Creek member featuring Tent City which a few folks from The Temple heard about and were convicted enough that they reached out to us to inquire about being able to have the exhibit at their building. Over the past 8 weeks we’ve had their group to Otter Creek, visited Tent City together and talked about how our two congregations might work together to help address this need. I’m surprised by the publicity and surprise this conversation has gotten from the public. When the focus is on the people in need and not own our own agendas and prejudices it makes all the sense in the world to join together. As we come together we see many more areas of agreement than we might otherwise if we stayed separate. While we don’t shy away from the fact that there are some fundamental beliefs that we may never agree on, I am sure that this is partnership is something that Jesus would be involved in. Based on that, we move forward

9.28.09

2009-09-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

Thanks for your patience with me being away from this blog for the last week. Vacation in an area where internet service is my excuse.

Tonight I had dinner with my homeless friends in the Odyssey program. It had been a few weeks since I had dined with them so I was looking forward to being back with them. And I was not disappointed. And I’m not talking about the meal. An integral part of each Monday night meal is something called ‘Highs & Lows”. We systematically go from person to person around the room and everyone has the opportunity to tell a past week “high” and a “low”. I am always humbled by this time as I relate what I might consider a high and low in my life to what these men see as highs and lows in their lives.

I consider telling them about the low that we experienced this past week while on vacation when the battery on our family car died and we had to go into a nearby town and purchase a new battery for the car. But then I think to myself – what kind of low is that? I was on vacation. I had a car. I was able to buy a battery. Get real… All of those “lows” are just a joke as I listen to these men tell about their low to learn that one of their fellow Odyssey members has relapsed and is back on the street. Or I hear how disappointed one of them was that his new teeth aren’t ready yet (he has had ALL of his teeth pulled and has been waiting on his new dentures for over 3 months!! When you are getting it done through a charity program, you can’t be very pushy). So I adjust my low to be the fact that I’ve come back to an office of emails and voice messages and I’ve spent the entire day just starting to catch back up. The guys know me and are sympathetic but as soon as the words leave my mouth I’m humbled to realize how blessed I am to have a job to come back to. I have a computer to be able to check my emails versus having to go to the public library and wait in line to get on a computer. And I have a phone that has voice mail capability. Most of my friends at dinner either don’t have a phone or the phone they have is a prepay phone with no messaging functions. In reality, I have to really search to find any lows that I have. That’s what hanging around with friends like these will do for you.

As I leave dinner and walk back to my car I see the Odyssey member that has relapsed. He’s standing on the sidewalk and looks terrible. He sees me and calls out my name, “Mr. Doug”. I walk up to him and the smell of alcohol almost takes my breath away. He offers his hand to me but I can’t help it and give him a big hug. He starts to tell me how sorry he is that he messed up. He tells me, “I’m drunk right now” (like I needed him to tell me that!). But he says he has been talking to the program directors and is planning on getting back in the program as soon as the next class opens up. He starts to cry and says he is so sorry. I tell him I love him and ask him what I can do to help him. He asks for a few dollars. I tell him (like I tell everyone one) that I don’t do money, but would be glad to get him something to eat if he’s hungry. Our eyes meet and it says everything – he wants another drink. He starts to cry even more. I hand him my card with my phone number on it and tell him to call me if he needs anything. He hugs me and I head to my car.

I’ll pray tonight for my friend on the street. And I’ll pray tonight and thank God for my lows.

9.17.09

2009-09-18T06:04:00.001-05:00

For those of us with a car transportation is something that we almost never think about. If you’re anything like me we not only take it for granted, we sometimes see it as an inconvenience rather than a blessing. As I deal with our brothers and sisters living in poverty, homeless and on the streets I get a really different picture of transportation. Especially the effects of not having it!!

This morning I left the house and sent to pick up a friend who does not have a car so that he could get to an appointment with his therapist at Otter Creek. His appointment wasn’t until 3PM but because of my schedule and his need for a ride (there are no bus routes that come to Otter Creek) I had to pick him up at 7AM. It was going to be necessary for him to spend the whole day at Otter Creek in order to make his appointment. We so have a visitor computer so he was able to do some work but he mostly waited. How many of us would be willing to do that? That’s just one of the costs of not having transportation – you have to revalue your time because you are no longer in control.

From picking up my friend we headed to see Tracy again. I had seen her the night before and she had asked me if I would wash her clothes. She had been living on the street and her clothes were filthy. I struggled with the right answer so as to not totally enable her but, at the same time, offer her assistance and compassion and trust. I told her I would take her to a shelter that provides access to a washer and dryer and she could wash her clothes. She agreed and we made plans for me to pick her up the next morning.

When my friend and I arrived Tracy came out to the car to say that her boyfriend was also going to go with us. I immediately stopped her and said that I had agreed to take her and not be a taxi for him as well. “I know he needs his clothes washed but I don’t know him” was my reply. I felt like Tracy was taking for granted my offer. She became very upset at me and starting crying saying she just wanted to help somebody else. I told her that she was in no position to help anyone and needed to focus on helping herself. That was what was being offered. With that she refused my offer and walked away. She had no sense of appreciation that I had driven out of my way to get her. I expect that Tracy had committed me to help her friend and made it seem like she was in control of that. When I refused it put her in a difficult position and she had to decide if she was going to go with me or stay on the street. No surprise that she decided on the street. That’s where she is in control. Decisions like that come from years of being betrayed and hurt every time you trust someone else and make yourself just a little vulnerable. And even though she would tell you that Otter Creek is the only group that has always been there for her, she’s not willing to take the next step.

I’ll go back and see Tracy to let her know that she is still loved by us. I expect that she feels like she has pushed us away, but that’s not the case. We’re called to love without regard to the response – in fact, the supreme example loved when the response ended with him being killed by those he loved. Who’s up for that?

9.15.09

2009-09-16T05:59:00.001-05:00

I have recently been blessed by the offer of a volunteer to come along side the work of this ministry and offer her help for 15 or so hours each week. Yesterday was one of the first days we were able to spend part of the day together and it turned out to be an interesting time. After attending an art reception at the Vanderbilt Divinity school we headed to Mending Hearts to meet with a young woman who has gotten a job and wants to understand budgeting. On the way we got a call that the class had been cancelled due to some remodeling going on at Mending Hearts. We headed out there anyway so I could introduce the volunteer to the organization and a few of the women. When we got there the directors of the entire program were working in tearing out floors and replacing the plywood with new wood. They had received a grant from HCA to do some remodeling and decided to stretch the dollars by doing the labor themselves. They had several of the women at work in the units. HCA had also sent out a group of volunteers to help paint so they were wrapping up that project as well. The place was in need of more volunteers to help with the rest of the remodeling. If you or any group that you’re a part of has some time to donate, please give me a call. The work at Mending Hearts is making a difference in the lives of women and their children and those if us who can help support that work should consider doing so.

I got to introduce my volunteer to Lisa (I’ve made several blog entries about Lisa). Lisa continues in her recovery and is making incredible progress. She’s thinking differently and acting differently. She’ll always be an addict but she’s starting to really recognize her addict tendencies and trying to get in front of those tendencies before she acts on them. She is driven to get her children back from the court system and out of foster care. She knows it’s the right thing to do for now but it’s not where she wants to end up. God is moving in her life and is transforming her in ways that are incredible. Can she relapse and fall again? Absolutely – but so can you and so can (and most definitely will) I. But she is really changing and it’s a blessing to see a miracle happen right before your eyes. I know Jesus cast out demons as he lived and taught here on earth. You look at Lisa and you can see that is sill happening by the power of the Holy Spirit and the people of God being his hand and feet.

From there we headed to Tent City where we dropped of a new chain saw for one of the residents. A few weeks ago he had asked me to take his old chain saw and get it repaired. After checking around it became obvious that it was cheaper to buy him a new chain saw ($99 at Home Depot) than spend the time and money to repair one that was on its last leg. We handed him a new chain saw still in the box!! I can’t wait to hear his stories. It’s the support of the Otter Creek benevolence budget that allows purchase like that to be made. Thanks to all the members for their weekly contributions to the regular budget as well as all those that have made special contributions to the benevolence budget to help with expenses like this.

Just across the street from Tent City we stopped to check on Tracy. She still in severe addiction and in such contrast to Lisa. Tracy has a daughter who is being raised by Tracy’s mom. She knows she’s not being the mother she needs to be and at times is willing to take steps to get clean. She’s been in at least 5 recovery programs this year, but has not been able to stay clean. She is in the grip of crack and it has her. And just like Lisa the only thing that is going to change Tracy is her submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit and allowing the people of God to walk with her. That’s the “3-legged stool” formula that I’ve seen is necessary for change to occur: 1) the individual has to have the desire and be broken enough to admit they are powerless; 2) the Holy Spirit has to be welcomed in and given the space in that person’s life to fill up the voids that are going to occur as they empty themselves; 3) there has to be a community of “true friends” that will be there to give, love and hold that person accountable for the new journey they are taking. Lisa is on that path and making progress. Tracy is still searching. The temptation for some may be to walk away but that betrays the thinking of that friend more than the person crying out for help. That friend walking away tends to think they are the solution to the addict’s problem and if the addict won’t accept their help then they will leave. What the friend fails to see is that they are just one leg of a stool. They can’t leave if they want the stool to eventually stand. But them staying won’t make the stool stand either. It takes the person and the Holy Spirit to make the stool stand. I think that’s the answer to the question I get so many times – “How can you keep on working with someone that continues to relapse and fall?” The answer is that I can’t imagine not being there as PART of the solution – not the solution, but a part. It’s not my call to decide when the person and the Holy Spirit will come together as 2 legs of the stool. But if the community has walked away and the other pieces come together, then the recovery will not succeed.

Keep praying for Tracy and keep praying for Lisa. And keep praying that God will work in each of our lives to let us more clearly see the role we play as a part of the community called to be true friends and journey with each other.

9.11.09

2009-09-11T20:51:00.002-05:00

Otter Creek’s work with Tent City is continuing in some interesting ways. For example this week several Otter Creeker’s hosted the rabbi and assistant rabbi from The Temple for a walk through of Tent City and the chance to introduce them to several of the residents. It was at the Tent City benefit concert several weeks back that we made contact with the folks from The Temple. During the month of October our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate one of their 3 holy festivals – The Festival of Shelters. This is a festival where they are called to remember the time their ancestors had to live in tents and temporary shelters as they journeyed from Egyptian captivity to Israel. It’s also a time they remember their agricultural roots when their ancestors worked the fields and lived in temporary booths near the fields they were harvesting in order to maximize the time they could work. This festival calls them to “remember” the blessings many of us have of a house and a roof over our heads. They are encouraged to actually construct some type of temporary shelter and live in it during a part of the celebration.

It seemed only fitting that a recognition of many of our city’s homeless was one additional way to engage in the celebration. To better acquaint themselves with the actual situation they asked to be escorted to Tent City. While those of us that visit and work there on a regular basis become accustomed to the environment at Tent City it is still a sobering reminder of the harsh reality of the life when we take a first time visitor and watch their reactions. I was touched by the care and desire to understand and look for ways to offer compassion shown by the rabbis.

At the benefit concert when the Tent City art exhibit was transferred to The Temple, the Otter Creek congregation was invited to attend their Sabbath service on October 2nd which is the start of the Festival of Shelters. Many of us are looking forward to what we can learn and what we will experience during that time. We’re also looking forward to a growing partnership with The Temple. At Otter Creek we have much to learn from our Jewish brother and sisters about the justice and compassion on God. They have expressed to me their desire to learn how they might be more active in working with the homeless community. Together we’re interested in showing the Nashville community how people of faith can come together to help address issues that we all have in common. If you read this blog and are interested in attending the Sabbath service or learning more about the planned partnership, email or call me.

Speaking of Tent City, several Otter Creeker’s along with a number of other outreach workers and concerned people have begun regular meetings with the residents of Tent City. The goal is to create a representative council of people living in Tent City in order to help with decisions, improve trust and communication and, most importantly, build a sense of value and community. I’ve been blown away by the desire of almost everyone living at Tent City to make the place where they are living a more decent, organized and respectable place. Stereotypes are being smashed as we spend time each week discussing community issues and making plans. I’m more convinced than ever that God has his hand in this process and is actively working in my life and the life of Otter Creek to mature us and give us a new set of eyes and more compassionate heart to realize that we are all the same in His eyes. If you’re interested in attending one of the council meetings, email or call me.

9.6.09

2009-09-07T09:48:00.002-05:00

The idea of giving back once you’ve been given to is a powerful motivator that I had never really experienced until my work with people in real need. Most of the time in my “bubble” of comfort when I saw people receive something it wasn’t because they really needed it – maybe it was more of a nice thing to receive and, therefore, did not evoke feelings of deep appreciation. But as Otter Creek has started to walk with people truly in need, we’re getting to experience a “phenomena” that seems pretty foreign to many of us – we get to peak around the corner and see the widow dropping in her mite and feel the holy ground beneath our feet for being able to be present at that moment.

I got a call earlier today from a friend who lives at Tent City. This man has his own issues and struggles, regrets and goals, but he is also one of the most giving people that I’ve met. I can’t help but put myself in his place and wonder if I wouldn’t be totally consumed with getting myself out of that environment no matter who I had to step over or on to make it happen. But not this man. He genuinely seems to take a special joy in lightening the load for his fellow travelers in a number of different ways. This afternoon he was under one of our city bridges working with a ministry that feeds the homeless (remember, he’s one of them!!). He met a young couple that had just arrived in Nashville with their 5 month old baby girl. The father is on disability and they get some money each month so they had checked into one of our local long-term hotels for a few weeks.

But these young parents had no bed for their baby (If you’re wondering why the hotel wouldn’t provide a rollaway or even a portable crib for the baby then I need to take you with me to see the type of hotel I’m talking about). And at 5 months old, they were worried that keeping the baby in the bed with them could be dangerous. So I got a call asking if Otter Creek might have a crib for the baby. Just one homeless man trying to help out a homeless couple in the only way that he could think of – call a church… Isn’t that how it’s supposed to happen??

Later that evening I called another Otter Creek member and invited him to take a ride with me to deliver a portable crib to this family’s hotel room. The irony of this is that the man I invited was the one who had donated the portable crib just a few weeks earlier. We called as we were getting close to the hotel and got the room number. As we drove into the hotel parking lot my friend asked me, “Don’t you ever get a little nervous about driving into places like this?” Given the neighborhood and time of night it was a reasonable question. And while I certainly take the normal precautions and try to be aware of where I am, I had to admit that I really don’t get too nervous. I feel like I’m on a mission, representing something much bigger than me or Otter Creek and that thought calms me.

We met the couple and saw one of the cutest babies you’ve ever seen – she was asleep in her car seat and never woke up when we were able to lay her down in her new crib. We had a few minutes to hear a little about the parents’ story, gave them our phone number and headed back to our clean, comfortable homes. I called my friend at Tent City to thank him for sending these folks our way. He seemed so very pleased that he was able to give back. And I’m so very pleased that Otter Creek is able to be used as a resource by people to help others. Parts working together in a way that helps the whole look more like Jesus than we could ever do on our own….my friends, that is the kingdom of God at work on earth as it is in heaven…

9.4.09

2009-09-05T07:12:00.001-05:00

I’ve referenced her before, but my friend Tracy has relapsed and is back on the streets. I’m personally going through all different types of emotions as I continue to reach out to her. I’m frustrated, disappointed, let down, tired, sad, trying hard not to throw up my hands and walk away from her, confused, struggling to look for a different way to approach her (since the options we’ve tried up to this point don’t seem to have worked), wondering about my definition of normal and if my expectations of her behavior are too much determined by cultural and societal norms rather than just loving her. I could go on, but you probably get the idea. I find as I reflect on these emotions they are not unlike many I have felt when dealing with children that weren’t following the path that I thought was best for them. And even more convicting, I realize that they are probably emotions that Jesus felt with his disciples as he walked with, talked with, lived with and taught them about a new way of living. It’s also how Jesus probably looks at me most of the time as he sees me struggling and failing and relapsing. But I take great comfort in that through all of those emotions Jesus might be struggling with as he walks with me, he never stops loving me. That’s the overriding emotion he feels and decision he has made for me and that makes all the difference. I think about the journey with Tracy and reach way back to find that emotion and decision – love and to love – and that must become the overriding emotion and decision that directs my actions.

So a few nights ago I headed onto the streets to try and find Tracy. She had been texting a few people so I had a pretty good idea the neighborhood where she might be. It only took about 15 minutes to find her sitting on a broken piece of concrete by the side of the road on a side street just off the main road. I pulled up and rolled down my window, said hi and asked her if she could use some company for a few minutes. We sat on the broken concrete slab and talked about what happened and why. All she could say was that she had done it to herself and it was her fault. She wanted another chance and to get off the street. The problem is that no one will take her right now. Her history is that she’ll stay for a few days and then walk away. She doesn’t take her meds as regularly as she should. We talked about what needed to happen differently the next time.

Tracy had walked away from the last rehab house over a week ago with only the clothes on her back. She had spent one night during the last week at a shelter to get her clothes washed and to take a shower but by now she was filthy. She asked if I could get her stuff from the rehab house and I agreed to try and do that. I really struggled with driving away and leaving her sitting on the street. She had no place to sleep that night. But I felt that offering her a room would only encourage behaviors that she really needed to understand and decide to address. So I drove off and headed back to my house and my bed. Not an easy thing to do.

I got Tracy’s stuff from the rehab house and delivered it to her this evening. It was way more stuff than she could carry with her. She still hasn’t found a place to stay. When I found her this evening she was sitting on the porch of a house with 2 men talking about what it would take for them to let her stay with them. I pulled up and walked up to her and they went inside. I could see the shame on her face as she saw me and she realized that I knew what she was doing. I simply walked up to her, gave her a hug and told her to come to the car and get her stuff. She picked through it, got a few clean clothes, her phone charger and some small items and asked me if I would hold the rest of her stuff for her until tomorrow. I agreed and we decided to talk tomorrow. She seemed a little more relieved when I left by her having a few personal items.

I keep wondering how Jesus would live in this moment? I find myself going back to scripture to try and glean principles for intrapersonal interactions. And while I occasionally get a glimpse of something exceptional, or I hear a sermon that gives me a new idea, most of the time I keep coming back to his most basic principle of living – just love them. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not our job to fix people. Thank God that’s His job. Loving people takes about all the energy I can muster. Maybe it is that simple - that incredibly hard...

9.01.09

2009-09-02T07:03:00.000-05:00

How we handle money is a topic that Jesus discussed as much as any other issue. Tonight an Otter Creek member who has training in budgeting and personal finances accompanied me to the spirituality class that I teach at Mending Hearts. The idea was to spend some time talking with the women about money issues as this is one of the main triggers that addicts must address if they are to maintain their sobriety.

As we headed to the meeting we discussed the topics he was planning to cover and it became clear to both of us that his training and prior experience had not exposed him to many of the issues that people living near the poverty line, earning the minimum wage and dealing with multiple levels of dysfunction must face. Issues of mortgages don’t really mean anything to most of them – they rent. When he considered issues of debt he hadn’t had a lot of exposure to title loan companies, pay day advance companies and pawn shops – that’s the world they live in. Having and maintaining a checking account is a given as a way to transact and operate within his world – he had not had much exposure to people being turned down in their request to open up a checking account because they have a long term overdrawn account at the bank – they just walked away from the problem a few years ago and never attempted to settle up with the bank on it.

Much to his credit, the instructor did a great job of introducing topics to the group that we were able to discuss. The idea of budgeting as well as the idea of how to manage cash flow was a topic that everyone seemed very interested in. Recognizing our tendencies to spend a few dollars here and there on things like getting their nails done rather than saving the money touched nerve that just about everyone could identify with. So overall the experience for the women in the class was positive. A few seemed interested in setting up a follow-up meeting to go into details about their specific situation.

But as we were driving home I got to hear what he learned from the night. “No one ever talks about how you have to rethink having $20 for discretionary money when you’re talking with a crack addict”, he said. I’ve encourage him to reflect on his impressions and what he learned about the evening. I continue to be impressed with the fact that when we get out of our comfort zone and seek to serve those in need with the gifts and talents we have, that we come away being more blessed than those we intended to serve. It really is more blessed to give than to receive…

8.30.09

2009-08-31T20:57:00.001-05:00

Got a call earlier this week from a woman to whom I owe much - she was the first person I talked with after determining that I needed to be personally taking the calls for assistance and help that came through the Otter Creek switchboard. We’d stayed in touch for the last few years as she relapsed, went through depression and feelings of suicide and struggled with trying to better understand her identity as a child of God. In the last few months she had drifted into a more severe depression and made some poor decisions involving agreements of behavior on the workplace. She was terminated from her job. I got the call as she was wrestling with feelings of anger (at herself and her boss) and shame (at knowing she had violated agreed upon rules). We talked about forgiveness, the continual process of redirecting our lives back to the path that leads to God and the reality of having to live with the consequences of bade decisions.

One of the consequences of her bad decisions was that she lost the housing that was being provided to her as a part of her employment agreement. This meant she had to locate a place to live, pay for the deposits and first month’s rent and then figure out how to get it furnished. All this at a time when she didn’t have a job. Not a good formula for staying sober!!
She found a roommate and they pooled what little money they had to get into an apartment. But like so many others, they had no furniture. And I mean nothing, except the clothes that they owned. So on Saturday we met at the Otter Creek furniture storage house where we were able to reach out to a hurt and hurting woman and help her regain a little dignity by providing her a bed, a dresser, a sofa, an end table and most of the kitchen supplies a person needs to set up a home. We didn’t talk about the past. We didn’t talk about recommitting to trying harder in the future. In fact, we hardly talked at all. I listened to her confess her mistakes. I listened to her talk about her plans for getting a job and getting her life back together. This lady knows what’s going on and what she needs to be doing to follow Jesus. Her challenge isn’t the head knowledge – it’s the heart commitment. It’s being in community with people that love her, that are a positive encouragement to her, that hold her accountable but do so with love and respect, that show her their love by their service and expect her to do the same. We make life a lot more complicated than God intended it to be. We pray for patience and then take pride in having our day planner be completely full and then wonder why we are getting so frustrated with little interruptions. We recognize the need to simplify and live a more moderate life but find ourselves looking through the mail order magazines and watching iPhone and car commercials and getting frustrated that we don’t seem to be able to stay focused on living a life that’s growing to look more like Jesus everyday.

So my time with my friend was not a time for me to be preaching a sermon to her. Her phone call to me for help was all the sermon I needed. As we loaded up her truck and I listened I found myself being preached to – by one of the people who pointed me down this path of service and who has shown me in her daily struggles what a life of faith looks like. Not daily victories and major conquests of Satan’s temptations, but rather a dogged conviction to keep fighting while trying to not take my eyes off the picture of Jesus.

8.20.09

2009-08-21T08:17:00.003-05:00

Today starts a new adventure for me. I’m not sure if tying it to my blog is the right thing to do but there’s a real sense that the reason for taking the path is due to a portion of the work I am currently involved in at Otter Creek. So with that in mind I thought I’d a give you an overview of what’s up for the next week – especially for those of you that read this and might wonder if I was on vacation for the week when no entries came through. Well, as a matter of fact, I am on vacation – at least taking some of my vacation days (thanks to my wife for letting me take these days without it being a real family vacation) to be in Detroit. Today I start grad school at Rochester College where I’ll be working on my Masters of Religious Education in Missional Leadership (http://www.rc.edu/blog/2009/07/30/first-cohort-forming-for-new-masters-degree-major/).

For all my street learning and practical approach to ministry I have had a growing feeling that I needed a stronger theology base for this ministry. No doubt I can say that it’s what Jesus was about and that the Old Testament scriptures give more than enough support to the call for followers of God to be people of justice for the marginalized. And over the last few years I’ve developed my own version of “street gospel” to be able to tell people why Otter Creek is doing what is doing to reach out. I think it all makes sense and is theologically sound. I’m just not sure it’s complete. And I’m growing in my desire to think deeply and personally about these issues. I want to create my own beliefs, not the ones handed me by my family, my community or my church. I had so many of those questioned over the last few years as I’ve experienced situations and areas of life that I had shut out for most of my life. And I’ve had to reconcile those situations with my understanding of God and come up with answers. And many of the answers that I had been taught or simply given did not hold up under the harsh reality of life. So I’ve had to work through many of those on my own. And now I feel a need to go a little deeper and strengthen my basis for the answers that I believe to be right and learn more of the questions and answers as well. I hope that doesn’t come across as prideful. It’s intended to communicate a deep desire to own my beliefs rather than just accept a belief. I need a belief that I can “take a bullet for”. Thanks to my work on the streets, I feel like I’m close to having that. I also feel a need to be able to defend and explain that belief to both my peers as well as the people I meet on the streets. I recognize that won’t be the same explanation to those 2 groups. I’m pretty comfortable with my friends on the street. It’s my friends in the church community that I want to be more prepared to dialogue with. I have been forced to look at old answers in ways that has rocked my foundations. My experience is that most of us don’t want our foundations rocked – even though that’s what Jesus did. One goal of this grad school experience is to prepare me to “be rocked and to rock” in a way that honors God and seeks to live a life of integrity to principles that are concrete.

I expect part of this week to be experiential. Perhaps they’ll be a few “reaching out” examples I can give through this blog. I expect that I’ll still be doing some reaching out via the phone and the internet so I’ll try and convey those experiences. I won’t be going into much detail on these classes and what they are doing for me – that would seem very ego-centered to me. If you’re interested, call me or email me and we can talk when I get back. Otherwise, I hope and pray that the evidence of this week being a good investment of time and money will be a more effective ministry of reaching out and making a difference in the world as we seek God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Stay tuned…

8.15.09

2009-08-17T21:48:00.000-05:00

So much of what I write about seems to focus on Otter Creek reaching out to people in our community that are not tied to our church family. And that’s good and how it should be. However, to think that the Otter Creek family doesn’t have people in need would be to be blind to all that’s going on right under our noses.

Our furniture ministry gets much of its inventory from the generous donations from Otter Creek members. This weekend we got the chance to help an Otter Creeker who was relocating due to a job loss and was in need of some furniture. I had gotten an request from another Otter Creeker to call him when I needed help so he met me at the Otter Creek furniture house and we started loading up items to deliver. We grabbed a couple of beds, a table and chairs and a book case and headed to the apartment.

It didn’t take long in conversation to find common ties between all of us. That’s one of the beautiful things about community. We’re not intended to try and get thru life by ourselves. Even though after disappointments and betrayals the temptation is to shut our door and tell ourselves it’s better if we just stay to ourself, that’s not the case. It was a great time together as we set up beds and put legs on the table.

We did get started a little later than we had planned and the set up took a little longer than we had planned so by the time we left we were behind for the next stops. There was a woman living in one of Nashville’s housing projects that had called earlier in the week to ask for help with a pair of shoes. She had injured her foot and leg and the doctor had prescribed a specialty shoe along with a brace that he was ordering for her. Once again the Otter Creek community stepped up. We’re blessed to have a member who offered to help through their business connections and provided that pair of shoes. The member who was working with me volunteered to go pick up the woman and take her to get fitted for her shoes. That’s what it’s all about. People using their gifts to help and bless others. I got a call the next day from the woman telling me how appreciative she was for the shoes and for the opportunity to meet other Otter Creekers and see how Jesus was living through them.

8.12.09

2009-08-14T06:12:00.001-05:00

If you follow this blog I’m hoping you’ve heard about the Tent City benefit concert we had on Wednesday evening at Otter Creek. There have been several press & media stories telling how the idea was conceived and then how God (no doubt in my mind) took the idea and grew it into quite the event. 48 homeless guests from Tent City and other “encampments” as well as from a few of the housing units where the lucky ones are transitioned into were in attendance. Representatives from the Metro government were there. Some old, but mostly new friends from The Temple stepped out of their comfort zone and came to join in recognizing the issue of homelessness in Nashville and to offer their partnership for our 2 faiths to work together in this common cause. Media folks talked with, photographed and interviewed Otter Creekers and guests.

One of the underlying goals of this time together was to take what had been an entertaining and fellowship time for the members at Otter Creek as we listened to Phil Keaggy (Phil has been performing during our summer series for many years) and transition that time from a focus on us to something much larger. Phil Keaggy not only supported that goal but actively participated in helping us craft the evening to be less about him and more about community. He is one terrific man who deserves our support for his artistry and talent.

Who knows what seeds have been planted? Who knows where God will take this time and lead us to the next level? What I am pretty sure is that the evening is not intended to be a transaction where we enjoy the time, the feeling of being more inclusive and then leave without realizing that experience is a step on a journey. I feel strongly that we must be intentional about taking the momentum from the evening and using it as a springboard for additional energy and focus on that journey. What’s the journey? Check out Micah 6:8 and I think you start to get an idea of what it might look like. Maybe we made a little progress on that journey tonight but let’s not take too much satisfaction in our accomplishments. The goal is a lifestyle, a paradigm of living that takes our 24/7 lives and asks what’s at the center of it all…We don’t make quick radical changes in our lives. It’s a slow, deliberate “conversion” that uses our intent and the power of the Spirit to keep the move taking place. But it’s sure nice to get a boost on the journey from events like tonight. Thanks to my brothers and sisters from Otter Creek for being a community of people willing to take the journey. I’m blessed to be a pilgrim with you…

8.11.09

2009-08-12T05:57:00.000-05:00

For the past several years a number of Otter Creek members have been involved in a community project that is starting up again and needs your support. The Kirkpatrick Elementary School is a pre-K through 4th grade school located on S. 9th Street in Nashville and primarily serve children who live in the James Cayce neighborhood. Cayce is where the Martha O’Bryan Center is located. I’ve mentioned them several times in my blog.

It was about 5 years ago that a young Otter Creek woman got her first Metro teaching assignment and was sent to Kirkpatrick. As she began to experience the joys and frustrations of working in a poor, urban school environment she talked to her Otter Creek life group about the challenges. One of her greatest needs was to be able to carve out a few hours each week to work on lesson plans and prepare materials for her class. But with the limited resources of the school she was not able to take her eyes off the children. Her life group offered to step in and help her by coming to her classroom a few hours each week to read and work with the children so the teacher could have some time to get ahead.

By the next school year a few of the teacher’s associates had asked her if she might know of other volunteers who would be willing to work with them like her life group had been doing with her. One Otter Creek member took it on herself to begin to organize volunteers and assign them to teachers. By the start of the next year we were in communication with the principal and had her full support to roll out our volunteer program to all 25 classes at Kirkpatrick.

The concept is simple – are you willing to give at least 4 hours PER MONTH to help a teacher at Kirkpatrick? That’s the minimum that we ask (know that most people get hooked into loving these children and end up spending more time than this). It’s your chance to get to meet and know and come to love 20 children, most of whom are anxious for the attention of an adult. You will have the chance to read to them, work on learning skills and listen to them read back to you. But as important is that you will be showing these children that they have value – you’re willing to spend your time every month to be with them.

They don’t expect consistency for you so you showing up at an appointed time each month shows more than you can imagine. They don’t expect you to come to serve them so you being willing to spend a couple of hours with them - sitting at their desks, listening to their stories (and what stories you will hear!!), speaks volumes about how you see them.
It doesn’t take long for you to learn about their families and what’s going on in their lives. Almost naturally a few of them will be drawn to you. As you begin to listen and then talk with the teacher about what you’re hearing, you’ll discover opportunities to go beyond the few hours in the classroom. You may want to follow up on that yourself, or you may want to call me. One of the goals of this program is to open up relationship opportunities with the families of these children. That may not be your gift, but it is the gift of others at Otter Creek. It’s a beautiful thing when each of us can use the gifts and talents given to us by God and know when to “hand-off” to the next person.

Several of our volunteers and several Kirkpatrick teachers also attend the every-other-week Joyful Noise service on Sunday afternoons at the Martha O’Bryan Center. Many of the volunteers invite the children from their Kirkpatrick class to bring their mom and brothers & sisters and come to the service. It gives a different opportunity to see another side of family life when you can sit by the family of one of “your” kids in a church service and then get the chance to talk with the mom.

This is a great involvement opportunity. It requires transportation and the willingness to a consistent schedule. But it’s a schedule that you can set yourself. If you’d like to talk with some of the current volunteers to better understand the expectations, I’ll be glad to sit that up. If you do talk with them my guess is that you’ll end up talking more about the blessings and joys of serving than the expectations of the role. Email or call me if you’d like to learn more and I’ll put you in touch with this year’s volunteer coordinator. I can’t think of many involvement opportunities that offer so many different ways to engage, serve, bless and be blessed than our Kirkpatrick School program. Think and pray about this and try it out….

8.809

2009-08-09T07:01:00.000-05:00

The young couple I met earlier this week that had moved into Cayce which we gave an A/C and promised to come back was on schedule for this morning. Unrelated to meeting this couple (yeah, right – unrelated…God has His ways…), I was contacted the next day after meeting this couple by an Otter Creeker who had a baby bed to donate and asked if he and his young daughter might be able to help deliver and set it up. So we made plans for them to meet me this morning to deliver some furniture as well as the baby bed. After a few stops to pick up a sofa and love seat and then to the OCC furniture house for a couple of dressers, some kitchen supplies, fresh veggies from the OCC garden and some bedding, we headed into town to make the deliveries.

We were able to load in all the furniture while my friend and his daughter worked with the mom and the 4 month old baby boy to re-assemble the baby bed. Since my interaction was more with the father and the neighbors who were asking what all was going on, I’ll have to talk to the baby bed assembler team and see what impressions they came away with from the day. For me, I saw the potential for relationships to be built. Not much happens on a first meeting – in fact, much of what does happen is positioning on the part of the people we are reaching out to. They have no reason to trust us or even believe that anything we are telling them will happen – things like we’ll be back. Experience has taught most of them to tell me a story that has the potential to touch my heart and cause me to want to give them something – out of sympathy. I understand that so when, at our first meeting, they told me they had come to Nashville from St. Louis to look for work and didn’t know anyone in Nashville, I listened but didn’t let that statement register as fact. As we chatted today while carrying in furniture one of the neighbors asked the father if his cousin was stopping by later today….Now I had a choice to confront the man with the apparent mistruth he had told me just a few days earlier or I could choose to listen and learn. I took the latter option and believe it to be the choice that will allow our relationship the potential to grow. That’s what this ministry is all about.

After dropping my friend and his daughter back off so they could head home, I headed back out to another OCC member who had called to offer his washer & dryer as he was moving and didn’t need it. When he called earlier in the week he asked if I knew of anyone who could use it. Once again, I had gotten a call just a few days earlier from a woman who is keeping 2 young ladies at her house as they try to get back on the road to recovery. She called to tell me her washer had gone out. Now I get the call about a washer donation – just coincidence?? I don’t think so… I expected a little trouble getting it loaded into her house and was worried since I was by myself.

Once again, just by chance (yeah, right) I get a text message from another OCC member asking if I needed help with anything. I called and asked him to meet me at this lady’s house. He agreed and I headed that way. 10 minutes into the trip I noticed the OCC van was overheating so I pulled over at a gas station and saw that the radiator reservoir was dry. I bought some coolant, filled it up and started again, but it kept overheating. So I called my friend – who was already at the house waiting on me – and told him I was going to be another 45 minutes. I drove back to the church, dropped the van and hooked the trailer to my Explorer and headed out. His willingness to wait on me spoke volumes about his desire to serve. He had the chance to meet the lady and her 2 guests as they thanked us for the washing machine.

There’s a lot of chaos in the world. I’m feeling pulled into it more and more. It makes me wonder how Jesus handled that as He walked, talked and taught? Seems like much of it comes from our own decisions that, in many cases, we know are going to cause chaos to erupt. Why do we do that? Can it all be laid at the feet of our fallen nature? How do we change? What are we to learn from chaos? Should it be a trait of Christ-followers to rise above chaos and be an island of peace and contentment? What would that show our neighbors and the world if we were able to walk that path? More to come on all of that….

8.4.09

2009-08-04T22:13:00.001-05:00

Made a follow-up call today to a family whose name came to us from the Martha O’Bryan Center. They have just arrived in Nashville from St. Louis and have moved into the Cayce housing project. The call was to see if Otter Creek’s furniture ministry might be able to help get them a few things they indicated they needed. As is our custom, I made a phone call and arranged to stop by their apartment to meet them and to check out what all they needed.
I noticed the temperature on my car’s outside thermometer was 94 when I parked outside the apartment. As I walked to the door I noticed I heard a baby crying through the open window. I knocked on the door and was greeted by the woman and her husband. They welcomed me into a completely empty living room except for a baby crib sitting in the middle of the room with a fan blowing towards it. I walked over to see a beautiful 4 month old baby boy with one of the cutest smiles I had seen in a few days (excuse the bragging, but my 3 month old granddaughter has been visiting us for the past few days). There were no lights on in the apartment, but the temperature was at least 80.

We chatted for a while as I walked around their apartment. They already had a kitchen table and chairs, a microwave, a few plates, cups and utensils and a few pots and pans. That was it. Seems they had not been able to find work in St. Louis so the decided to come to Nashville. They tell me they don’t know anyone. We talked about what furniture they needed and the timing for us to be able to bring it by.

As I was getting ready to leave I walked by the baby’s crib and couldn’t help but think about my granddaughter and all the opportunities she has in front of her. These parents were doing all they could to provide for their child. When he could find it the father was working temporary day labor. He said that he normally would make $40-$45 per day after a hard 8 hours of work. His background is a chef, but he hasn’t been able to find anything. I asked if they had formula for the baby and the mom was quick to tell me that as long as she had anything available that the baby would be cared for.

I asked the father to walk out to the car with me and handed him an air conditioner. As I handed it to him he started thanking me and thanking God. He said they had been praying for some way to be able to get an air conditioner but didn’t know how it would happen. As we walked back into the house carrying the A/C the mom started thanking God as well. We spent a few minutes setting up the A/C and then I got the enjoyment of seeing them roll the crib in front of the A/C as the baby got to cool off.

I invited them to Sunday’s Joyful Noise service at Martha O’Bryan. They’ve indicated they’ll be there. Thanks to the members at Otter Creek who help support the benevolence ministry – both through their regular contributions and through special gifts like A/C’s. I almost feel guilty that I get the pleasure of seeing those gifts being put to work.

8.3.09

2009-08-03T21:50:00.000-05:00

There’s a young woman (let’s call her Jesse) that I first met during a spirituality class at Mending Hearts. She gets your attention because she’s not like most of the other woman. In fact, if you didn’t get to know Jesse, or if you decided to judge her by her appearances, you might think she was a man. For lots of reasons – many of which I don’t know – Jesse has taken on a more male role in her female body. During the first round of classes I wasn’t even sure she was listening. It was pretty clear she didn’t want to be in the class. But I end most every class by reminding the women that if they ever get into a situation where they need help, that they are welcome to call my cell phone – 24/7 – and I’ll come and get them. No questions asked. Just an opportunity for them to know there’s at least one person who they can trust and feel safe with.

It was more 6 months later that I got a call from Jesse. She was in a bad situation with another woman and needed help. She had relapsed in a serious way and was crying out for someone to help her. I picked her up, got her a hotel room for the night and called several other people to come to her aid. But through it all, I stood by her. No questions asked – it wasn’t the time. We made the calls and asked for the favors to get her into an in-patient rehab program in record time. Within 3 days she was off the streets and safe with people that were committed to walk with her through some hard times as she detox’d off heroin. Less than 24 hours later I got a call from another woman to tell me that Jesse had left rehab and hit the streets again. No call, no explanation, not a word from her.

A month or so later she called to let me know how well life was going for her. She was moving into an apartment and getting a job. She just wanted to thank me for helping her. As we talked I could tell that all was not well. I told her that I would still be there for her when times turned tough again. She thanked me and hung up.

It was 2 days ago that I got a call from Jesse. She was hysterical and sobbing. She had had a major fight with her girlfriend a few days earlier. The police had been called and it was clear that the relationship was over. Jesse had relapsed again and was in the hospital. She was looking for help. Over the next 24 hours she was admitted back into a rehab program. But in the course of that time she made some of her “friends” really mad so they retaliated by taking everything she owned and dumping it all in a dumpster by a convenience store. They then called her to tell her what they did – knowing that there was nothing she could do about it. When she called me she was ready to kill herself.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what I should do. I could see Jesus and the woman caught in adultery – he gently gave her hope but also gave her a new direction for life. I called Jesse’s friends and asked them which dumpster they had used. Even they knew what they had done had gone too far, so they told me the location. So late last night I headed to the dumpster where I dug out all of her possessions. Pretty messy job. But delivering them to her today at the rehab facility gave her some hope that I pray will give her a little bit of desire to turn her life around.
Only God can transform lives. Our jobs are to use the gifts and talents He’s given us to be His hands and feet in this place. My prayer is that Jesse has hit the bottom and is truly ready to make a change. But that decision is her’s to make. I’m not called to judge her – God knows I’ve got enough of my own problems and issues that I certainly have no right to put her in her place. (Yes, we are called to judge what kind of fruit a tree bears, but that’s a pretty objective task – deciding how that fruit will be used is still up to God). Keep Jesse in your prayers – she’s going to need them.

8.1.09

2009-08-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

I got a call earlier in the week from a social worker at Martha O’ Bryan asking if Otter Creek might be able to help her by pulling together a team to help clean an apartment in James Cayce. I gave Otter Creek’s young adult minister a call to see if he thought there might be a few of our young folks willing to give 4 hours on a Saturday morning. On Friday he stuck his head in the door of my office to tell me his team was ready to go for today. I called the social worker and we settled on a time and place to meet. She “warned” me that this apartment was pretty bad and for our folks to come prepared to roll up their sleeves. The single mom in the apartment was being given one last chance to get it cleaned up or face eviction. She had reached out to Martha O’Bryan who called us to pitch in.

After a morning rendezvous and breakfast at Waffle House our team of 7 headed to Cayce to meet the social worker and the family we were helping. On the way I tried to explain to the folks in my car some of the facts about James Cayce – largest housing project in Nashville; 90+% of the leasee’s are single mom’s with an average age of having their first child at about 16 yrs old; average of 3 children per apartment (these are my recollections of statistics I’ve been told). My purpose for talking about this was to try and get the group and myself out of a judgmental spirit as we started to work and more into a spirit of compassion that comes from some amount of understanding.

Needless to say the filth, spoiled food, and bugs (so many bugs….) was more than most of us had ever seen in a place where adults and children were living. It definitely needed our help. And I was really proud of the team and how they jumped right in – even when the situation had the potential to make anyone a little squeamish.

There were lots of stories that came from the day, but the one I remember most vividly was the conversation I had with a neighbor mom who came up to talk with me while I was working out back on furniture we had pulled out of the apartment. She wanted to know what we were doing. I tried to be very respectful and considerate of the mom we were working with. We sure didn’t want our presence to embarrass her. I told the neighbor we were just helping out as part of a group of people that cared about this mom. “Can you come to my house?”, she asked me. I told her we came at the request of the folks at the Martha O’Bryan center after they had been working with this mom and she had already done a lot of work before we got there. It was obvious by her next question that she didn’t hear me. “Are you being made to do this?”, she asked me. Court ordered community service is something most of them understand. “No, we’re doing this because we believe it’s what Jesus would do and we’re trying to live our lives by doing what we think he would be doing” I told her. She nodded and said that made sense as she knew Jesus helped the poor. “And he washed dishes while he was helping”, I said. Who knows what seeds were planted? - with the young mom we tried to help or the neighbors that saw us and wondered what was going on. But this I do know – what this group of folks from Otter Creek did today looked more like Jesus than anything I’ve seen in a long time. I was honored and blessed to work beside them. I’ve got a feeling they each have their own stories from today. I’ll be inviting them to comment to this entry so you can see what touched them. Otter Creek is a great place to be in community.

7.31.09

2009-08-01T06:49:00.000-05:00

This blog is more a week in review since I’ve been involved in a number of projects and just didn’t set aside the time to write an update on every one of them.

There were 16 different people that moved from Tent City in permanent housing over the past few weeks!! Several people needed different types of furniture. A few Otter Creekers and some case managers from Park Center worked up a list of needs and brought it to me to see if Otter Creek’s furniture ministry could help out. The list included 7 sofas, 3 chairs, 3 end tables, and several lamps. We looked over the list and told them we could fill the entire list – thanks to Otter Creek members who call to tell us they have furniture and household items to be donated. Due to my schedule I was not able to actually help with the move but a young man that has been helping me over the last few weeks stepped us and offered to lead the team that was made up of Park Center folks and the people getting the furniture. They made several trips between the apartments and the Otter Creek house where the furniture but by the end of the day all needs were filled. Thanks to the volunteers that worked to make this happen. This now means our furniture supply is pretty low so we’re interested in hearing from people wanting to donate items back to this ministry. Believe me, it makes a difference in the lives of people and gives us a chance to show a type of love and service that most of them have never experienced.

On Aug 12th Phil Keaggy is holding a concert at Otter Creek that we’re turning into a benefit concert for Tent City. One of the providential connections coming out of this effort is a new relationship with The Temple here in Nashville. One of their members was working with an Otter Creeker who told him about Tent City and the photo exhibit of Tent City on display at Otter Creek. He asked to see Tent City so the photographer took him to Tent City which convicted him and inspired him to talk to The Temple about displaying the photo exhibit once it comes down at Otter Creek. From that connection we reached out to The Temple to invite them to be a part of the benefit concert and use that event to announce the “hand-off” of the exhibit to them. They have graciously and enthusiastically accepted. So this week a few of us went to The Temple to meet their art ministry team and the assistant rabbi. What great people! A tour of The Temple inspired me and stirred in me an appreciation for history and a reverence for God that I was not expecting. After the benefit concert there’s another joint project in the works between Otter Creek and The Temple so be keeping up. I can’t think of a better message of unity to send the greater Nashville community than to have a group of Jews and Christians working together on issues like homelessness, poverty and jobs. Thanks to Otter Creek’s Carolyn Maddux Peace & Justice Ministry for leading the way in this.

I also had the chance to meet with 2 different sister churches this week. One in association with one of their members who works for Mental Health Co-op (MHC) which covers greater Nashville to support and work with people who have mental illnesses. Many of their clients are from low income families who are also battling different addiction issues so the problems are significant. Many of the people Otter Creek reaches out to work with experience the same challenges. Over the past few years Otter Creek and MHC have crossed paths but never formally met. Finding out that a member from a sister congregation works on one of the intensive outreach teams at MHC gave Otter Creek a chance to really connect for present and future opportunities. Later I had the chance to talk with another congregation trying to develop their benevolence ministry and outreach program. They wanted to talk about how Otter Creek’s program works and see how we might work together with them. One of the thoughts coming out of that meeting was for them to hold a conference for all churches in our geographic area to discuss outreach programs. Otter Creek was asked to be one of the lead presenters in that conference. That recognition comes from each Otter Creek member doing their part to create a ministry that is really making a difference in people’s lives.

We continue to look for volunteers who are interested in jumping into this ministry to find out more about it and see where God can use the gifts each of us has. Even if you’re not a member at Otter Creek but want to get involved, drop me an email and let’s set up a time for you to ride with me. My typical response to critics, questioners and supporters who want to know more about this ministry is “Come and spend a day with me”.

7.26.09

2009-07-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a day of contrasts for me. Up until lunch it was business as usual with the goings on at Otter Creek.

I left the building a little before noon and headed to Tent City to meet a few of the church members from Emmaus church who had invited me to come down and see what they were doing. I had only talked with them so when I arrived and saw a temporary tent, sound system and food table set up, I assumed that was them. There was a middle aged man in the middle of his sermon by the time I got parked and walked back to the tent so I stood outside the tent and listened. There were about 10-12 Tent City folks in folding chairs listening to him and 6 or so other members of his congregation also in attendance. A few of the folks were busy getting the food setup. It was obvious that dinner would be served after the sermon. The sermon was on the wise & foolish builders at the end of the sermon on the mount. It occurred to me while I was listening about the instance where disciples of Jesus came to him to tell him there were others preaching His name that they didn’t know. Jesus said that as long as the word was being preached it was OK. So while the message and style didn’t seem to be very applicable to the setting and the situation of the people I was thankful for their testimony. Towards the end of the sermon one of my friends from Tent City walked over to me to comment on the service. When I asked if that was the Emmaus pastor he told me that was not the Emmaus church but a relatively new group that had started coming down and had asked Emmaus to stop meeting while they were trying to hold services! I later met the minister and look forward to learning more about his plans for the outreach…

Turns out that while we were talking a few young people showed up with a pull-behind wagon loaded with sack lunches. They introduced themselves as members from Emmaus. They went from tent to tent offering sack lunches to the residents. We had a brief chat and I learned that the pastor I had hoped to meet had not been able to come. So I asked the young people to let him know I asked for him and would try to call him later in the week. I left Tent City with mixed feelings of relief and concern for my friends, but with no doubt that there are other groups wanting to use their gifts to honor God and help people.

From Tent City I went to Holy Trinity Episcopal church. This is the small stone church building just south of the Nashville Rescue Mission. It’s one of the oldest churches in Nashville. I had learned just this past week that they have a 2PM “Eucharist in the yard” service each week along with a meal after the service. This is offered to both members and the homeless community. I know a few members from that church and had been invited to attend. There were probably 25 people who attended the liturgy and took communion. It was a beautiful service and a joy to sit beside members and homeless friends as we worshiped together. What a gift to give to the city.

From Holy Trinity I went across the river to the Martha O’Bryan Center where Joyful Noise started at 4PM. As I’ve mentioned before this is in the middle of the James Cayce homes. The every other week service is an ecumenical gathering of several groups along with members of the community. This is not designed to take the place of their Sunday morning worship but rather to let them meet and spend time with other residents of Cayce who are trying to honor God with their lives. The Martha O’Bryan pastor led us in a few songs, a few of the people in attendance (mostly young children) also lead some songs, the minister from Harpeth Pres presented the short lesson on the times when it’s best to run away (from trouble), I was asked to lead the prayer for the community (we take prayer requests from everyone), 3 of the pastors from Living Word Community church took specific prayer requests for individuals and then one of the young people led us all in an affirmation of faith. What a great gathering of people who are trying to live lives that honor God – even in an extremely difficult environment.

From there I headed home to our life group who was meeting at our house. We talked about the morning sermon on negotiating with God and ended up spending 2 ½ hours in close community with each other. This is a pretty new gathering of people so we’re getting to know each other. I came away feeling like that was what “church” is all about.
What a great day of contrasts and common threads. May God be praised in all that we do as we live each day trying to look more like Jesus…

7.24.09

2009-07-26T08:08:00.004-05:00

7.24.09
What a day… started at 7:30 with an OCC member by teaching Step 7 to the Odyssey class at the Campus. These are great guys looking to turn their lives around and who are open to let some of us speak into those lives. Here’s the handout that we used for the morning (taken from Stephen Covey material):

5 EMOTIONAL CANCERS
crit⋅i⋅cism (to critize)
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [krit-uh-siz-uh m]
–noun
1.the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
2.the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.

com⋅pare (to compare)
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuh m-pair]
–verb (used with object)
1.to examine (two or more objects, ideas, people, etc.) in order to note similarities and differences: to compare two pieces of cloth; to compare the governments of two nations.
2. to consider or describe as similar; liken: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
3. to vie; rival.

com⋅plain (to complain)
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuh m-pleyn]
–verb (used without object)
1.to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault: He complained constantly about the noise in the corridor.
2. to tell of one's pains, ailments, etc.: to complain of a backache.
3. to make a formal accusation: If you think you've been swindled, complain to the police.

com⋅pete (to compete)
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuh m-peet]
–verb (used without object), -pet⋅ed, -pet⋅ing.
to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; engage in a contest; vie: to compete in a race; to compete in business.

con⋅ten⋅tious (to contend/ be contentious)
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuh n-ten-shuh s]
–adjective
1.tending to argument or strife; quarrelsome: a contentious crew.
2.causing, involving, or characterized by argument or controversy: contentious issues.

From class we met the case manager for Rooftops – that’s the ecumenical association of churches that contribute a portion of their benevolence budgets to help people looking for rent assistance. This lady has a heart of gold. I love spending time with her and hearing what is going on with the families she is seeing. It’s a blessing for Otter Creek to be working with Rooftops both as a contributor and as a direct resource to some of the families that we find need additional help during their interviews with Rooftops.

We had lunch with the director of a prison ministry group that Otter Creek supports both financially and with volunteers. This group has expanded to open halfway houses for men and women coming out of prison. We actually have a member who’s daughter is living at one of these houses. As we talked it was apparent that there were several involvement opportunities for many OCC members that we’ll try to start communicating in the next few days.

We went back to Tent City to finalize some photography and film options tied to our Aug 12th benefit concert. It’s such a contrast to spend time at Tent City – abject poverty but a beauty and peace that so many of us long to have. I’m really excited about the benefit concert and the opportunity to expose those that attend to a part of Nashville they may not realize exists.

From Tent City we visited with the director of one of Nashville’s largest women’s transition programs. They are very involved with a group Otter Creek and a few others are helping to form to address the issue of homeless children. The director had an idea of a property that could serve as home base for the overall project and she wanted to give us that information. I continue to be humbled at the role Otter Creek has been given to help lead in important tasks like this.

Today was one of those days when seeds are planted and a few other “just-planted” relationships and projects are nurtured and followed up on so that the potential is there for greater productivity in the future. I know there are OCC members who have gifts of vision and strategy that would be such a blessing to this portion of the overall ministry. If you think that might be your calling, then let me know and we’ll spend some time together on a day like today and see where God might be using you….

7.23.09

2009-07-24T06:37:00.002-05:00

A woman walked into our church office yesterday afternoon pulling her 2-wheeler luggage dolly which held a couple of suitcases, a purse and a rolled up mat. I saw her as I was pulling back into the office in the church bus after spending the middle part of the day with about 10 of our senior (as in “older”) members driving them to the Parthenon and the Frist Center. I had a little clean up work to do on the bus so I called the front desk and asked them to have the woman fill out our request for assistance form (it’s what we have someone complete when there’s no one at the office to talk with them). I knew she looked familiar and I was curious as to how much of her story she’d tell me on the form.

I expect many of you living in South Nashville have seen this woman walking along Franklin Rd. I have picked her up several times although she didn’t remember me. She did say that she had heard our church’s name so decided to stop by (she was actually dropped off at our building by a young man in a pick up truck). When she has the money this woman stays at a hotel an exit north of Old Hickory Blvd off I-65. She was coming by looking for money for food and another night at the hotel.

We sat in a classroom for an hour while she told me her story – and repeated herself at least five times. I tried to ask her a few questions to learn more about who she was. I told her that our goal was to not only help her with her immediate needs but to get to know her well enough that she could come to trust us enough to allow us to walk with her through her struggles. I asked for other friends she had that we might be able to call who could meet with her and us so that we could better understand her from their perspective. As we spoke she made it clear that her only problem was needing to get a job. That if she could get a job, then all her problems would be solved. She said several times how close she was to getting a job and being able to move out of the hotel. When I asked her how long she had been in the hotel and she said “7 years” she didn’t even blink an eye. “Doesn’t that seem like a long time to live in a hotel?”, I asked. No real response. She knew she wanted an apartment but felt that the world had conspired against her to keep her from getting a job. “I’m normal” she said at least 10 times in our conversation. When I pointed out that I really didn’t know what “normal” was but that it did seem a little unusual for someone to live in a hotel for 7 years she just sat there. I prayed silently that God would give me some insight to speak to this woman in a way that might break through to her heart.

She mentioned she was tired and hungry. I offered to give her a Kroger gift card and take her there so that she could get food. I told her that Otter Creek wasn’t going to pay for her hotel room for the night even though we pay for many rooms each month. I explained that most of the times we pay for rooms it’s a part of a bigger picture between our church and the person being helped. We are extending compassion with the hope of getting to know that person better. I told her it seemed like she was pretty content to not let anyone know her. Eventually she did give me a few names of people she’d done odd jobs for. I asked permission to call them to learn more about her. She said I should only call them as job references if we were interested in hiring her. “We’re not hiring you”, I said. So she asked that I not call them.
“What will you do tonight?”, I asked. She said she’d go bay to the hotel where they would probably let her sleep on a bench. We gave her a Kroger gift card. I offered to take her across the street to Kroger, but she indicated she’d rather walk. I offered to meet her there in 30 minutes and take her to the hotel. After thinking about that, she agreed and then headed out to Kroger.

A while later I picked her up and took her to the hotel. I assured her that even though we wouldn’t be paying for her room that she was always welcome to stop by the church building to get a bottle of water and sit and rest. I told her again how much we longed to really get to know her and that when (and if) she was ever ready for that, that we’d be here for her. She smiled and walked into the hotel lobby.

It would have been so easy to pay for her room and feel good about what we did for her for the night (I wish feeling good was the measurement). I know several people who have paid for her a room. But I got the sense in talking with her that no one had ever taken the time to listen and then tried to offer a different approach. Perhaps you disagree with the direction that was taken, but I felt led to go in that way. Please keep this woman in your prayers. And if you see her walking on Franklin Rd., stop and give her a lift.

7.21.09

2009-07-22T07:02:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday I was privileged to be able to speak to the Otter Creek family on Sunday morning. I talked about how we are instruments of transformation as well as transformed ourselves by involvement within a community - whether that be a church community or our city. Here’s the link if you’re interested in hearing it http://ottercreek.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2009-07-19T09_45_34-07_00. I’d love to get your feedback on what I had to say…

On Monday a number of churches met to discuss plans for the fall at Joyful noise which meets at the Martha O’Bryan Center every other Sunday at 4PM. In one sense this is a church group, but in another sense it’s an attempt to supplement the church family that many of those in attendance already own. With the Center being at the hub of activities in the James Cayce housing projects, they view their role as being light and hope to many of the people and families wishing they could move up and out to another environment. Providing connections with other people who are “safe” and who are trying to live a God-honoring life is a key contribution that Joyful Noise provides. Otter Creek has had individuals, life groups, families, business associates and many others join in the gathering at Joyful Noise to both support and lead different pieces of the service. It’s turning out to have more and more young and middle age children from the project attends so we’re trying to create programs and have our time together be such that the young people will be encouraged and want to invest in building community. If you’re reading this and want to learn more about Joyful Noise – either to attend or to consider participating – email me.

Later that day I attended a meeting with Lisa (see prior posts to catch up on her story). Lisa has just had a baby. During the last months of her pregnancy she seems to have really been broken and decided to change her direction for life. We talked about adoption for the baby and she started that process. She had “friends” keep her 2 year old while she checked in rehab. However, once the baby was born, Lisa has decided to keep both children and raise them herself. It’s hard to support and love when you really feel someone is making a wrong decision, but I’m eternally grateful God continually does that for me so that’s what several of us are doing with Lisa. The good news is that she seems to recognize her “triggers” for relapse and is setting up systems to help her be successful. Once she notified the welfare agencies that she was in rehab they redirected her food stamps to that agency. Within a few days the “friends” keeping the 2 year old called to tell her to come get him!! We have worked with her and she has since placed both children in temporary foster care with a structured permanency plan that makes her accountable for her actions and her progress in getting back on her feet before she gets her children back. We met and talked about all the challenges that journey would put in front of her and how she was going to need real friends and a relationship with God to make it through. She actually seems to get it!! Please keep Lisa in your prayers.

Got a call from an Otter Creek member about a homeless man who was visiting his downtown store. The man needed help and the OC member was not sure what to do. I happened to be in the area so I stopped and was able to get the man in my truck and to the Campus for Human Development where they put him up for the night. Hopefully, he’ll reach out to them in the morning so that they can try to help him connect to some people who can walk with him.

Through the Odyssey program (mentioned in several prior posts) I have met several men who have asked for help with their families while they are in the Odyssey program. I had such a request a few weeks ago from a man who had just become a father. The baby’s mother was having a tough time making it (she has 3 other children) while this man is trying to get his life together through the Odyssey program. He asked me to meet with her and see what assistance OC might be able to provide. He’s feeling really guilty about not being there for the mother and the baby and thinking about leaving the program (which would not be a good thing for him). I met with her and found out that she is has a good job but is really in a tough pinch with her car being broken down and now having to pay for childcare for the baby. She lives in another county so there’s not a lot of resources we can provide. However, we do have several connections with churches in the city where she lives. So in the next few days I intend to reach out to some of those churches and see if any of them would be willing to reach out to her to help. Otter Creek gave her $50 in Kroger gift cards from our benevolence ministry to help her get over the short term need while we try to put her in touch with a closer group. Be praying for her and her family as well. Also keep in your prayers the father in the Odyssey program – that he will be strong and patient as he learns to trust God and others to help him as he tries to help himself and his family.

7.18.09(B)

2009-07-18T20:18:00.005-05:00

Quite the day…see 7.18.09(A) for the plan. Most of the day worked out as planned up through the delivery of the furniture to the woman who had just moved into the projects. The plan to go visit the other single mom with the newborn was delayed until tomorrow due to a change of her plans.

I replaced that with the appointment change with a visit to see Tammy (see references below) who is in drug rehab at a local hospital. She’s finishing up week 3 of a 6 week program. Just before going into rehab she found out she was pregnant. Tammy had been clean for nearly 6 months when she relapsed. She was on the streets for several weeks before she found out she was pregnant and decided to make a change in her life. As far as I know she has had no one visit her during her first 3 weeks in rehab. That’s a tough place to be and to have to do it on your own. I intentionally decided to wait until now to visit her as she has had a hard time understanding encouragement and not being enabled by it. It was good to see her and to see that it really looks like she is making some significant changes in her life.

While it was a full day, the real fulfilling part for me came from the time I was able to spend with the volunteer from Otter Creek who worked with me. This was his first time doing a ride along. He’s had his share of ups and downs in life and we were able to talk about his experiences along side the people we met. I learned a great deal from him and was touched by his willingness to express his frustrations with the current state of the church and his desire to see it better connect to life. I continue to be impressed with how getting people to roll up their sleeves in service to others creates the opportunity to see Jesus.

7.18.09(A)

2009-07-18T19:46:00.003-05:00

Plans for today include meeting a woman at the downtown bus terminal to pay for her to purchase a 30 day bus pass. She is recovering from a serious injury and is now ready to get back out into the world to find a job and start her new life – she is a changed person because of the events of the last few months. And Otter Creek wants to be there for her and with her as she starts that journey.

From there I meet an OC member who is going to help me unload and then pick up several donations of furniture (there’s furniture in the OC trailer from an earlier pick up this week). We’ll be meeting another single mom at the OC furniture house who is relocating to a new apartment after being the victim of a drive-by shooting and home invasion. Once again, because of our past walks with this woman, she called us to ask for assistance. It’s life.. and through doing life together – using what we’ve been blessed with - we’re able to continue to build relationships and grow our (aka Christ’s) influence in her life.

After the pick up of donations we head out to one of Nashville’s housing projects to meet a single mom with a 4yr old who has just gotten an apartment. She had to let all of her possessions be thrown away after not paying for her storage unit. Now she’s starting over. A contact with Metro housing recommended she call us to see if we might be able to help her start over. Once again, this is an opportunity to begin to build a relationship by offering compassion and resources.Later this afternoon I plan to meet with another single mom (are you starting to see a pattern of need?) who has just had a baby. The baby’s father is a man I teach on Friday mornings at the Campus in the Odyssey program. Through that program he and I developed a relationship that has resulted in him asking me to meet with his baby’s mother and see if Otter Creek might be able to be a resource to help her get through some tough times. I can’t help but see this as God opening up doors for us to be His hands and feet as He moves in the lives of people through us – and in the process continues to grow us more into His image.

7.15.09

2009-07-16T05:34:00.001-05:00

Spent several hours today with a team of people shooting video in Tent City. On Aug 12th, Otter Creek will host a concert as a part of our summer Wednesday night series. Former Otter Creeker Phil Keaggy will be performing. As we started to think about how to make Phil’s appearance more than just a time to be entertained a group of us thought it might be a good way to raise awareness of Tent City. One of our members is a professional photographer who had gone with me to Tent City on several occasions to take pictures of the people and places. He put those pictures together in a photo exhibit and they are on display in the lobby at Otter Creek along with a brief explanation about Tent City. The photographer has been approached by a Jewish friend who attends The Temple about placing the exhibit at their synagogue once it’s finished at Otter Creek. That suggestion, along with the desire to raise awareness about Tent City, set the foundation for the idea of how to make the concert more than just a concert.

We decided to make the concert a benefit concert for Tent City. We’ll hold a community-wide reception an hour before the concert and invite the residents of Tent City (those featured in the photos) to be our honored guests. Let’s let our community get to meet and talk with them – not in some zoo-like approach, but in a real, intimate and honoring way that recognizes them as real people making sacrifices and living in an environment that most of us will never know. In addition to offering a general invitation to the community, let’s make a special invitation to our brothers and sisters from The Temple to attend with the intent of passing the photo exhibit to them at the end of the concert.

Since most people attending the concert will never have visited Tent City we decided to create a short video to show at intermission of the concert and tie it to an opportunity to financially support Otter Creek’s budget that helps pay for various expenses tied to Tent City. So today, we invited Phil Keaggy and a few others to visit Tent City as we shot the footage for the video.

Having to start from the beginning with the story about Tent City and many of the people living there, reminded me again about the broader community in which we all live. As I recounted the story of several of the people living at Tent City, it became obvious that we are all the same – we all have a story that has brought us to where we are today. And while we may not all be at the same place on our journey, we are all on the journey together. The people living at Tent City are real people with real lives and real hurts and needs and joys and hopes – just like all of us. And I believe that once we really accept this, it changes how we look at them and the rest of the world. I believe that recognition moves us closer to the mind of Jesus and changes how we interact with each other.

We’ll have more to say about the concert. And we’ll be trying to get the word out in many different ways. But begin to tell your friends about it. Make plans to attend. While I know the music will be great, I’m even more excited about presenting the opportunity for the people who attend to get a chance to meet and talk with several of the folks who live at Tent City so as to begin to break down some perceptions of them and that place. And I looking forward to seeing how people respond to the chance to support Tent City with their time and money. Most importantly, I’m excited to see how the Holy Spirit will move in people’s lives to create a sense of unity with our brothers and sisters - both from Tent City and from The Temple – that help each of us to collectively look more like Jesus than we individually do. See you at the concert…

7.12.09

2009-07-14T22:09:00.002-05:00

Earlier in the week I got a call from one of the street outreach workers that knows Otter Creek and our ministries. She had just helped a man get into an apartment (a converted hotel room) and needed some furniture for him. The apartment only came with a twin bed. I suggested that if he was physically ale, I could use the help in picking up several donations of furniture and, in exchange for his time, we’d be glad to provide him what he needed.

That’s how I met Bob. I picked him up at his apartment in the church van pulling our trailer and we headed out to several homes of Otter Creek members who had called with offers of donations. Our travel time together gave us a chance to get to know each other and learn a little about where each of us is on our journey. Seems Bob had been in Nashville for about 7 months. He arrived on the bus as a stopover on the way to Florida. He had left a northern city to start over in Florida. He started to feel anxious and frustrated on the trip so when he got off to change buses in Nashville he just decided to stay! With no one he knew in Nashville, he ended up meeting a few men who were living in tents in a wooded area not far from the bus station. Having some military experience he was pretty comfortable in that environment so he befriended a few men and moved in with them. He spent the next six months living in a tent, collecting his disability check and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Not surprisingly he got back into drinking and realized he was about to lose control so 6 weeks ago he checked himself into a rehab program and spent 30 days getting sober and starting to learn about AA and the 12 steps. It was in rehab that he met the outreach worker who helped him get his apartment.

Bob is a hard worker, well spoken and a man with gifts that God is using in some pretty amazing ways. During his tent days he stumbled on a downtown church called Ethos. This group meets in a bar and concert hall on Sunday evenings. They accepted Bob and have shown him love and trust that he has never experienced. They have helped him when he was in need, but most importantly, they have journeyed with him and begun to build a relationship with Bob that Otter Creek is happy to help encourage. We picked up a trailer load of furniture, delivered it to our storage house and then delivered Bob a love seat (not enough room in his apartment for full size sofa), a chair, and end table, some lamps and a TV. It was a blessing to cross paths with Bob and be able to partner with him and Ethos to offer Otter Creek’s gifts to help him on his journey.

It took Bob and I more time than I had planned for Saturday’s pickups so I still had a few other stops to make on Sunday afternoon. Soon after church I hooked up the trailer to the church van and headed back out. It was to only be a sofa and a TV pick up so I didn’t bother with asking for help since it was the Sabbath. I got the sofa and headed south to get the TV. As I was loading the TV in a nice, upscale neighborhood a car stopped by the van and a man in a tie got out and asked if I was picking up or dropping off donations? Seems he saw the Otter Creek name on the van, had heard about us and wanted to give us some furniture if I had the room!! I loaded the TV and followed him down the street to his house. For the next 2 hours we loaded a sofa, a chest of drawers, an upright chest, a desk, a cupboard and a leather chair!! Not having anyone with me proved to be a blessing because the man and I loaded the stuff together and got to talk about Otter Creek and our ministry. He continued to say what a blessing it was to have a ministry like this – especially when I could tell him about yesterday’s experience with Bob. I met with man’s family during our loading. I learned they attend a Baptist church near Otter Creek. His wife had grown up in Hendersonville and attended church with her parents where my grandfather had preached for several years!! I continue to be touched and amazed at how God can open doors when I am willing to take the time and make the step. I really do believe that’s a huge part of following God’s calling – taking the time. It was Sunday afternoon and I had the time to make a 2 hour side trip and look what doors it opened. If I had someone with me or if it had been a Monday evening none of that might have happened.

What’s the learning? For me, it’s to try and build in enough flexibility into my schedule that when an opportunity like this presents itself, I can respond. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this for you as well. I’m convinced God is at work in this world. But if I’m too busy, have such a full calendar and so many commitments that puts me in total control of my time, then I’m not able to respond to His work. A lot of this has to do with control – will I allow God to be in control or do I want to take the steering wheel and drive the car?

7.9.09

2009-07-10T06:24:00.001-05:00

For the past several months a group of people have been working to find housing alternative for many of the residents of Tent City. Most of the people living in Tent City are not there out of choice, but rather out of necessity. They have had some type of disruption in their lives that has put them out of their house. Rather than sleeping on the street or under a bridge they have found a tent or other temporary shelter and moved into Tent City. While there probably are a few that would prefer to be in that environment over an apartment, I’ve never met one of them.
In Nashville, one of our biggest challenges is the actual available inventory of affordable housing. We seem to have plenty of $150,000 and up places to live. If you are able to pay $500 a month for rent then there are places available. The Metro government provides income-based housing (affectionately known as “the projects”) with a minimum rent of $50 per month. Once you start to work the rent changes to 30% of you income. Most of these units were built in the 50’s and 60’s. There’s a refurbishing project underway which is causing people to be moved out so the construction can take place. To provide places for these folks, MDHA (Metro Housing Authority) put a freeze on any vacant units in order that the existing tenants could be moved into them. This has caused tremendous ripples in the system of helping people get off the street.

There are some private income-based housing providers but the economy and the lending market have made it very tough for them to get funding to bring units on-line. This past month we were able to secure units for 16 people. It was last week that we learned that Metro only had the budget to underwrite the rent expense for 13 of these people. Otter Creek was called and asked to help raise the funds for the other 3 units ($250 deposit and $350 per month for up to 6 months). Each of the people being assisted have a case manager and are working a program designed to help them get work. Having a permanent address and place to live is foundational to the stability necessary to make the next step of employment. The challenge was that when the call came for help, we had only 3 days before the units would be offered to other people. With this short notice there was not enough time to get the word out to other churches that might be willing to help. So Otter Creek stepped up and funded the deposit and first month’s rent for a 3 units!! We’re now in the process of getting out a request to local churches, synagogues and mosques seeking partners willing to pay for one to six months of rent for these folks. If you read this and would like to consider having your church become involved, email me and we’ll set up a time to meet.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling one gets when you look in the eyes of people getting to move into their apartment after having lived on the streets or in a tent. The first couple moved in yesterday and called us multiple times to thank us for making that possible. I know $600 dollars (deposit and rent) is a lot of money to many of us. But in the big picture it’s really not that much money. It has made a difference in the lives of this couple and has opened up the door for an on-going relationship that has the potential to introduce them to a new community and a new way of living that puts Christ at the center of their lives. Now that’s what I call being a Christian…

7.4.09

2009-07-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

I had the privilege of speaking these past 3 days at Summer Celebration at David Lipscomb University. My invitation came about as a result of what a few of the folks at Lipscomb had heard Otter Creek was doing in reaching out to our members and other members of the community who were being hit the hardest by the recession. While there’s no debate (at least in my mind) of a Christ-following community’s responsibility to be walking with and giving assistance to “the least of” those in our community, there’s also pretty clear direction that we are to take care of our own as well. I find it interesting that many times we find it easier to help people somewhat distant from us rather than jumping in and working with members from our own spiritual family.

My presentations attempted to frame Otter Creek’s response in both theological and practical ways so as to encourage and inspire those from other congregations who were in attendance to consider what their churches were doing. While I gave several examples of some practical initiatives Otter Creek was working on with our folks, the real point I wanted to make was that we had to re-think our view of what church is called to be. Church is not something we do or some place that we go to. Church is a paradigm of who we are and how we live – not just on Sunday but throughout the week. And until the leaders of the local congregations are ready to embrace that along with all the messy, open-up-the-can-of-worms implications to that decision I fear we will continue to be seen as mostly ineffective, hypocritical and obscure in our theories of spirituality. The folks I am blessed to listen to and talk with are looking for answers about how to live differently and get different results with the decisions they are making on a day-to-day basis. No question that they are ultimately most concerned about their eternal destination when they die. But more and more they are asking if there isn’t more to life than just hanging on until we die?

I say again that one of the primary roles of the leader of a church family is to recast the vision of who and what the purpose of this gathering of people is to be. We are not just a social gathering. We are not just an emotional and spiritual regrouping time. The metaphor I’m finding more and more applicable to help me understand who and what a church community is called to be is “family”. As I say that I recognize that all of us come with baggage from our own past about the good and the not-so-good experiences of our physical family. But I encourage you to try and step outside those experiences and look to what an ideal family should be. I find that all of us can name some characteristics of what a real family should be. I won’t try to list those, but I will contend that those traits are what a church family should be – and has the best chance to become. We can each bring our gifts and talents to this community and offer them to the group so that the sum of those parts is not only greater than any of the parts but that the sum of those parts looks more like Jesus than any one of us. And that’s what it’s all about – valuing diversity and welcoming diversity of experiences and gifts with the faith that by opening up and moving ahead with Jesus as the center of our focus, we will move closer to that as we live each day.

I thank God for the leaders at Otter Creek that are willing to value diversity in so many different aspects. They see one of their primary roles as focusing that diversity on honoring God as we move forward. Whether it’s in our attempts to support those of our church family who are hurting because of the economy or to reach out to people outside our church family, we are on this journey together and trying to make decisions each day that move us – as a family – closer to the image of Jesus.

6.29.09

2009-06-29T21:48:00.000-05:00

During the winter months, it’s pretty common for quite a few Otter Creekers to stock their cars with gloves, hats, hand warmers and other items intended to help folks stay warm. Once the weather starts to warm up, the winter supplies get put away in exchange for bottles of water. As I was watching the news last summer I saw an interview with the Metro Action Commission who was featured giving away air conditioners (A/C’s) to the elderly and other medically fragile people. I called to make an appointment to talk with them to better understand the program. Much to my surprise I learned the program of free A/C’s was not a part of their budget but totally funded by donations from businesses and individuals. That peaked my interest in a possible extension of summer outreach assistance.

I took a trip to Home Depot and found that Otter Creek could buy a one room A/C for $99! I bought 2 and put them in the back of my Explorer. Over the next 3 months in 2008 I gave away five A/C’s to people that we learned of were in serious need of cooling. I found it to be a great way to get to spend a little time with folks we might not otherwise get to meet. Just about anyone is willing to offer you a glass of water if you carry in a A/C, set it up for them, turn it on and show them how to use it.

So for 2009 I’ve been doing the same thing. I’ve got a couple of room A/C’s in the back of my Explorer. We given away two so far this summer. Could we have given away more? Absolutely. But we’re not in the A/C giveaway business. We’re looking for ways to build relationships. Even Jesus told folks “no” that were in need of healing with the more important focus on preaching the word (see if you can find that reference in the Bible). But this past week, I took the A/C giveaway and added a twist. In a conversation with a Franklin woman who had called looking for an A/C, I learned she had a church home in North Nashville (quite a drive on Sunday morning). I told her Otter Creek would be glad to give her an A/C, but that we wanted to give it to her minister so he could install it for her. I asked her to have him call me. This took a few days to coordinate and a little explaining about our rationale for such an arrangement. But once the minister and I had time to talk, he came by the church office and picked up the A/C. Our prayer is that the gift of an A/C can be used by God to grow the relationship between this woman and her church.

If you’re interested in helping with the A/C ministry and don’t want to actually carry one around in your car, then feel free to purchase one and drop it off at the church office. You can also make a contribution to Otter Creek and we’ll see that it goes to help purchase additional A/C’s to be given away to people in need. And if neither of those fit your calling (and even if you decide you can afford to buy one), please keep this outreach in your prayers. Pray that God will use the gift of an A/C to open up someone’s heart to entering into a conversation about the abundant life. And pray that God will use Otter Creek to be his hands and feet to the people sweltering in the summer heat…

6.24.09

2009-06-25T09:45:00.001-05:00

How many times have you been hungry? I mean without food and without access to food? Personally, I can’t think of a time that I have been hungry when it wasn’t voluntary (as in a time of fasting), and even in those instances, I always knew there was food in the pantry and refrigerator.

Do you know hungry people? I do.. There are people right down Franklin Rd. that haven’t eaten in a few days, are hungry and don’t have a back stock of food to draw from. Otter Creek loves to eat. We have cookouts, potlucks, receptions, gatherings, bake sales, dinners, breakfasts and just about every other form of getting together you can imagine – and at almost every one of them, we have food. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the folks at Otter Creek it’s that if you have a gathering and it involves food, you don’t have to worry about running out of food!! You don’t even have to get too worried that an open invitation without specifying what type of food to bring will result in too many green beans and not enough rolls. It just always seems to work out and we always seem to end up with leftovers. And that’s what bothers me. Not that we have leftovers, but that most of us don’t recognize the gift that those leftovers could be to people that are hungry. It’s not that we want people to go hungry. I’m convinced that we are a compassionate people and that we would acknowledge food as a basic right for everyone. It’s simply a matter that we don’t know what to do with the leftovers…

I think that comes from my first question – do you know hungry people? Most of us don’t – I know that before I started in this ministry role, I really didn’t know anybody that was hungry. But now I do know people and families that are hungry and I can’t just walk away from seeing food thrown out after an Otter Creek event. Every Wednesday night this summer we are having a community meal as a part of our time together. And almost every Wednesday night there’s food left over.

Earlier today I got a call from a woman who told me about her and several other woman living in a condemned house with no electricity or water. She called to ask me if I might bring them some food. I told her I’d be there later tonight expecting there would be leftovers from our meal. Sure enough, we had leftover BBQ, beans, slaw and all the fixin’s. I was able to load it up in my Explorer along with a few cakes and cookies we had stored in one of our church refrigerators. I headed downtown to a side street where several woman work during the evening. As soon as I pulled up I heard one of them call to another to tell her, “Your pastor is here.. I think he’s brought us something to eat”. We pulled up a table under a street light beside the condemned house and spread the feast compliments of Otter Creek. Out of the shadows came 4 other women who fixed themselves a sandwich, poured a cup of sweet tea and sat down on the street curb to eat. It was a blessing to be able to sit with them for a few minutes to hear about their day, listen to their plans for tomorrow and try to be a positive encouragement to them.

As we go about cleaning up from our church meals, let’s try to remember that just because we don’t know a hungry person doesn’t mean there aren’t people just a few miles from us that have empty stomachs. Enjoy your meal and eat to your heart’s content. But be aware of the excess that you take. Try to remember to put on your plate what you are going to eat. And if you are part of the clean up crew, look for ways to wrap up and package the leftovers so that those of us that know hungry people can take it to them. And if you’re ever interested in going to meet folks that are looking for where their next meal might come from, call or email me and we’ll go for a ride.

6.22.09

2009-06-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

I was blessed to be able to visit the young woman whom I referenced in the previous posting that had been shot and was recovering. The friend with whom she was staying has lost her job and is struggling to provide for herself, her friend and their children. However, the visit was one of the most inspiring and encouraging times I’ve spent in a long time. It’s such a joy to know someone who seems to really recognize that they’ve been given another chance at life and are so appreciative of it. This woman has a story to tell and is determined to regain her strength and take on that role. In the meantime, the determination to overcome obstacles has motivated me to solicit help from the community for her. She has no insurance and while Vanderbilt seems to have given her outstanding service, she has not been discharged and is, to a great extent, on her own. I know very little about the medical issues she is facing but I learned about colostomy bags while visiting with her. Simply put, she can’t afford to buy them. So she and her caregiver are on the internet requesting samples from as many suppliers as possible. The challenge is that not all bags attach the same way so they are having to “rig” different bags to the piece that attaches to her body. And these don’t always match up which means the bags leak and come unattached which makes a humiliating mess. As soon as I left I made a call to an Otter Creek urologist and explained the need. He put me in touch with a nurse who handles conditions like this. When I told her who I was she said that she thought she knew me. Turns out her husband is a minister at a local church that Otter Creek has partnered with on other outreach projects and he had mentioned my name and our church to her!! She immediately asked me to fax her the details of the supplies she needed and she has started contacting the medical suppliers to help meet the need. Who says God doesn’t network? There are other needs - both emotional, physical and financial that this woman and the sweet woman that has opened up her house to care for her – that are real and need to be addressed. Counseling, medicines, assistance with filing of claims, financial help to meet the day-to-day costs of the house. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can help, or if you just want to offer your time, resources, connections or money, email me and we’ll figure something out.

There are too many stories to tell that came from our time together. The desperation of addition, the hopelessness of not feeling like there is anywhere to turn, the fear of knowing you are so dependent on men who see you as dispensable. But even with a colostomy bag, a catheter bag, a neck brace, bullet shrapnel still lodged in her body, the inability to sleep at night and the fear of seeing “his truck” drive down the street (this man has still not been caught!!), this woman is talking about going back to school and becoming the mother to her 6yr old daughter that she knows she needs to be. She knows God has a plan for her and she is looking to see where that plan will take her.

Have you ever gone to the kitchen, opened the drawer that holds the forks, spoons and knives and it’s been empty? I have… but that’s my signal to know it’s time to empty the dishwasher and restock. I got a call yesterday from a lady who lives in one of the housing projects. She was calling to ask if we might be able to help a mom and her 3 yr old daughter. The mom had just gotten out of a 45 day rehab program and moved into her apartment. She was trying to get her life back together. But in visiting with this mom, the woman who called me said she saw that she was using a couple of plastic utensils. When she asked the mom explained that she only had one fry pan, no plates and no utensils. This woman was calling to say she had heard we had a furniture ministry but wanted to know if we could help with this need. Through the generosity of Otter Creek members and friends we not only have a furniture ministry, we have many of the kitchen items that most of us take for granted. So today, I loaded up a box with pots, pans, lids, cookie sheets, plates, bowls, cups and eating utensils and delivered them to this mom and her daughter. We had time to sit and chat and learn a little about her journey and her desire to be a better mom. She’s in a touch neighborhood where the reality is that it’s highly likely she will not be able to stay clean. She knows it, but with her only income coming from Social Security she has little choice but to live there. She needs good influences and they are hard to find. If you’d like to meet her and get to know her, email me and we’ll talk about how to make that happen.

In the meantime, please keep both these women and their children in your prayers. Thank God we are not called to fix anybody – that’s God’s work.

6.18.09

2009-06-18T22:02:00.003-05:00

Today I had the chance to speak to a group of business, government and service provider leaders who were called together by 3 very influential businessmen to begin to craft a plan to make a dent in the issue of homeless children in the Nashville area. I’ve had the chance to meet with these 3 men as the preparation work for this meeting was being done. They are concerned about a lot of issues around poverty and the plight of marginalized people, but they are passionate about addressing the dilemma of homeless moms and their children. They were tired of all the studies and measurements about them. They were ready to do something, even if it wasn’t the end-all solution to the problem. They asked me to present the main case to the group being called to the meeting. The primary proposal was that within the next 90 days the group would locate 3 strategically located housing complexes of 50 units each, and then to acquire, refurbish, furnish and turn each one over to one of several agencies prepared to oversee the implementation of a program of service and support for the moms and their children.

The discussion among the participants after the presentation was incredible. This was due in large part to the select group of people who were invited to attend. Most of them got the idea that they were invited there by very serious men who intended to see something done. The few that raised concerns about moving too fast were politely told that “when a house is on fire you don’t discuss how to arrange the furniture, and this house is on fire!”. I think everyone got the picture and we left with several groups being formed to get to work within the next 2 weeks with plans for entire group to reassemble in one month with results. I was particularly please to be involved with a sub-group targeting awareness and involvement of the Nashville community of churches. My first call will be to the leaders & ministers of the churches where the people attend who were at today’s meeting. I plan to ask those people to make the introductions and be the catalyst to call their churches to action.

Over the last couple of weeks as I was preparing for my presentation I received an email about the very issue we were addressing - the decision that many moms must make in order to provide for their children. This email (slightly edited for confidentiality) is about a mom who has a 6 yr old child.

Dear friends,
I am writing because you have a beautiful voice that for years has advocated for women who have survived lives of addiction, prostitution and violence. I just got back awhile ago from Vanderbilt hospital visiting a woman some of you know. She had been clean five years, but after her relapse four months ago she knew she needed help and was the first on a waiting list at our recovery community. About 10 days ago a white male in his early 60s picked her up saying they were going to a nearby one hour motel for a date. She quickly got into the car to make sure she didn't get arrested and then the guy drove her instead to a wooded creek. They climbed over a guard rail and went down by the creek where he began to have sex with her. She was leaning over, not facing him, when he suddenly stopped, got a gun out and shot her through her vagina, exploding her bladder, cutting through her intestines and going into the spinal cord. He then shot her again in the shoulder and left her for dead. This beautiful woman in her 30's then crawled back up the steep hill and made it over the guard rail until she flagged someone down to help who called 911. She was brought into the hospital and splayed open to figure out what to do. Today they removed countless staples from her sternum to her pelvis and is now held together with tape. She has not talked to the police, although she is now willing to, she has just been trying to survive, but wonders how much good it will do now that so much time has past. She says she has been, "treated like a princess" since her arrival at Vanderbilt and that she can't believe how they have met all her needs. She is being discharged on Tuesday to a friend's house while the social worker at Vanderbilt tries to get her medicad straight so she can go into physical rehab. She said that she already knows how to change the bag on her stomach, but there are some other concerns.
There is so much to talk about, but I promised her she has a group that is willing to help and that what happened to her was one of the most horrific stories I have ever heard. I told her that she needed to talk to the police and make sure this guy does not do this again. She said what was so strange is that he never said a word or acted crazy. It somehow feels like in the presence of the story all the arguments and talk about issues around prostitution we just need to stop and people need to feel outraged---at the circumstances that leads women to heading out to the streets, to the violence they endure once they are there, and the lack of a comprehensive approach to helping the women come back to a community. I told her that a couple of us would meet with the social worker, that we would talk to her friend and help financially, and that we would be advocates for her getting medicad. I also told her that we would stay with her for years. She told me to share her story, but keep her name private.

While this story may seem unbelievable to many of us, you should know that this woman has been in some of the classes that I and others from Otter Creek have taught. And while she knows there are people willing to stand with her and for her, she got to a point of desperation and decided to act on her own rather than reach out to those people. To me, it’s a matter of trust and availability – have we been there enough for her to trust us to call for help rather than get in a stranger’s car? This time the answer was no. As we continue to build relationships with this woman and others like her, my prayer is that she will have seen the love of Jesus through us and will make the call and we will be there for her – just like Jesus has been (and continues to be) there for us. And my prayer is that the results of this morning's meeting will be that this mom and her child won't have to make the decision of how to get enought money to survive, but that they'll have a safe place to live in a community of people who love her and sho she can trust. - kinda sounds like what the church should be...

6.14.09

2009-06-14T16:54:00.000-05:00

Bonnaroo update – I’m more than a little overwhelmed at the potential for service at Bonnaroo. Not being completely “up” on the music scene, I was able to walk around and observe people and situations through a lens that most of the people in attendance might not think to or chose to look through. I saw young girls crying and upset and couldn’t help but wonder if they had been in an argument with their boyfriend and needed someone to talk with. I saw young men walking around looking like they were there by themselves and in need of someone to talk with. At just about every venue or event I attended I had the chance to introduce myself to the people setting around me and found them to be anxious to talk to me and tell me parts of their story – all with just the slightest of promptings (e.g. tell me about your trip down here…)

A particular interesting observation was from the support staff (safety, security, clean up, medical volunteers) that I talked with. I’m sure that my age was part of the response (although there were quite a few “older” folks in attendance), as well as the shock when I told them I was a minister, but I was genuinely surprised by the positive reception to my speaking to them. In addition to the support staff I enjoyed talking with the working men and women who were there as a part of their job. Many from the music industry, the press, the TV industry and photographers seemed genuinely interested when I struck up a conversation with them and it quickly moved to “what do you do for a living?” When I told them the idea that brought me to Bonnaroo to research I got universal approval - from “that’s cool” to “what a great idea” to appreciation that the Bonnaroo organizers would think of such a service.

I came to Bonnaroo expecting a hedonistic, drug fest where I would be seen as someone in direct opposition to what most of the folks in attendance had come to experience. In fact, I found a heightened sense of responsibility for the environment (recyclable cups, incentive to not use plastic water bottles, programs to encourage trash pickup, energy awareness) – most of which would put to shame our own church’s focus on the environment. I was able to sign up for the bone marrow database for free and learn about mountaintop removal by the coal industry in the name of providing energy for this country. I bought a t-shirt made of recycled Mountain Dew bottles – a very cool green color. I was able to buy food products from vendors selling organically grown items (I was able to sign up to get information on organic gardening) and was introduced to a Central American item called arepa which has become my favorite food..

Sure, I was exposed to more second hand pot smoke than I had experienced since my last Jimmy Buffet concert in the 80’s. I saw plenty of underage drinking. But my response to that and other areas of conduct outside what many of us might consider appropriate behavior is that I expect that’s what Jesus saw as he walked the dirt paths of Galilee. He was known for spending time with “sinners and tax collectors”. He was given a hard time for associating with women of questionable character. But in response to the criticism he simply replied, “The healthy don’t need a doctor – I came to be with the people in need”. If Jesus was hanging around today, I expect we’d want to look all proper and buttoned up for him. But I’m afraid he might look at is and wonder if we even needed him – we think we’re healthy don’t we? Who are we kidding? It’s easy to look at the people of Jesus’ day that he was called to serve and figure that we would be right there with Jesus in serving them. How many times do we place ourselves in the role of needing to be served by the great physician? I’m no different than the sinners and tax collectors of the 1st century or the crying, lonely, pot-smoking, drinking kids of the 21st century – we’re all in need of being saved – and that means we need a savior. I’m thankful that Otter Creek allowed me to “scope out” Bonnaroo. I’ll be sending in my report to the Bonnaroo organizers in the next few weeks and we’ll see if they decide to move ahead with the childcare service. I’ll be sure to let you know…

6.11.09

2009-06-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

It was almost a year ago that a friend of mine led Otter Creek’s Sunday communion devotional and talked about his experience at Bonnaroo 2008. He commented that in his talks with people attending the festival he was intrigued to hear them say that the music was not the main reason they attended. What attracted them to Bonnaroo was the community – the people and the feeling of belonging. Those comments caught my attention so we had lunch a few weeks later to talk in more detail about his experiences and his observations. It was during that lunch that he planted the idea for a service project of providing childcare during evening concert times to the parents that bring their kids to Bonnaroo. He arranged for me to get in touch with the concert promoter who seemed interested in us pursuing the idea. Soon after that we had a children’s and youth ministry meeting to discuss the idea. Recognizing the complexity of such an undertaking the decision was made for me to attend the 2009 festival to do an assessment and to interview parents in attendance and put together a plan for 2010.

So yesterday my friend and I, along with another Otter Creek member, headed to the 2009 Bonnaroo festival. What follows are my observations and thoughts…

Based on feedback from a few people I’ve talked to since getting here, there are about 500 children at Bonnaroo. I’ve talked with a number of families who are camping in the “family campground” portion of the grounds. A few said they would not be interested due to security concerns – even if the people working the daycare facility had background checks. But they did say that they thought it would be a good idea, even if they didn’t use it. Others said they would definitely be interested in using the service. And there were still others that said they thought is was a good idea but never used baby sitters so they didn’t think they would use it. There’s a spot on the grounds called Kidzjam (www.kidzjam.com) that offers activities for kids and their parents during limited times of the day. They do not accept kids without their parents so the idea we are researching does not conflict with what they already have in place. In talking with the concert promoter he expressed appreciation for us coming to look into the possible service but also concern that offering the service could send the signal to parents that they were encouraged to bring their kids – and he did not want that message communicated or implied. So I’ll continue to look, listen and talk to the parents I see at the concert. It may be that Otter Creek decides not to try and make this happen. But no matter what the decision, the idea that a church would be willing to consider such an out-of-the-box way to serve people who may have little, if any, exposure to a group of people trying to incarnate Jesus, is something I’m proud to be a part of.

Now for the “other” report from Bonnaroo – the observations about the overall experience. I’ll assume you’ve never been to Bonnaroo. This year’s attendance is about 75,000 people. I would guess that the average age would be 24. Most everyone camps during the 4 days of the festival. As I walked into the camping area and scanned the landscape it felt like I was looking across a refugee camp. It is massive and expansive. The music is quite diverse (I came thinking it was all head-banger, but it’s not) and spread out over 10 different venues. The main stage is huge.
I came expecting blatant debauchery, but have not seen it. The smell of pot is always in the air, but it’s that way at concerts in Nashville. The vendor area seems to be stuck in the 60’s – lots of tie-dye/hippe items (t-shirts, hammocks, candles, etc) which is very interesting since most of the music is fairly progressive. I can’t help but imagine Jesus walking in and among the crowds. I can see him laughing and totally enjoying himself – not trying to convict or convert. Just looking for opportunities to talk with people and offer them his time to listen to their stories. So that’s what I’m trying to do… I’ll try to send some stories over the next few days.

6.10.09

2009-06-11T05:50:00.000-05:00

Today was the day that my homeless friend was to take another step on the path of getting off the street. A few days ago I had called and learned of an opening at a housing complex with rent based on income. After having been hired and getting his work schedule for the week, we knew that today was his day off so we scheduled him for a mental health assessment at a local agency. Without going into too much detail, there are significant government assistance and cost under-writing programs available to people who are diagnosed with “co-occurring conditions”. This is when there is a mental health disease (e.g. depression, bi-polar, paranoia, etc) accompanied by some type of addiction (e.g. alcohol or drug). The person can qualify regardless of whether they are active in their addiction. My friend had not had a mental health assessment so we scheduled him for an appointment at 2:30 today.

I called him to confirm and he told me that he was not going to be able to go due to his employer having just called him and told him he needed to come into work today. I responded to ask him if he told the employer that he already had important appointments scheduled for today based on the published work schedule? He responded angrily to me that he had not said that and that he had no choice but to cancel and try to reschedule his appointment since he needed his job so badly. I asked if the employer indicated he would be fired if he did not come in. He said it didn’t matter – that he had been trying to get a job for so long and now that he had one he wasn’t going to do anything to mess it up.

When I tried to talk with him about how it appeared he was being taken advantage of by his employer he became even more angry with me. I tried to explain to him that most employers will respect people with schedules and plans, but will push back to really see if someone is disciplined enough to speak their minds (I know this employer to be a good company – not one that would intentionally take advantage). None of what I said seemed to make sense to him. His voice got louder on the phone and he said that he had to have this job and would just use the money from the job to live in a hotel is that’s what it meant, but that he wasn’t about to rick
losing his job by questioning the boss. He then hung up on me!!

I found his response to my questioning him and his solution to discussing it with me very interesting. As I reflected on both, I kept asking myself how Jesus would respond to such a situation. Had I acted out of a middle class mindset in suggesting that he have a mature conversation with his employer? Was that too much to expect? It angered me that his supervisor had not asked him if he had plans for the day before insisting that he come in to work. I could see cyclical patterns of behavior and results starting to happen again. But my friend didn’t want to hear any of that – even from someone who he could trust. Did he feel that I was trying to control his life? Or even worse, trying to direct his behaviors in a way that I wanted – for my own pride of success in him as a project?

I called my friend’s phone but he did not answer. I left a message apologizing to him for saying things that angered him but also telling him how hurt I was that he had hung up on me. I told him I loved him and was only trying to provide him an insight that he might not have recognized. He did not return my call all day. Around 8:30PM I called him again. This time he answered and his conversation seemed to be his normal mode of talking. He was at work and things were OK. He made no mention of our morning disagreement. He told me he had rescheduled his appointment for next Monday and that his supervisor had told him he was going to talk with the manager about moving him to a 2nd shift supervisor!. There was no anger in his voice and he seemed appreciative of my call. I don’t know where this event will lead in our relationship or the impact it will have on him and his journey. It has affected me and reminded me that anticipating such an occurrence is something I need to be aware of and try to discuss in advance with others as we walk together.

Still not sure what Jesus would have done, but I feel like I honored my basic rule of behavior – I would want Jesus to be proud of me if he was hanging out with me today. Even if I overstepped in my initial conversation, it was done with the right intentions and then I made the follow-up call and kept trying to reconnect with him until we were finally able to talk. Actually I do think that’s what Jesus would do…

6.9.09

2009-06-10T05:30:00.000-05:00

“Love one another” – that’s what Jesus commands us to do. At times I wish he hadn’t been so straightforward and so simple. Not much to discuss and not much opportunity to misunderstand. Now there is plenty of opportunity to rationalize. And there is plenty of reason to prioritize (whom I love, how I balance that love with practicality, what about taking care of myself?, etc.)

Got a call from Tammy’s mom (you can read a little about Tammy in some of my earlier blog entries) who lives in another city. I had seen Tammy a couple of times in the last few weeks since I helped her load up her stuff from the halfway house where she was being asked to leave because of her most recent relapse. We had dropped all her stuff (probably 6-8 large garbage bags of clothes, 3 bags of books - which I kept with me because they were so bulky and heavy, things like a hair dryer and even a microwave) at the house of someone who had told her she could keep her stuff there. I’d dropped by the house to check on Tammy and knew things weren’t going well. Once Tammy’s personal items had been unloaded at the house, the friend surprised Tammy with the news that she needed money to be able to store her things. Tammy had to sell a few of her possessions to be able to get some money to pay her friend. A few days later I dropped by with some of the excess Kroger bakery items that Otter Creek gives out to its members. She took everything I had because she had also learned that she was being required to help supply food for the others living in the house. Prior to me getting there she had been forced to trade a few more of her possessions for food.

When I stopped by today Tammy was sitting by the side of the house. As soon as I drive up she walked to my call with a look on her face that I knew meant another crisis was taking place. “Can you take me to the women’s mission?”, she asked me. I’d suggested Tammy consider staying at the mission several times but she had always refused. As we talked I learned that for the past week Tammy had been sleeping on the streets. Seems the owner of the house had come by and evicted the person Tammy had understood was the renter. Turns out her friend was not even supposed to be in the house. Unable to get in touch with me or her mother she had to take what remained of her possessions and get out of the house. “Sure, I’ll take you to the mission”, I said. I got out of the car in anticipation of needing to help load up all her stuff. She went behind the now padlocked and abandoned house (no friends to be seen anywhere) and emerged with 2 laundry baskets of clothes. That was all she had left. “All my clothes are filthy”, she said. “Would you take me to where I can wash them?” Tammy needed a meal and some rest. Heading to a Laundromat was the last thing she needed to be doing. I told her I’d take her to the mission and get her clothes washed.

So we drove to the mission where I dropped her off along with a bus pass. We agreed that she’s get up in the morning, eat breakfast at the mission and then ride the bus to the Room in the Inn campus where I would meet her at 7AM (the mission will not allow you to stay there during the day) with her clean clothes. “Can you bring my books?”, she asked. “I’ll take them to the used book store tomorrow and sell them so that I can get money for cokes and cigarettes.” I headed from the mission to Otter Creek where we have a washing machine and a dryer and got to washing Tammy’s few remaining clothes. I knew I was going to be late getting home for supper, but I’m blessed to have an understanding and generous wife. It only took 2 loads to wash everything Tammy now owns. In between loads I drove back into Nashville to meet my homeless friend who was working the late shift at his new job. Did you notice the lightning after dark? Wasn’t it an awesome sight? It was, unless you live on a bridge…. I took my friend some bus passes which Otter Creek purchases every few months to help people get around town. I didn’t want him to have to walk through the evening storms. He had arranged to stay the night with some friends who had rented a room even though that meant sleeping on the floor of their hotel room. Dropped off his bus passes and made plans to pick him up tomorrow afternoon so he can come to our church’s family picnic. Headed back to move the 2nd load form the washer to the dryer and then head home.

“Love one another”. I’m blessed to be a part of a family where we’re trying cut through all the rationalizing and prioritizing of that simple command and just live it out…

6.8.09

2009-06-09T06:06:00.001-05:00

I spent the late afternoon with a newly hired representative of the Metro Nashville government who’s role is to raise awareness and funds to address homelessness. We first met a few weeks ago at a meeting where several government and private agencies had come together to discuss Tent City and the June 1 closing date. It was decide to extend the closing date for a few more months due to the admission that there is just not enough available housing in our area. The consensus around the quantity of units always “digresses” to the contention that a lack of resources is the primary cause of the problem. Having heard this numerous times I finally spoke up and commented that I did not agree with that contention. “What would you do if you suddenly came upon $5 million or $25 million dollars?” I asked. Everyone smiled, breathed heavily nodded with some indication that all the problems would be solved. “I think we’d get mired down in debates on what to do with the money”. My belief is that the root problem is that we have no master plan that all parties agree can agree on. Other than the mayor’s 10 year plan to eliminate homelessness, we can’t even agree on an ultimate end goal – and that end goal of eliminating homelessness, while sounding laudable, is unrealistic. Tell me another city the size of Nashville that has achieved that goal. I contend that the primary problem with addressing homelessness is that we don’t have a plan that the city and the business community and the faith community and the citizens can get behind. I believe that if we can get that, then funding it with the necessary resources will occur. I see us failing to create a plan on the excuse that such a plan would be so expensive that it could never be funded. Yet we’ve never put a plan together!! After the meeting I was introduced to the person who had just been hired by the city to be the primary fundraiser. We agreed to meet and spend some time together so this afternoon was our first time to meet.

We met at our church office where I showed her our baby clothes warehouse. We walked through our photo exhibit of Tent City and talked about our plans for a reception for the Tent City residents intended to raise awareness of them as real people. I introduced her to my homeless friend who was at the church building washing his clothes and checking his email. We then headed out to one of our local hospitals where my homeless friend had to pick up his prescriptions. From there all 3 of us went to the Campus for the Odyssey dinner. I wanted her to see the Campus and learn about the Odyssey program. We arrived a little late and missed getting to eat – I thought that was very appropriate - that our homeless friends get to have a full belly and we get to miss a meal. After the dinner we headed to the Otter Creek furniture storage house where we met 4 women from a halfway house who needed a bunk bed, a dresser and a washing machine for a mom that was getting custody of her teenage son. She helped us load that up and saw all the donations that we collect. She got to hear about the theology and practicality of that ministry.

From there we headed back to our church where we loaded up the back end of my Explorer with cakes, pastries and bread from our Kroger donation. My homeless friend and I will take it to Tent City, to a number of homeless women living on the street on Murfreesboro Rd. and to the residents of the Drake Motel (a low cost hotel that many homeless people occasionally (especially at the first of the month) frequent to get a shower and a good night’s sleep). She wasn’t able to make the food deliveries, but got a glimpse of a community in action. The goal of our time together was to emphasize the point that I was trying to make in the initial meeting – the resources are available – especially through the combined power of our local churches – IF we can create a plan that is credible and engages people to do more than just write a check. I’m blessed to see that every day through the member of the Otter Creek family. And I’m confident that Otter Creek is not unique in that way. Is it possible that a partnership can be formed between the public and private in a way that seeks to use the gifts and talents of both for the good of all? I think that’s what we call “Kingdom business”, and I’m looking forward to Otter Creek being a part of that…

6.6.09

2009-06-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

The Otter Creek furniture ministry continues to be one of the key components of our ability to step into people’s lives in a way that opens the door for the opportunity to build relationships. After all, if someone is sleeping on the floor or has no sofa to sit on and we show up with our trailer to deliver this to them, we tend to have the chance to plop down on the sofa after we put it in place and initiate a chat with the people. In most instances our showing up with furniture is not the first time we’ve met. I try to make it a requirement that I visit the person making the request in their home prior to showing up with furniture. Many times this initial visit shows the need for much more than just a bed or a sofa.

But with every delivery of furniture to a needy person there has been a donation from someone and a pick up at their house of the furniture. Sure, it may seem like the evangelistic thing to do to show up at some person’s apartment with a piece of furniture, but this blog entry is intended to highlight the Otter Creeker’s and their friends who decide to offer their excess or cast-offs to our furniture ministry. In addition to thanking all those people, I have a special place in my heart for the men, women and their children who make the sacrifice to come along with me to pick up the donations. There’s not much evangelistic reward for this activity. You do get to meet some interesting people, and you certainly get to know that what you are picking up will eventually be a blessing to a person in need. But on the late evenings when you miss dinner in order to make that last pick up and then have to deliver it to our store house, one has to really keep the big picture in mind.

That’s what took place this afternoon. A relatively new member from Otter Creek and his 15 yr. old son helped pick up donations from 4 different locations. They had been at the ball field all morning and were hot and tired when they showed up. But they jumped right in with me to head out in the Otter Creek van with the Otter Creek trailer in tow. The chance to spend a couple of hours talking about Otter’s outreach ministry and the vision for being a family in a way that most people (and many of us) never experienced is time that I really appreciate. I’ve yet to not see someone’s eyes light up and their imagination start to churn as we talk about the different lives that have already been touched. It’s almost become a tradition that I spend 4 or 5 hours each Saturday picking up furniture. It’s one of those “seed-planting” investments of time (i.e. without planting the seeds and doing all the prep work, there’s little chance of a harvest). If you want to spend a Saturday with me, drop me an email and get ready for a workout and for a blessing!!

6.3.09

2009-06-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

Great news.. My homeless friend that lives on the bridge in downtown Nashville has been hired!! He starts work tomorrow. After passing the background check and following up each day for the past week, he called and was told to show up tomorrow at 4PM for the evening shift. I wish I could tell you all that has been done to partner with him to help make this possible – access to computer, ability to wash clothes, rides to follow-up on job leads, a cell phone to be able to be contacted by potential employers, bus passes. And now that he has been hired, we’re heading to Wal-Mart to buy khaki pants and a black collared shirt. That, and so much more, have all come through the generous support of Otter Creek members. But probably even more important than that were the continual words of encouragement and the feeling of being accepted my friend experienced every time he visited the building or met a member on the street. He has told me on numerous occasions how touched he is that people seem to go out of their way to say hello to him and ask him how he’s doing. Having the opportunity to experience family and a level of unconditional acceptance and love is a gift that many have never felt. We’re blessed to have a community here at Otter Creek that offers that.

In my last blog I mentioned about taking the furniture to the young lady that had recently gotten out of prison. I got a call today from a friend of her’s who is moving in next door to her. Guess what she was interested in? Furniture. And guess who told her about this group of people who are willing to come to your house, help where they can and offer to be a friend? The woman we delivered the furniture to just this past week. Almost sounds biblical where someone experiences the love of Jesus and then tells someone else so that they can have the opportunity. It worked back then and I think it still works today..

5.31.09

2009-05-31T21:07:00.001-05:00

My apologies for not keeping up with daily entries. If you will allow me to catch up for the week, I’ll do my best to try and stay current.

Tuesday 5.26.09 was my night to teach at Mending Hearts. Another OCC member and I attended where we had the chance to spend a few hours with a group of women struggling, succeeding and failing at trying to live a new life. In fact, the topic for the night was a discussion on what it would take to break the cycle that they (and the rest of us) are on - one that always seems to derail our best intentions. We used Rom. 7:14-25 in The Message as the starting point for our discussion – if you haven’t read it recently in that translation let me strongly encourage you to stop and do so right now. Don’t know about you but what’s said in those verses just about sums up much of my life. From there we talked about 3 concrete steps they might consider to come up with a new plan for their life. #1 – service; #2 finding a new community; #3 – make some room in your life for God. We not only talked about it, we actually took some steps – specifically we planned how to use a calendar and reserve time each week to take at least one step forward in each of those areas. I have no idea what they learned from our time together but I know that I came away more convicted of how the Holy Spirit moves in our lives to direct us along our individual paths taking us closer each day to looking more like Jesus.

Thursday 5.28.09 I attended a sub-committee meeting (I think that’s what it was) of the homeless commission to specifically talk about the proposed closing of Tent City. Good news is that the June1 date has been delayed for a few more months. Everyone realizes that the closing of Tent City does nothing to address the issue of homelessness. The talk all through the meeting (and I tend to keep my mouth shut during those meetings) was about the need to develop a plan. The consensus was that that the issue was a lack of resources. I listened as long as I could and finally said that I firmly believed that resources would not be a problem if we could put together a concrete plan. I am totally convinced that the churches and their members will respond to and fund a plan. The problem is that we are using a lack of resources as the excuse for not getting specific (but reasonable) in developing a plan. And I believe we are short sighted in thinking that the government will be the source of resources. My feeling is that other agencies and groups along with the government are doing what churches ought to be doing to address issues like homelessness. Simply put, as the hands and feet of Jesus I think we, as the church, have abdicated our roles and responsibilities in being one with the marginalized. Most of that is due to our vision of church as something we do (primarily on Sunday morning) as opposed to what we are. One interesting point about the meeting – of the 25 or so people and groups represented Otter Creek was the only church who was there. Go figure that..

Friday 5.29.09 was my weekly Odyssey class at the Campus. Until Thursday night I assumed my co-teacher would be leading the class. However, I got a call that evening that he was sick and that I needed to plan to teach it. We were in the second and final week of Step 3 – Made a decision to turn my life and will over to the care of God as I understand Him (if you’re not familiar with the 12 Steps let me highly recommend that you invest some time in reading and pondering them – it will change your life). The discussion centered on how we make a decision. If you’ve never thought of that, let me also highly recommend that you ponder on that as well. We’ll talk more about that at some future blog.

Saturday 5.30.09 was a really full day. One of my homeless friends and I spend the day picking up furniture from OCC members who had called to offer it to our furniture ministry. It seems ironic that in a congregation the size of Otter Creek that on many occasions I’m assisted by homeless men rather than an OCC member (I’m happy to have the help, but would love to give some member the chance to see service from a different perspective – IF YOU'VE EVER RIDDEN WITH ME AND HELPED IN FURNITURE PICK UP AND DELIVERY, PLEASE CONSIDER SUBMITTING A BLOG REPLY TO LET OTHERS KNOW ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AND TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO EMAIL ME TO ENLIST). We helped unload furniture from a former OCC member who had driven up from Alabama to bring a load of furniture to give to our ministry. They were consolidating several sets of furniture and thought about the work we do and called to ask if we could use it!! What a testimony that they would drive several hours to bring furniture to us.

The highlight of the day had to be when we loaded up a sofa, a rocking chair, a bed and a TV to deliver to a young lady I first met at Mending Hearts. Kay (not her real name) had come to Mending Hearts directly from prison. She had been arrested as a juvenile at age 16 and served 2 years. Soon after her release she got in trouble again. This time she was tried as an adult and because of her prior record was sentenced to 9 years. In a strange fluke of “justice” she ended up serving the entire term so she came to Mending Hearts as a 27 year old that had only known jail for her entire adult life. This will be hard to imagine but Kay did not know what size clothes she wore (she had never had to buy clothes). The first time we went to the grocery store, she was totally lost – she’d never shopped for food and had no idea what anything cost. She was on court ordered probation and lived in fear of making one wrong step that would send her back to prison. She put up a hard front, but inside she was totally afraid. Over the months we developed a friendship. We helped get her her first job. We helped her with clothes. Eventually she graduated from Mending Hearts and I got the call that she needed furniture. Several of the items brought up from Alabama along with a few other items (she had no forks and knives) were loaded up and delivered to her new apartment. And while most of us might not consider living where Kay was able to afford, to her it’s home. As we sat up her bed and handed her a set of sheets and a pillow she told me that she couldn’t wait to have her own bed!! It’s through the generosity of OCC members and friends that we’re able to walk the talk with women like Kay. Keep her in your prayers and remember to call or email when you have something to donate. It really does make a difference…

5.25.09

2009-05-25T16:55:00.001-05:00

Memorial Day. A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a man who had been in the Odyssey program but had been asked to leave the program because of a relapse. He went through treatment but was not invited back into the program based on the assessment of the program directors. They didn’t feel he had gotten enough control of his problems and into a structured system of recovery to be ready to move back in. This hurt him terribly as well as angered him. He and I talked frequently during this time as he struggles with his responsibility for what had happened – he tended to focus on what others had done to him. Ultimately he met a woman and decided to move an hour outside of Nashville and try to get his life together.

It didn’t work. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had calls from him, from the woman and from the woman’s mother. It’s a blessing that each of them feel I am someone they can talk to and trust, but it’s a shame that I seem to be the only one. Where’s their community? Like so many, they really don’t have one. They have a version of “friends” that, when the chips are down, are not really friends. The interesting thing in this situation (and I experience it several times each week) that just about everyone I talk with who has been let down by a “friend” does not see themselves as that same type of “friend”. It only happens TO them – they never see that they might be the same type of friend to others.

Anyway – last week my friend called to say he had decided to move back to Nashville. He had not been able to get a job. His girlfriend and her mother were no longer willing to pay for him to just hang out. So this morning at 5:30 I headed out to get my friend and bring him back to Nashville where he plans to stay with family for a few weeks. As we talked on the way back into town I was struck by the same mindset and words that had caused him to not be accepted back into the Odyssey program 6 months ago. No matter how it is spoken it can be summed up in a few words – “It’s not my fault”. Failure to accept personal responsibility (or in AA language, Step 1) seems to be an almost universal fatal personality characteristic of people caught in the cycle of trying and failing. As I dropped him off this morning I told him I would be praying for him to come to terms with where he was in his life and be willing to look for a different way to move forward. Please keep him in your prayers.

I went by a downtown hotel and picked up another friend we’d (i.e. Otter Creek) put up in a room last night due to the rain and storms. He had agreed to help me pick up some furniture from one of our Otter Creek members who was consolidating with another family member. We spent the morning loading and unloading furniture into our storage house. Thanks to the generosity of several members and friends of members, our furniture storage is being replenished so that we are back in stock to help folks needing a bed, a sofa, a chair or a desk. I dropped my friend off at a Dollar General store where he had been told they were hiring. He was so excited about possibly getting a job that he had not hardly slept last night. He met the manager who told him to get online tomorrow morning and complete his application and he’d run the background check on him. My friend is concerned since he has two arrests for criminal trespassing (aka sleeping under a bridge). If he is denied a job because of something like this, then all of us reading this blog may have to mount a campaign to the sheriff, the council and the mayor. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!! You loose your job and have no place to sleep so you resort to sleeping under a bridge where you are cited for trespassing which goes on your record which then causes a potential employer to not offer you a job which you need to be able to get out from under the bridge!! Is that a crazy system or what? Stay tuned for the results…

5.23.09

2009-05-23T17:29:00.000-05:00

Finally back home in Nashville. Had an interesting call while I was in between Atlanta and Birmingham. It came from a staff member at a downtown Nashville music venue where young people hang out and are ministered to in some incredible and compassionate ways. She called to ask for help and referrals. Seems a 19 year old had walked in looking for help with a place to sleep. He had come to Nashville a few days earlier from another small town in hopes of finding a job. He indicated he had been hired but it was about 10 days before he could start. He’s spent the last two nights at a local homeless shelter and had been beaten up (he used the term, “mugged”) and didn’t want to go back there. He’d been wandering the streets of Nashville for most of the day, was thirsty and hungry and looking for help. I got the call on my cell phone while driving!

I spoke with the young man, got his story and told him I’d call him back after checking it out. Seems he’d been in and out of foster care most of his life. When he turned 19, his foster parents turned him out (they no longer get state money for housing a foster child once they turn 18). He had a few friends in the small town and lived with them for a while. He had made contact with a social services agency in Nashville that he had gone through several years ago. The Obama stimulus plan had provided funding for summer interns so they told him if he could get to Nashville they might be able to use him. This was the job he had secured. He asked a pastor in the small town to bring him to Nashville – which he did – and then dropped him off with apparently no resources or connections.

I was able to confirm the job. However, what he failed to understand was that by starting on June 2 it would be two more weeks before he got a paycheck. He had figured that into his plans. With not having met the young man I was hesitant to call friends I know and ask them to give him a place to sleep (I take it as a personal obligation to verify that I know the people I ask friends to help). Not having the homeless shelter as an option left few other directions. So I ended up calling my homeless friend that sleeps on a bridge in downtown Nashville. I asked him if he’d befriend this young man for a few days (till I could get back into town), loan him a blanket and point him to the churches that feed the homeless. He was more than willing to help.

I hope you catch the irony of this. Even in a town the size of Nashville and with the resources we have, there is virtually no place for someone with no money to find a place to get a bed if they don’t want to go to the homeless shelter (there is really only one when Room in the Inn is not operating). To help this homeless child (he’s 19 – that’s younger than my son!) I had to call a homeless man and ask him to help! I consider it a blessing that I have a friend willing to help - most of that comes as a result of the compassion shown him by Otter Creek. Is my friend a professing, Bible-totin’, Sunday go-to-meetin’, born again Christian? If all of those attributes are required to qualify, then the answer is “no”. Has he been touched to the point that he’s willing to give what he has to someone who has even less? Is he willing to offer someone part of his bench and blanket? Yes he is. And for my money, I think that’s what Jesus would do as well.

5.20.09

2009-05-21T13:00:00.001-05:00

This week has been different for me. I’m attending a conference in Atlanta. It’s a great conference but not really what I want to write about. Rather than staying at an area hotel, I’ve been staying at an inner city community house whose purpose is to reach out and serve the poor and homeless of Atlanta. The Open Door Community (http://www.opendoorcommunity.org/) has a long and active history of social activism in many areas. I had heard of them and read about them. There are even a few people in Nashville that I’m blessed to know and talk with who have lived at the Open Door. I’ve been so impressed with those people’s hearts and passion for not just serving the poor, but actually living with them, that I had to experience it myself. So as I was making plans for the conference I called the Open Door and asked if I might have a bed for the week. They were most gracious and invited me to stay with them. I had no idea what to expect.

I arrived on Monday afternoon and met Chuck. The Open Door is located in a gentrifying part of Atlanta. Homeless men and women cross the road in front of Mercedes and Jaguars. The actual house is an old, huge boarding house setting right beside some pretty nice apartments. Best as I can tell Chuck is a semi-retired businessman who chooses to spend his time working and living at the Open Door when his schedule (and his wife) permits. Chuck gave me a tour of the house, showed me my private room and issued me a key. My room has a closet and a twin bed. The bathroom and shower are down the hall. The residents of Open Door are all members of their community – not wandering homeless people. Many of the residents are formerly homeless, but are now at home at Open Door. Open Door serves and lives with the people on the street.
Tuesday morning I was up at 5:30 as the residents prepared coffee and breakfast for nearly 200 men and women who had lined up in the front yard to be fed. My job was to be in the yard with the folks as they waited for their number to be called so they could go in and have a sit-down breakfast. For the next hour I got to “meet & greet” (quite a twist on an Otter Creek tradition) men and women looking for a meal, some hope and some affirmation of their value. I was blessed to talk with people about all kinds of issues – from a simple “how are you doing?” to “where did you sleep last night?” to “ tell me about your family”. Once the last person was inside, I was handed a garbage bag and asked to pick up the trash that had accumulated that morning.

The more I watched and listened to the people who lived and served at Open Door, the more I could see a real opportunity for something like this in Nashville. Over the next few days I met Bonnie and Ralph and Ira. I met Emily and Peter. Some had lives of recovering hope. Some were divinity students planning to marry and commit their lives to continuing service. All were equal in their desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

One evening while I was at the conference, everyone at the house loaded up and headed to the downtown courthouse for a rally against the death penalty. The next morning they lined up chairs in the hall as they prepared to offer showers to men coming off the streets. The next morning a foot clinic was set up to anyone in need. A lunch soup kitchen was put on during a couple of days. And sandwiches were distributed one afternoon to anyone stopping by.

I’ll have more to say about Open Door in the days to come. I need to reflect and think about what this might look like in Nashville – every town is different and even the needs are not quite the same. Nashville has resources that Atlanta doesn’t have, and visa versa. But the needs are real and desire to offer hope and assistance is a calling that many of us are hearing. How do we respond? Do we sit still and listen for God or is He yelling so loudly that we are apt to misunderstand it for noise? The Carolyn Maddux Peace & Justice ministry and Otter Creek is certainly one avenue that needs to be invited into this conversation. Let’s start talking…

5.17.09

2009-05-17T07:44:00.001-05:00

I need your help….

Lisa (not her real name) has been the subject of several blog entries – I’d link you back to them if I knew how to do that, but since I don’t, you can scan the prior day’s writings if you want to catch up on her story. In the past week, Lisa has expressed a real interest in getting out of the projects, finding a new set of friends and a new community and getting her life back together.

That’s easier said than done, but we’ve started working on it.

One piece of helping Lisa have the chance to start over is taking care of some events in her past that have consequences for which she must pay. Over the past few weeks she has followed up on several outstanding warrants for bad checks and is working to make restitution. The difficulty is that she is 7 months pregnant and been put on bed rest until the baby is born. So this means no income for the next 2 months.

This coming Friday Lisa needs to go to court in Fairview to sign some papers and settle up on a hot check charge. I’m not going to be able to take her and the people that I know that have met Lisa are all tied up as well. We need to find someone willing to get up early on Friday morning to pick up Lisa at her apartment in downtown Nashville and drive her to Fairview by 8AM. Once there it may take a few hours to get everything signed, but then we need to get her brought back to her apartment. I hope you get the sense of the dependency that the poor have on others. And when most (if not all) of the people you know are primarily out for themselves, you can see the opportunity to be taken advantage of. Lisa has to get to Fairview. If she ends up having to ask one of her neighbors to take her, the cost could be significant – not just the money she would have to pay (which she does not have), but also the obligations that she’s be subjecting herself to.

If you think you might be willing to consider taking Lisa on Friday, please email me and let me know how to get in touch with you. I’ll get you the details so that you can think and pray about it before making the commitment. Thanks in advance to each of you who read this blog and who have told me how much it means to you.

5.16.09

2009-05-16T21:33:00.001-05:00

For the past two weekends I was supposed to work with a group of folks who had been asked by the local police to help clean up a homeless encampment. But for the past two weekends it’s been raining and we had to put off the cleanup. As plans for this weekend’s cleanup were being made I had to let the group know that I was not able to be there until the end of the cleanup – already had a prior commitment. The organizer assured me that she had help and I could really be of the most service by showing up in the Otter Creek pickup truck to haul off the bags of garbage they collected.

The plan was for the crew to start at 12 and for me to get there about 3PM. The problem was that it was raining again. The morning was OK, but by 12 it was clouding up and soon afterwards it came a downpour. I called the organizer to check if I was still needed. She answered her cell phone with heavy breathing. “We’re soaked”, she said. “We decided we had to make some progress on the cleanup so we started at 12 and it’s been raining just about ever since”.

So at about 2:30 I cranked up the OCC pickup truck and headed into town. Now you’ve got to see the OCC pickup truck to believe it. For once, the truck we have matches the parts of town I frequent. It was given to us by an OCC member with the caution that we probably should think twice before accepting the gift. We had a little work done on it (after all, who can’t use a pickup truck!) to make it road worthy. It had been a farm truck. The driver door does not open so you have to get in on the passenger side and slide over. There’s a secret to starting the truck that I’m not at liberty to explain, but rest assured the trick is not one that you’d want to have for your personal vehicle. The tailgate only lets down if you life the rear handle and pull the cable running to the left rear latch at the same time. The radio doesn’t work, but neither do any of the gauges or the A/C or the defrost fan. It can be a humbling experience to drive it. For me it’s more a faith decision. Do I have the faith that it will get me where I’m going and back?

I arrived at the side of the road where a path led to the encampment. It was raining and the weeds were high and wet. Coming out of the woods on the path were 4 young men and two women. They were also soaked and they were filthy. The each were dragging black garbage bags. I pulled over and started to take the bags from them as they dropped them and headed back down the path. For the next 20 minutes they brought bags of garbage they’d collected, at least 12 old tires – some of which were still on the rim while the others were full of dirty, muddy water. They handed them to me and I tossed them all in the back of the truck. Finally coming down the path I see them dragging tarps, an old tent along with the poles that used to be its frame. All of this we piled into the back of the old truck.

I had parked on the side of a busy road. The emergency blinkers on the pickup didn’t work (no surprise) and I did not have enough confidence in the battery to leave the truck running so the turn signal would operate. I felt sure wither a police car or someone would stop to figure out what was going on. After all, it was pouring down and here were 4 young black men, a black woman, a white woman and me tossing garbage in the back of a beat up truck. But just like my experience on the streets, I guess we were invisible.

These volunteers were amazing. Four eagle scouts and the mother of 2 of them along with an animal rights activist and social worker. The mom and the scouts were from an inner city church of Christ that I had heard of but had never visited (I’ll be there soon). This wasn’t work for any kind of merit badge. This was work because it was what they understood the call of Jesus to be. I was impressed, humbled and inspired to be tossing garbage along with them.
We headed to the dump where we unloaded the junk – still in the pouring rain. At this point the rain was a blessing because it washed out the back of the truck. I carried one of the young men home and then headed back to Otter Creek thankful that I had been given the chance to experience a level of service that I don’t often see. Due to the rain, we only got about half the encampment cleaned up. If you’re interested in helping, we plan to try and get the remainder done next weekend. Call me and I’ll get you plugged in. And be sure you come knowing that the work will go on – rain or shine…

5.14.09

2009-05-16T07:52:00.002-05:00

A young man who attends Otter Creek called and asked to ride with me this evening. We were actually having coffee and as I was telling him about a few aspects of my ministry work he asked if I was going out this evening. I told him I was and he asked if he could ride along.

I had been in touch with Tammy during the day and was still trying to find the other young woman. My homeless friend that lives on the bridge had also called earlier that day. He had passed by a dollar store and had asked an employee if they were hiring. He was told that they did need someone and he should come back tomorrow to fill out an application. He called me to say he needed a collared shirt and could I help him get one.

So my OCC friend and I picked up my homeless friend and we headed to Thriftsmart. With the help of Thriftsmart gift cards earned by the donations of Otter Creek members, we were able to get him a couple of collared shirts so that he could make a more proper presentation for his job interview. By the time we finished shopping it was 7:30PM. None of us had eaten dinner so we agreed to stop by a downtown Waffle House. We were the only customers at the time and the waitress was a first night rookie. For the next 45 minutes the 3 of us laughed together with her as she tried to get our orders straight and properly called out to the short order cook. We had a great time. I wish you could have been there to see how a simple meal of waffles and omelets provided the backdrop for community and relationships that many of us (including myself) have missed for most of our lives.

We then stopped by Lowes to pick up a bug bomb. Earlier that day a street social worker had called to tell me about a man living in his van who needed some help. Seems his dog had gotten into a bunch of ticks and fleas which had all gotten into his van. The social worker got the dog cleaned up and helped the man wash a few of his things, but he was not able to sleep in his van because of the bugs. She had given him a tent and sleeping bag and taken him to an unmarked encampment for homeless folks. She had asked if I could help with the bug problem in the van. So we bought this bug bomb for use in trailers and homes and took it out to him. My homeless friend and the OCC member spent a few minutes getting to know this young man. We explained how to use the bug bomb and then we prayed for and with him – asking God to keep him safe and to give him a clear vision of where He wanted him to be. We left him making plans to bomb his truck as he headed back into the woods for the night.

After dropping off my homeless friend at a hotel where he’s staying with some friends for a few days, we headed into the city to find Tammy. I wanted to follow up on her day and see if she had gotten to any or all of her appointments (TB test and intake interview at the treatment center). I found her out on the street in front of her friend’s triplex. She told us that she had gotten up at 6AM (unbelievable!) and gotten to the health clinic to get the TB test results (the results were negative) but missed the bus to the treatment center. However, she called one of the directors form the halfway house where she had been dismissed and they came and got her there on time. So she had her interview! Unfortunately they told her it could be as much as 30 days before she was able to get into the program. She started to cry as she told me she didn’t know if she could live in that environment for 30 days and stay clean. The fact that she had made all her appointments was huge!! Maybe, just maybe this is a sign of a breakthrough – keep her in your prayers…

As she was crying one of her friends walked up and asked who I was. Tammy told her that I was her pastor. Without hesitation, her friend introduced herself and asked if I would pray for her. So the 3 of us gathered together on the sidewalk by the street, I put my arms around these 2 women and prayed to God for them to be blessed with strength to overcome and faith to believe. Both women told me that they were hungry and I promised to come back tomorrow and bring them some food. Our plans to look for the woman still on the streets got cut short by a call that required me to head in a different direction.

My prayer for those of you reading this is that you see how God is working through so many people in so many different ways – the OCC member willing to follow a calling from the Spirit to ride with me when he had not made plans to do so, the availability of Thriftsmart gift cards to help a man get some shirts for a job interview, the funds to purchase a bug bomb to help a man living in his van, a bus pass for a woman trying to get around town, the promise of food that is being provided by different OCC members and by Kroger and Wal-mart gift cards donated by still other Otter Creekers. All of this and so much more partner together to take the call of faith and works to the streets of Nashville and to hurting and lonely people, and help make the request for prayer so much more effective because it comes from relationships being cultivated in the name of Jesus.

5.13.09

2009-05-14T08:09:00.000-05:00

Tammy (one more time):
I got a call from the halfway house where Tammy had been staying. The house manager called to say that they were not giving up on Tammy and if she would check herself into and complete a 28 day in-patient program they would consider letting her rejoin their program. She called to tell me this because they knew they might need some help with Tammy while she was transitioning from their program into the treatment program. Within a few hours Tammy called to let me know she needed help with transportation and moving her belongings from the halfway house to her temporary arrangement (until she learned if she was accepted into the treatment program). She had been to the health center to get a TB test –this is required of everyone seeking to get into an in-patient program. That takes a few days to get the results back so she was on the streets. And the results are verified by looking at the person who has been tested. This meant Tammy needed a ride back to the health center.

So this evening I met Tammy. I picked her up on a street corner and we headed to the halfway house to pick up her belongings. We had several garbage bags of stuff to pick up. She told me that her mom had agreed to pay someone to keep her stuff while she was in treatment and to let he sleep there for a few days. We headed to the small triplex. As we got close we noticed flashing blue lights on the side of the street and soon realized the police were parked in front of the house we were heading to. Seems there was an argument going on with some of the people in one of the units (not the one Tammy was moving in to) and the police had been called to calm it down. Tammy did not want to stop and start unloading while the police were there so we circled the block a few times. When the police still did not leave she asked me to take her up the street to McDonalds where she could use the bathroom and smoke.

Earlier that evening I had gotten a call from a man whose wife I had taught when she was at Mending Hearts. They had married recently had asked me to start counseling with them. It all sounded really good. She had a job and had been clean and sober for over a year. However his call changed all that. Seems they had gotten into an argument (which he admitted to me was his fault) and she had started drinking again. She had walked out of the apartment. He called to ask me to go out and try to find her. It just so happened that where they lived and where Tammy was leaving her stuff were close. So while Tammy was in McDonalds I headed down the streets looking for this other woman. All the time wondering what God had in mind for these people and for me. I never found the woman.

I picked Tammy up and we headed back to the house. The police were leaving as we pulled up. As soon as they pulled away the two women in the adjoining apartment started arguing again – loud!! Tammy and I did our best to ignore it as we unloaded her stuff. Just as we were about finished someone told the women who were yelling that I was a pastor. Unbelievable – it got quite.. folks went in the house and shut the door and we finished unloading her stuff.
Now the place we moved Tammy into was just about as bad as anything I’ve ever seen. Dark, dirty and very small. But, as Tammy said, it was out of the weather and had a door and a bathroom. When we finished unloading I gave Tammy a hug and told her to stay in touch. I handed her a bus pass to make her appointments in the morning and said , “God bless”. She said “Thanks”. I had been praying she would say “Thanks” so that I could respond – not with “You’re welcome”, but by asking her “Why do you think I’m doing this?” She looked at me knowing the answer – she’d heard it before. I told her, “I see Jesus in you”… She teared up, gave me another hug then turned and walked back inside.

Say a prayer for Tammy – that she’ll get up tomorrow morning and make her appointments. And for the other woman whose walking the streets – that she’ll be safe.

5.10.09

2009-05-11T06:05:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend a young woman that Otter Creek has been trying to help get back on her feet called to tell me she was having to go in the hospital. She’s 7 months pregnant and has a 2 year old. She lives in a Metro housing project and is struggling to figure out what her life is all about. She is constantly trying to make changes but it seems that life and circumstances and consequences of past decisions keep coming on her and pulling her down. This trip to the hospital was due to a complication with her pregnancy that the doctors are saying she must limit her activity and not pick up more than 2 pounds. To do this she needs to be living with someone. She has no one that she can trust. She called to ask me to find her a place to live that was safe. A place where there was a community of people who would accept her and love her and help take care of her and value her. A place where she can give back as well as be given to. She called to say she was tired of trying to make it on her own. She was discharged from the hospital today and I was the only one she could call to come get her and take her to a neighbor’s apartment. Not the ideal place to stay – in fact, it’s not a good place to stay, but for now she has no other alternatives. One of my tasks for Monday will be to try and find her a new place to live. She needs a roommate and a friend. If you know of a situation where that might be a possibility, please email or call me.

On the way to the Joyful Noise church service at the Martha O’Bryan center at 4PM, I got a call from one of my homeless friends that lives on a bridge in downtown Nashville. He called to ask me if I might stop by and give him his sleeping bag which was in the back of my Explorer. Otter Creek had paid for him to be in a hotel room for the past few nights due to the storms but tonight looked to be pretty clear and he was heading back to the bridge.

At Joyful Noise, I was blessed to see an inner city pre-K teacher who is a member at Otter Creek enjoying being with kids and moms in a different environment than her classroom. She’s so committed to making a difference in the lives of her kids that she comes to this service to get the chance to love on them and let them love on her. She talks with the parents and let’s them know about their kids. Being a teacher in an inner city school is a tough job. It’s even tougher when you see it as more than a job – you see it as a calling. I pray that we can continue to grow in our support and encouragement of her and other teachers like her as they work to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the community.

After services I called my bridge friends and met him under the bridge to hand him his sleeping bag. I must admit that I struggle with driving back to my house knowing where he’ll be sleeping tonight. There’s little comfort in telling myself that it’s not possible to address all the hurt and injustice that I see each day. As I write this on Monday morning at 6AM, I think about waking up at 4:00AM this morning to hear rain on the roof. My first thought was that he was on the bridge trying to stay dry. No romantic thoughts of pitter patter rain drops on my roof and the comforting sounds of water in the gutters. Just the realization that he (and many others like him) are huddled wherever they can find a dry spot.

I’m thankful that Otter Creek has been able to pay for him to stay dry this past weekend. I pray that’s been a blessing to him even while he’s trying to stay dry tonight…