Skid Row Outreach

07/16

Today was both wonderful and terrible. A day of contrasts, and emotional highs and lows.
I woke at 9:30, not long before we had to meet for an outreach that I was not really looking forward too. The plan, put forth by the new outreach coordinators Sarah and Ryan was to go to Skid Row and minister to the many homeless there. My headache from the previous night was mostly gone but I was not in the best mood regardless. I showered, cleaned up the absolute mess in the kitchen from everyone making their lunches, and went over to the girl’s house for the meeting before we were to leave. I decided that I was not going to fight the fact that I needed to go even if it was going to be uncomfortable…not that I’m scared of skid row itself, but it’s a daunting task in my case because of my pervasive issues with taking initiative in ministry.
We walked to the Dash stop on Figueroa and all 21 of us made it onto the first bus that pulled up. We caught the transfer bus at 7th which took us almost all the way to the Fashion District on the edge of skid row. By now, the fact of living on the edge of downtown Los Angeles has become normal to me so I didn’t marvel at how little time the trip took as I have in the past. We began to walk down 7th toward the heart of skid row, which is intersected by San Julian and San Pedro streets.
Two to three girls were placed in groups with one guy. Jeannine and Christal were in mine. I was happy to have Christal along; she is very outgoing with people she has never met, especially the homeless. I am almost the polar opposite of that…a fact I admitted to her as we approached the downtrodden area which the workers at the L.A. Mission prefer to call “Hope Central”. She prayed for us, and for me, and I was very encouraged. I decided to just put aside my worries and concerns and just see what would happen. We walked down San Julian, the heart of Skid Row…we talked to a couple of people, but not for long, we prayed for one man. We rounded the corner at 5th in front of the L.A. Mission…a lady was sitting on the corner in a wheelchair…well, that was her gender as far as I could tell. She looked very ill…and responded affirmatively when Christial asked if she needed prayer (I had spent the past few minutes fighting my reservations while Christal took the majority of initiative in approaching people. Her name was Coco…she still wore bracelets that betrayed a recent hospital stay. She was very sick with AIDS…she cried as Christal prayed for her, I watched because for safety reasons one person had to keep their eyes open during prayer…I also watched because I struggled to comprehend what she was experiencing, and could not. My inability to be empathetic was frustrating, and left me wondering how to respond.

Leaving Coco behind we crossed over into San Julian park. A lot sized green oasis in the midst of urine stained concrete hell. There we met one lady, and then a twenty year old Hispanic man named Cortez who lives in the Valley but was there with a friend. He got out of jail on Thursday and needs a job. He was also very receptive to our prayers.
Time began to pass more quickly…we met a man on the sidewalk who very openly admitted his struggle with his narcotics addiction. He desperately wanted to believe in the Gospel, but couldn’t see that God could overpower his addiction. While we were talking to him I was approached by this older man named Robert and he began to talk to me…for the next two hours. It wasn’t tedious however, I knew that he needed someone to talk to and he talked about everything from movies, things to see in L.A., Texas and his odd theories about the connection between the government and the church. I never really got through to him about that much but I was able to be someone to talk to. I was really tired after the two hours though. He followed the three of us everywhere (not uninvited). We ended up at the church...I talked to Robert and the girls prayed with people as we met them.
I had a bad headache and was growing irritable when we were at the church talking about the day. Everyone had stories, crazy things they had seen. While working at the prayer table a couple of the students watched a drug deal happen a few feet away, and then a man shoot up with heroin minutes later, on the street in broad daylight.
On our way back my headache worsened, the bus wouldn’t come, I was very impatient. It had been a tough day emotionally and spiritually. I was happy to return to the house, I knew that I was not being the most agreeable person. This project has brought out the best and worst in everyone. We can’t hide anything when we’re living this close and spending this much time together.