Skid Row

As the city blocks stream past I have no idea what to expect. I’ve heard of Skid Row before, but hearing the stories and experiencing it for your self are two completely different things. One you only imagine in your head with the details provided by the descriptor, the other you will forever have ingrained in your memory. The sight of hundreds of people simply existing in the streets is one that is not easily forgotten. The dirt in the gutters, the pieces of paper fluttering in the wind, the homeless man asking for money; it is all vividly impressed upon my mind.



I cannot honestly say I knew what to expect, I know I had some preconceptions fueled by the stories of others and by Hollywood films; however, when faced with the reality of the people living with next to nothing, people in bondage by their addictions or circumstances, I am not able to articulate the sympathy aroused. We come not to show them how wrong they are, we come simply to be salt and light; we come to bring love and peace. I don’t know that I will ever be able to grow tired of how a simple plate of food can bring such a hope.

I spoke to one man named Mark; battling with alcoholism, he is struggling to get his birth certificate sent from another state so he can get back on his feet. All he kept saying over and over again was that if he only had his I.D. he would be able to get a job and get back on his feet. Above all though he kept talking about how he had faith that regardless of how bleak the circumstances he had faith it would work out. As he pulled out a stubble of a cigarette, me and a coworker prayed for him asking for favor as he goes through the process of getting a job. The faith in those deep blue eyes and the simple appreciation for us listening and praying for him is not something I will soon easily forget.



Dennis drew me from the moment I saw him, in a place where many do not have hope left in their eyes, this man’s joy shown out clear as the dawn. As I sat down and spoke with him he told me how he had not eaten in three days and was so appreciative of the meal we had brought him. I told him about the Dream Center and Food Chapel, and he expressed even more gratitude for the meal. We talked of friends, family, and the meal its self. He spoke of how he had only been on Skid Row for a matter of days and was here to visit his sick mother in the hospital and to try to find his sister. I asked him if he was a Christian, to which he replied yes and then proceeded to tell me of his history in the church choir.

As his story unfolded before me I came to discover how he was a divorced man and unsure of his mother’s salvation as she lay in a precarious state. I remembered Jesus’ parable of the workers in Mathew 20, where regardless of the amount of work each did they were all paid the same, and encouraged him with that story for his mother’s salvation. He thanked me for talking to him and said he is looking forward to coming to church and the Food Chapel.

If nothing else this experience proved to let me see with my own eyes what I had only ever heard about. I don’t know what impact I had on these two men, but I hope I left an impression of Jesus with them just as they left me with a greater understanding that Skid Row is not a place; Skid Row is a thousand different stories intertwined together in one place. I want to know those stories. I don’t want to simply see a face from behind a electric window, I want to see the heart and hear the struggles of that person. No longer will I be satisfied with hearing from afar, I want it first hand.

-Joel

Food Truck on the Southside

I finally had the chance to speak with Jim this week, a quiet man who usually parks himself in his electric wheelchair at the front of the line when we come by with food. I said hello and he told me how much the Dream Center has been a blessing to him, since he had a stroke in 95’ he has been living on disability allowance. He cheerfully told us ‘You guys really help!’ he has been receiving food and provisions from the Dream Center for over six months now.

It was amazing to see how the line of people now stretched around the street corner as more people came along, since the time I had started to talk to Jim. It was a relatively sunny day and the children were playing close by the doorsteps of their apartments, which I was informed is a normal occurrence for this neighborhood as gang fire happens around here all too often. So the children, are kept close enough to be pulled into their homes by their parents.

I could never imagine that feeling of always being on edge, of fearing for your family’s well being on a daily basis. But they somehow do just this and having the support of the Dream Center’s: food truck, adopt-a-block and the bus ministry to take them to church helps them to have the hope of a better future.

-Chaka