night strike

what up everyone, just got back from my cousin's soccer game, go bekka, and decided to write about my night last night. we went to this thing called night strike because of a strong recommendation from one of mandy's closest friends, jolleen. night strike is something put on by an organization called bridgetown ministries. everyone who works for them were wearin these shirts that had a person climbing out of a box and they said something like, Get out of the Box. needless to say, they had my attention.

basically, bridgetown ministries goes underneath burnside bridge (where portland's saturday market is) and they set up a city. there's a station with food, a bible table, popcorn table, footwashing table, water station, hair-cut station, sno-cone station, clothes table. and about 300-400 people show up and just hang out together...and over half of those people also happen to be homeless. so we had the joy of spending 3 hours last night with some of the homeless in portland. you want to be humbled...you want a swift kick in the goodies to remind you that there are people who are suffering...go do something like this.

i sat at the Bible Table where i would be giving out Bibles, talking with people, and maybe reading with people. "you'll be amazed how many people will come talk to you and want to ask you questions and read with you" at least that's what the trainer said to me...dude was straight lying...i sat there for like 20 minutes and talked to one person while everyone else wandered around. so i looked at the Gideon who was at our table, grabbed some of the little new testaments and said i'll be back. and in about 2 minutes i met James.

...if you are still reading...this is gonna be a long one, so...yeah, you've been warned...
James looked at me and said, 'hey Jesus loves you'. i said, yeah, he loves you too. i introduced myself and in about thirty seconds any knowledge i had about sports was put to shame. James could not only name football and basketball players from almost every team, he could tell me where they went to college too. and as we bantered back and forth (dude's a Raider fan...he forgave me), we would laugh and project the coming season...and when he laughed...you better provide like a 5-6 ft radius...brother laughed with his whole body, jumpin, clappin and shakin...joy, pure joy.

he mentioned his brother being a 49er fan and i asked him a bit more about his brother, and his whole demeanor changed...one brother in prison, another brother strung out on coke...and this look of desperation and 'what the heck am i supposed to do' came over his face. we talked about that for a second and wanting desperately to talk about something else, he asked me my opinion of T.O....and the laughter resumed, full force with jumping, clapping and red faces...

I met this guy John later, mandy had brought me over to meet his girlfriend whom she had been talking with and after meeting her and chattin for a second, i decided to get some more male bonding. so i said hey again to lance and said, 'hey man, tell me about yourself'...his response, straight-faced and with all seriousness and matter-of-factness...

...i'm homeless and i don't do nothin all day...

...strike one. (insert nervous laughter here)

i tried again, 'aight then, well what brings you joy' (why i asked that question, i'll never know)...he smiled, turned to his girl and said, 'that's her'. (insert the chic flick 'awh' here). but for real, i was touched. these two look out for each other, protect one another, they're family. Lance and i chatted for a bit about his current situation, how he got here, how long he's been here, and how hard things are. he told me stories of police raiding homeless camps in the woods just to make them move...he shared about being woken up by cops with tasers instead of nudges. he shared his frustrations of just wanting something to eat and store-owners putting locks on the dumpster where they threw away the food they don't want or that's a day away from expiring, so now no homeless could go through them. i was wishing desperately i could have handed him some kind of Safeway grocery card so he could go get food anytime he wanted...like you and i can...

and as i left, to go back to my house with a bed, couch, and backyard, both James and John said, 'thanks for talkin man...you comin back?'

i hope so...so many stories from this night, so many things that brought joy to my heart, and anger and pain in the same place...