Connections...

So here I sit in the big glass tower that is my home for 9 or so hours every Monday through Friday of every week. 52 weeks a year. Minus a couple weeks for vacation time and a few holidays here and there. We all know the drill. Get up at the crack of dawn, do whatever it is that our morning routine consists of, get out and do our best Nascar impersonation, and end up in the old gilded cage. For me that means sitting in a cubicle here at work from about 6:00 a.m. until around 3:30 most days. Pretty good hours, if I do say so myself. I am blessed to be in a pretty low stress situation here, and by all accounts, I have it pretty good.

The nice thing about the place I call home for my workday is it is right across the street from where we hang out on Sundays. Most everyone here, and for that matter, most everyone here in Omaha knows that the homeless community in this town spends lots of time in the park across the street. In the Gene Leahy mall. When the weather in nice, I can stroll through the park and chat with dozens of folks that we know from our Sunday activities. Dozens. At any given time. Ironically enough, I was reading an article in this morning's paper that spoke of this very issue. Seems that, according to the article I read, there are just short of a couple thousand homeless people in our community. I'm not exactly sure how you put an exact number on something so vague as homelessness. Seems like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree. What do you do? Do you have them all line up and count them? Is there a homeless census? I don't know. Just seems odd. We have 3 primary shelters here in Omaha. They all have day programs where these folks are allowed to spend time at the shelters during the days. Mostly funded by private donations and foundations. Seems as though the well is drying up. Apparently the shelters are discontinuing their day programs for lack of funding. I'm sure it's cyclical. But for the time being, that's the situation. Just a little something for me to think about. Where will all these folks go during the day? They mention in the article that obviously the best time to get these guys help and what not is during the days. Help with housing, vocational rehab, counseling, etc. So what of those services? It's a bigger problem than I can get my head around...

So, the park serves as a day program in some ways. It's a public park. These folks are part of the general public. Therefore, they can hang out in the park, right? Well, not so much. You don't want a bunch of homeless folks massing up in the parks. It doesn't fit in with the mayor's downtown revitalization project. Let's marginalize these guys, put them up in a building somewhere and pretend they don't exist?

When we moved back to Omaha last year and got involved with these great people, we really had no idea what we were getting into. We were and still are pretty naive to the whole thing. And there are lots of groups doing lots of great things in this arena. We are most certainly a small fish in an ever widening pond. The complexities of which I cannot begin to fathom. The great thing is that God has his hand in our activities every step of the way. I have never been in prayer so much for something in my life. Let God put 150 or so people into your life on a weekly basis and see if you don't start praying like crazy. For them. As many as I can by name. That's a tough one, but I try. For sanity, because lots of what we see every week is pretty crazy. For help, because we certainly can't do it alone. For guidance, because we need it regardless. For wisdom, because sometimes I wonder how I manage to get out of bed in the mornings and function, so how am I supposed to know what to do in these situations? For strength and courage to continue the journey, because sometimes it is tough. And I think one of the most important things I pray for is discernment. To know how to help and who to help and when? We simply cannot meet all the needs of the folks who are placed in front of us. How do we determine who we help and in what ways? That's probably the toughest one for me.

Here at work, I've been placing a weekly ad in the "Wanted" section of the electronic bulletin board. It's the first section you see when you log on to the board. It has proven to be a blessing in so many ways. Thousands of people work here. Thousands of opportunities therefore are out there to share Christ's love with people and for folks to get involved. I usually put two ads on the board. I bump them up every Monday morning so that they are the first thing you might see when you happen to log on. One ad is for clothing and one for cooks. We need both and not necessarily in that order. The really cool thing is that people are responding. We usually get a couple of good clothing donations every week. Usually. And we've had a few people step up on the cooking end of things. That's the tough one. As word gets around about the meals that God sends us down with, the numbers seem to grow weekly. Yesterday we had barbque chicken, corn, bread, etc. I think people were pleased. We need people to step up not only to help cook, but to chip in and help provide food. Feeding upwards of 150 people each Sunday can get a little expensive. We haven't had to worry a whole lot because we know if we are obedient and do as we are commanded, God will provide. I can't tell you how many times we've fretted over certain provisional things only to be put in our place by God. He provides everything we need for every circumstance to show us that He and He alone is running this show. The hard thing for me sometimes is relinquishing control. It's a difficult balance. How, from a human perspective, do we maintain that balance. The one which dictates the physical side that needs to be handled, versus the spiritual side that He and He alone handles?

The cool thing that dawned on me this past week is how God is managing the physical side of this thing. If you've ever been involved in any kind of ministry or church or whatever, you know that people come and go. I've seen it numerous times in the various churches we've attended. You see someone who had what appears to be a key role in some sort of ministry moving on to another church or moving on to another ministry or simply moving on. Normally, the natural reaction in that situation is to worry about how we'll continue to carry out the mission if we are losing key people. We live in a community with lots of military personnel. If you've ever lived in this type of community, you know people come and go quite often. We have a couple who have been instrumental in our mission who are leaving soon. New duty station calls. Mike and Enza have been helping out with this since very early on. It saddens me on many levels to see them go. I feel as though we barely got to know them on a personal level. They are a very strong couple who live their life for God in a very big way. Lately, they've been trying to do all those things one must do when preparing for a cross country move. So we haven't seen so much of them. It's all part of the journey, but it doesn't make it any easier. We'll miss them dearly. We even named a driving maneuver after them. Some call it the Enza. I like to call it the Lilley! You see, early on. Mike and Enza were on their way to our house on a cold, snowy morning and their car slid into a drain culvert at the bottom of our street. The front axle snapped in half, and now they are famous for that particular driving maneuver! We will miss Mike and Enza greatly!

But God, because this is what He does, has placed others in the mission. Because of the news story that ran a couple of months ago. Because of the thousands of people who work here and those that are looking for an opportunity to help. Because of His greatness. He continues to place people in our paths and He continues to steer the mission. I know there are people that want to help. People that are looking for opportunities. I think one of the cool things about what we are doing is the flexibility that is built in. I really hope that it is extremely apparent and totally transparent as to where we are coming from. I think it is and I think we convey that while we are doing our deeds. I hope we do. That is certainly our intent. But one of the nice things for us is this. It doesn't matter where you are spiritually in this mission. Now, obviously we would love to have every single person who helps out be of like mind and spirit. But that's not always the case. Some just come because they want to help in a community sort of way. Others know that they are being led by the Spirit. Whatever. Hopefully, in doing what we are doing, all will eventually come be in the same place. That physical place starts on a corner here in the downtown area. The spiritual place starts in our hearts. The connection can be bridged by letting people know that opportunities exist to help those in need. The hope is that those in need, which is really all of us, but also those on the other side of the equation can come together and be as one in the bigger mission. I am blessed to work for a large organization. I am more blessed to be a part of a much larger organization. His organization. My workplace compadres have stepped up to the plate. I have no doubt that they will continue to do so. It's a great way to make connections that months ago did not necessarily exist. It's so cool to stand on that corner on a Sunday, look across the street at this gleaming corporate structure and wonder what connections have yet to be made. I can't wait to see. It's been a heck of a ride so far and I know it's only going to get better. Just have to be careful not to pull an Enza along the way!! :) We love ya Enza!

Time to go. Frank needs a sleeping bag. Got banned from the mission for 6 months for some reason. Not sure where he intends to sleep now, but we have an extra sleeping bag. If you read my blog about my night with Bill and Frank and our excellent adventure, I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to maybe why he got banned from the mission. He tried to explain it to me, but he was feeling no pain, if you know what I mean. I felt a little pained for him, but that's the way it is. Frank is a guy I'll write about some time. He has a story. As do all these guys. So many stories. So little time. Gotta somehow make the connections...

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)