Are you Christian?

"No. I’m Nick".

I swear that conversation happened today. Poor Nick thought the guy was asking him if he was his brother. Nope. Just good old Nick. The fellow asking the question was someone I met today for the first time. Michael. Now Michael was in a pretty bad state. Obviously he had been drinking quite heavily. I never even saw him until we were wrapping things up this afternoon. And I have to be honest, lots of times when I’m approached by a guy who has obviously had too much to drink, especially in the park on Sunday, I probably get a little standoffish. I don’t really mean to, it’s just so difficult to have any kind of meaningful conversation with a guy when he’s in that state. So I had a very brief conversation with Michael and was on to loading the trailer and getting things wrapped up. Things to do and places to be…or so I thought. Someone Else had a different idea. So then I see Michael talking to Robin. Don’t know the crux of that conversation, just that they were having one. And then I see him bent down talking to Nick. So I gently insert myself into that conversation. So he was asking Nick if he was Christian. And after a bit of confusion, Nick cleared the air for Michael. Told him "oh yeah, I’m A Christian. I’m just not my brother". And then Michael and I started talking. And he started crying. And the pain in his eyes was immense. The hurt was so evident. And he was really loaded. So I asked him if I could take him to detox. He said he wanted to change. You could tell he wanted it. He just wasn’t ready for it. Have to be ready to make that happen. So he declined my offer to take him. I was so ready to take him right then and there.

So he seemed to be enamored by Nick. I mean, who isn’t? The kid is just pretty genuine. I know I’m biased, but what can I say? So Nick, Michael and me were at the back of the van in a conversation and Michael told me how his boys, Jeremiah and Matthew were killed in a car wreck almost 20 years ago. The pain was so real as he spoke. It was so intense. He told me of the car wreck that took the lives of his boys. I asked him a couple of hard questions. He mentioned, as lots of us do, that his boys were in heaven. So my question was would they really look down and appreciate what was happening to their father? I wasn’t trying to be harsh, but I see so many guys down there that have such severe addictions and I’m just getting to the point that I want to be a little more bold and maybe a little more blunt. So he cried a little harder and said he didn’t think so. Me either. I just think this is yet another way that a guy ends up in this situation. I mean I can’t imagine losing my family in that way. And to be there when it happened. He said he wasn’t driving. A buddy was, but apparently Michael was in the car. So he saw his boys lose their life…

He came over to me a few minutes later, after talking to Nick again I believe and told me something. I couldn't understand him at first and then he said it again. He said to play football with my son. I smiled, because it’s something I don’t do enough. To take time for the simple things. Because they can be taken from us in the blink of an eye. And he spent a few minutes giving the Nickster a bit of unsolicited advice. Pointed to me and told Nick to always do what I told him. Hey, this is good stuff! Told him that it’s important to always do what your dad tells you and to listen to everything he says. Michael’s kids were taken from him for unknown reasons. That’s always a tough one because there are always more questions than answers. Something similar happened to me 10 years ago. My oldest sister was taken from us and she hadn’t even quite reached 40. Why? No answers….

So as we left, Michael, who we’d never met before today, told us he loved us. We told him the same. That’s how it works. Or it should be how it works anyway. I saw a window sticker on the back of a great friend’s car recently. It simply said Love Wins. I believe it. I saw it in Michael’s eyes today. Through the hurt and intense pain, I saw a glimmer of love. It’s in there. We just have to be there to see it, to nurture it, to share it. I hope I see Michael again next week. I pray that I do. I’d love to talk with him some more. I’d love to love him just a little more. I’d love to see Nick throw a little love his way…

One last thing. We had a chance this morning to speak to a small gathering of people at River of Life church here in Omaha. It was a good chance for me to dig back and remember why God has us on this journey. Logistically, it was a little tough, but we made it work and got downtown right at our normal time. River of Life is a missional church and I believe that the goal for us being there was to share what happens and what can happen if we are willing to take a step out in faith and see what amazing things God will do with us when we do. It was an opportunity to share with a group of people that there doesn’t have to be a bunch of meetings, a ton of planning, the formation of a board to oversee or any of that stuff. There simply has to be a willingness to obey and step out and follow. And when we do, the results can be fairly spectacular. We spent about 45 minutes sharing the story of how God is using us in the downtown community. It was probably the fastest 45 minutes ever for Robin and me. We could have gone on for hours. Hopefully, our words were His words and they conveyed the message. The message that God will use us wherever we are if we are simply willing to listen and go. And maybe go loudly. Because that works too. :)

Michael quoted Romans 5:8 to me several times. I’ll end with that, as it speaks profoundly to God’s unconditional love and grace…

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

Go out and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Urban Nomads

Today was a pretty typical day for us. Lots of clothing, lots of fellowship and a couple hundred or so meals in the park. We were gone last week at a family reunion so we had lots of folks telling us it was good to have us back. We are so appreciative of the people that help out so often. Last weekend some of our friends from Coram Deo church here in Omaha took care of getting a meal to our friends downtown. Their generosity allowed us to do our annual family gathering in Iowa without having to worry about our friends in the homeless community downtown. So it was nice to be away for a weekend, but equally nice to be back today. Pretty calm day downtown. The weather was great, the food was good, and everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits. We even had a fellow jamming on an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. Said he might dig back into the memory banks and work up some Christian songs for us. I said just come back and play.

Most of the usual suspects were there today. One thing that happened for me and I believe this was a first for us, was a fellow we thought had left and moved on to another part of the country was back. Turns out he never left. I was a little discouraged to see him at first. He asked us a while back if we could help him out. We tried our best to get him a ticket out of Omaha. Apparently he didn’t make the bus. He says he’s still going. It was just a bit disappointing to see him today. I mean, I want to see all of our friends each week. But if we don’t then maybe that means things are going well. Obviously, at times it means things aren’t going so well. In this fellow’s case, it was, according to him, the latter. He’s still going to try to get there, and I have hopes that he’ll reach his destination, but he seems to be in a state of mind that might not allow him to get there. We’ll see…

So a couple of our friends were missing in action today. Frank and Bill were laying low. According to another friend they weren’t feeling up to it. For some reason, it always bothers me when I don’t see those two. They are pretty inseparable, so you almost always see them together or not at all. Today? Not at all. Apparently Frank is camping. Under a bridge. In downtown Omaha. According to his friend, he needed a blanket. We didn’t have any today. I did have a couple of sleeping bags, just not with me. So I made arrangements to meet with Frank on Monday after work. So we get home and I throw a sleeping bag in my car so I wouldn’t forget it on Monday. I had to head down in that general vicinity later on Sunday, so I decided to take a chance and see exactly where my friend was “living” these days. I found a parking lot just above where I thought he was hanging out, and took off to find him. I looked in a couple of different areas and saw someone a little ways off. I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or passed out, because from my perspective, he looked a bit slumped over. I yelled out his name and he looked up. He wasn’t sure who I was from a distance, but when I yelled and told him who it was, he welcomed me into his camp area. Good thing, because I was going in anyway. :) So this was it. A couple of blankets rolled out on the ground, a pillow, a loaf of smuggled bread from our earlier lunch, a few books, a pouch of tobacco and some rolling papers. This was home. I think Frank was happy to see me, but I had mixed feelings. It’s so hard on the one hand to try and make a guy comfortable in these surroundings. I don’t want to come across as encouraging. And then I realize how absolutely ridiculous my feelings are in these situations. This guy is going to do what he does. Told me as much today. It’s what we do Dave, he says. So we head back to my car to get the sleeping bag. On the way we have a chance for small talk. It was on the walk back that he told me about Urban Nomads. I mean, I’ve heard the phrase before, but being here in his “home” made it seem a little more real. These guys really do live life in a seriously nomadic way. I can’t imagine.

Once back at my car, I gave him the sleeping bag, but I was also able to share a little of the Gospel with him. It was a great opportunity to share a little with him about my faith. The thing I felt compelled to share with him is that even if this is his lot in life, then so be it. I really don’t think it has to be this way for him, but that’s me. I asked him if he ever reads. The Bible? He said that he was flying a sign a while back and a fellow had given him a nice leather Bible. But do you read it? I tried to share a few things that might help him if he were to decide to actually open it up. I just really felt compelled to spend a few minutes with him, one on one and just share a little of what I’ve learned over the years. We spoke about his Mom, who passed away when he was 2 years old. He cried when he told me he has no memory of his Mother. It was just nice to be able to share a few minutes away from the normal craziness that Sunday brings on our downtown corner. And here we were in his "house" talking about Jesus Christ. Who woulda thunk it?

Anyway, it turned out to be a great day. I pray for Frank and his safety. The one thing he told me is the next time I approach a camp like his I need to know how to approach it correctly. There is a proper way. I suppose a guy could get himself in a little trouble just bounding into someone’s camp. The correct way to approach? You gotta know the pass phrase - Hail to the camp! Hail to the camp? Are you kidding me? How about Hail to the King? That’s what it should be! Maybe I can work that in and get the fellows to use that one! :)

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."Matthew 20:28, NLT

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

Go out and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Ramblings from Dave and Robin’s Closet

The past few weeks for us have been rather eventful, at least from my perspective. Just a little over a month ago, my father left us. The following few weeks were full of busyness, and it seems as though we haven’t been downtown to see and serve our friends much lately. In fact, for me, I went from being there every week for what seemed like forever, especially through the winter, to missing 3 of the last 6 weeks. We had it all covered from a logistical standpoint, but it sure seems like I’ve been missing out the last few weeks. Three weeks ago we were on a bit of a vacation. Got to spend some great time with our friends and church family in Charlotte after spending a few days in Alabama seeing a niece graduate from high school and spending time with my sister. Then this past weekend, we spent time in Iowa with family. We were there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my uncle’s ordination and to also celebrate the lives of two uncles who passed away recently. But we were also there to simply celebrate our family. It is always a great time for me to be able to be with our family, wherever they may be. Charlotte, Alabama, Omaha, Iowa. Wherever. Time has a way of getting by us quickly. I saw that this weekend. I saw aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters who are aging maybe a little more quickly than I’d like to admit. I had the opportunity to play a few songs with my cousin Mike, a fantastic percussionist, at a memorial mass for 2 of my uncles. It was simply a very nice weekend.

Last year on our way home from this very same weekend reunion, we were able to visit a dear friend of ours in Des Moines. He’s a fellow we know from our downtown activities. He lived in Omaha and he now lives in Des Moines and I’m afraid he’s battling the flooding there like so many others in the state of Iowa. It was amazing to me to drive through the state over the past couple of days and see the damage that water is doing to the livelihood of so many. There are lakes and ponds where they didn’t exist before. I haven’t heard from our friend in a few days. I pray that he is safe and that the waters haven’t taken all his belongings. We weren’t able to visit this time. Hopefully we’ll hear from him soon and find that he is indeed ok.

So with us having exhausted our time off for the summer, I guess its time to refocus our energies and efforts. For me anyway. Robin always seems to have good focus. I was reading a devotional this week and it mentioned those set apart for God’s work and the principle of two. It posed the following question. Whose name is mentioned with yours? So I look back and for the last 17 or 18 years, that would be Robin. Dave and Robin. Robin and Dave. So I’m very blessed to be mentioned with my wife. She is my rock. For the past few weeks, she’s really helped me keep everything together. Actually for the past 17 or 18 years. And now the summer is upon us. I had a fellow call me last week. Keith. He wanted to know if we’d hang on to his coat until next winter. Are we really already planning for next winter? He said it was a really nice coat, we got it for him and he had no place to store it for the winter. No closets for that sort of thing at the shelter. So he brought it last week, we took it home, washed it and bagged it up for him for next winter. Along with a few hats, a scarf and gloves. Doesn’t seem possible that we would even be thinking about something like that, but here we are. So Robin washed it and I bagged it up last night. We’ll hang on to it for him. We’ll be Keith’s closet for the next few months. If you saw my garage, you’d think we are the closet for a lot of our friends.

I had the opportunity yesterday to visit with a cousin of mine whom I hadn’t seen in years. She needed a ride to Omaha and I had an empty seat. We talked about her activities with female inmates in Dallas and our activities here in Omaha. I mentioned the needs we are faced with each week. The needs for basic, daily things that lots of us take for granted. Clothing, food, hygiene items. And the fact that I’m constantly trying to not get caught up in the “stuff”. And the fact that, in her words, this is basic, utilitarian stuff. Stuff we all need to simply get through the day. Stuff we all have in out closets, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. Things our friends need and don’t have. So yeah, we’ll be Keith’s closet for a few months. Dave and Robin’s closet. That’s what we’ll call it. Or how about God’s Closet. Because it’s all from Him anyway. Without Him, none of it is possible.

So we didn’t get downtown to serve yesterday. Another group of friends took care of it for us. But beginning next week, we are back at it…full force. Taking the closet with us every week. Whatever God provides. I’m sure it’ll be an interesting summer. Every Sunday seems to be. No doubt. Time to get busy again. Thank God…

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

Go out and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

You're Welcome...

So Sunday we woke up to news of a tornado here in Omaha. I have to tell you I never take the weather warnings nearly as serious as I should, but fortunately Robin does. She is what I'd call a weather junkie. At the first sign of any serious weather activity anywhere within a 200 mile radius of Omaha, she's on the job and making sure we are kept abreast of the seriousness of the matter. It is all good. The problem for me, especially here in the Midwest is that we just never know when serious weather might happen upon us. And the "meteorologists" cry wolf so often that it becomes more and more difficult to put stock in what they say. Just doing their job, but its tough when it goes "just south of us" time after time. So when we woke up Sunday morning to news of an EF-2 tornado just a few miles up the road from where we live, it got my attention. The newspaper this morning called it a "stealth tornado". And that's the problem…they just don't know when these things are going to touch down and wreak havoc. And it did wreak a bit of havoc in a neighborhood a few miles west of us. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. So along with that kind of weather comes rain…usually lots of rain. And hail. We got back into town this past Wednesday from a great visit with some great friends and we were greeted with tornado sirens that evening. And rain. Lots of it. And I believe it has rained off and on since that day. And if you look in the farm fields around the area, standing water is everywhere. But the funniest thing happens for us on Sundays. We have a running joke, but it's not really a joke at all. And I probably shouldn't say anything, lest I jinx it, but I don't think that's how God operates. Like our friend Mike said the other evening, I believe God has a pretty wicked sense of humor at times, but I don't believe luck or jinxes come into play. So Sunday morning, it looked like it might just rain on us off and on throughout the day. Didn't happen. Some of our friends downtown know that it doesn't rain on that corner between noon and two-ish. We make jokes about it, but it just doesn't happen. It is so amazing to me to be able to say that with confidence. And our friends know it also. And one of them even mentioned to Robin he knew why. "It's because you guys pray that it won't rain on us", he said. So once again, we got in and got out within a couple hour window and had no rain. God is so faithful.

Sunday was pretty much a normal Sunday for us. Not much drama from my perspective. If you call hanging out with our friends on a downtown street corner for a couple of hours, praying, eating, fellowshipping, etc, drama-less. :) I sometimes take for granted what God is doing on that corner. Especially when we get to do it week after week. Take yesterday for instance. I spent probably 15 minutes listening to a fellow named Larry, whom I'd never met before, speak from the heart about his faith. Quoting various scriptures, talking about his brother leading him to Christ, and just sort of rambling on. And all I had to do was listen. And it wasn't like I was not engaged, but I just didn't have to say much. I find so often that some of our friends seemingly just want someone to listen to them. I imagine they get lots of people telling them what they ought ot be doing. And I'm sure lots of that is probably justified. But sometimes we probably just need to be better listeners. Lots of our friends have lots to say. Trust me. And Larry gets it. He seems to be trying to find his way. Said he wasn't much of a drinker, but was jut having a rough time. But his attitude was good. And just before that conversation, I was talking briefly with a young lady whose name escaped me. It is so hard to remember all the names. I've known her for a while now, but I simply cannot remember her name. But she remembered mine. And came to me to thank me for what we do. We get that constantly. Thanks for the meal. Thanks for the clothing. Thanks. And they probably get sick of hearing me correct them. Because I always make sure they know where it comes from. Not from us. From Him. Every single thing we do is from, by and of Him. So when she sought me out yesterday to thank me for coming every week, I first told her to forget about me, and to give all the thanks and glory to God. He's the one that she should be thanking. And she knew that. And said as much. But she wanted to thank us for being faithful. Every week. And she mentioned it through tears. And said that she found out recently that she might have throat cancer. And in what was becoming more and more emtional, she thanked me several times for coming every week. And she just kept on with the thanks for all we do. And I just told her she was welcome. Everyone is welcome. We've been so blessed to be able to do this thing week after week. Always beign able to provide for mostly anyone who shows up. With at least a good, hot meal and perhaps a pair of clean socks, or a blanket, or whatever. So when she thanked me for what seemed like the 100th time, I just hugged her and told her she was very welcome. Because that's how it works. At God's table, everyone is welcome. We even have a fellow whose name is Yusef who has been showing up on our corner for a few months now. Obviously Muslim. And yesterday? He was helping me empty trash cans and running bags of trash down the alley to the dumpster. Who knows where that will go. But he's welcome. All are welcome.

We put together a video clip last year. It's a video montage of some of our friends downtown on a fall Sunday. The song that we used for the background music is a song by Phillips, Craig and Dean. The Table of Grace. They lyrics are so perfect for what God is doing on that crazy downtown corner. Speaks of the cup never being empty. The plate always being full. Never too late. You're always welcome. At the Table of Grace. And amazingly enough, that always seems to be the case. We are blessed to be able to offer a little bit of His love. In the aftermath of a tornado. In the middle of life's storms. And lots of the folks we hang out with on Sundays are in the middle of some nasty storms. And we can't do a whole lot to help sometimes. But we can offer a couple hours of love. And to anyone who comes, be it someone to help serve or someone in need, you are welcome. Always.

A million other things happened Sunday. This is just a brief glimpse through my eyes and, unfortunately, through my poor memory. I could go on and on and sometime I'm sure I do. But I'm simply thatnkful that God lets us do this week in and week out. That we could be a small part of His Kingdom work. We are blessed and I'm so thankful that our friends welcome us into their world for a brief time each and every week. So when someone tells me thanks? I should be the one thanking them….

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

Go out and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)