Clyde in Omaha?

What an incredibly cool day.  On many fronts.  The weather was unseasonably warm.  A little on the windy side, but man it was a nice day.  Our friends were out in force.  Quite the crowd.  It was a pretty special day in many ways.  We had a group up from Clyde, Kansas and man they came in droves!  Our great friend Wendy Secthem Genereaux and her husband Bill and their kids, Thomas and Emily.  Our friend Cheri Sechtem.  Lacey Sechtem.  Heather Sechtem.  Notice a theme here?  Yeah, they were here to honor their brother…husband…father.  My man Wade is a fellow I’ve written about many times.  He left us way too soon in a tragic way.  I’ll never forget reading about his death in the paper and then wondering if it was really him.  And then getting confirmation from a group of his buddies on a Sunday afternoon on 14th and Douglas St.  July 2008.  I’ll never forget it.  And from that, sprang a desire from his family to come and help.  To serve.  In his honor.  And to see that his passing was not in vain.  This is not the first time they’ve come.  And I’d imagine it won’t be the last.  In some way, shape or form.  It was simply a great day to be in the presence of the Lord and serve alongside a great group of people.  Oh, and they brought others.  The youth group from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Clyde, Kansas.  And the youth group from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Palmer,Kansas.  And they all made the 3 hour trip North to hang out with us and our friends for a couple of hours.  Amazing!

So  the group from Kansas did it up right.  100 backpacks filled with essentials.  Hundreds of McDonald gift cards.  Treat bags.  An outstanding fried chicken dinner with all the sides.  Hundreds of homemade cupcakes from Wendy’s Party Treats.  Just an unbelievable spread for our friends.  The only tricky part for me was to figure out how to best help them distribute the 100 backpacks.  I’m guessing we had upward of 200 people and those numbers don’t match.  And I had a hunch there were some who’d have a bigger need for a backpack than others.  One thing we've never done on that corner is discriminate in any way.  By that I mean it has never mattered where a person comes from.  If they have a place in the downtown area they call home?  No problem.  If they live in one of the many shelters?  Not a worry.  If they live in a car or under a bridge?  By all means, please come.  All are always welcome.  But the lines get a little blurred sometimes.  I’ve often wondered what the numbers would look like if we got some kind of count.  Never really worried about it too much, but we know that lots of people who visit with us on Sundays have apartments in the downtown area.  Not necessarily living on the high end of things, but lots of them have places they can call their own.  As we brainstormed this week on how to best distribute the backpacks without making a huge deal out of it, the only thing I could come up with was somehow getting them to the folks that would probably need and use them the most.  And in my feeble brain, that meant the folks living in the shelters, on the streets, etc.  So as we were getting everything ready to serve, I jumped up on my wall and did something I've never done before.  You see, we have 2 serving lines.  That way we can get a couple hundred people a meal a little quicker.  So today, I asked them to separate into two more distinct lines.  I wrestled with how to word it.  I didn't want to single out our homeless friends vs. our other friends who have a place.  But I didn't know any other way.  And it worked out pretty well.  There was really no problem at all.  They all swapped lines as necessary and I was really surprised to see that the lines were almost even.  Funny, that.  And I believe that the folks Wade would have wanted to receive the backpacks, did indeed get one.  It was real interesting to see the split though…

So before we got to the great chicken dinner, I had an opportunity to get up on the wall.  I felt I needed to be a little bolder on this particular day.  With the group visiting from Kansas and the primary reason they were there, I felt a strong urge to share that if any of our friends were not sure of their destiny, they needed to know that they all had one.  I usually don’t preach and I try not to be too judgmental, but on this day I felt the need to strongly urge our friends to make sure they knew.  That regardless of how difficult they think they have it here in this busted, screwed up world, this is a cake walk compared to how bad it might be if they don’t submit and commit to following Christ.  I didn't go too long, or at least I don’t think I did, but I really felt the need to let ‘em know.  And it’s not as if they've never heard it before.  It’s just not something I’ve made a habit of.  Preaching on that wall.  But on this day, we sort of went there.  And I hope and pray that someone heard.  And in fact, I know at least one fellow did…

So a young fellow, who I believe was part of one of the youth groups, came to me and said someone wanted to meet me. Erin was with me, so she went with me to meet this fellow.  Hand in hand we went.  About a half block.  And we meet Kevin.  Leaning on a cane and a parking meter, I met him.  Kevin had a stroke recently.  He told me that he’d been to hell.  I’m not sure what that meant, at least in the big picture.  Literally?  Don’t know.  He said it only lasted about 30 seconds and I assume he meant this was during his stroke.  His thoughts were a bit jumbled.  He’d been drinking.  And the stroke left him a little challenged in his speech.  But he wanted to know how to make it right.  So we prayed.  Right there on the parking meter.  Me.  Him.  Erin.  God.  Right there.  And he accepted Christ as his Savior.  The hard thing is the follow up.  I gave him a little booklet that we usually have on hand, the Gospel of John from the The Pocket Testament League.  And I gave him a New Testament.  I’ll pray for him.  Hopefully the seed is planted.  I pray for the harvest in Kevin’s life.

I heard of one story that absolutely warmed my heart man.  Wendy’s daughter, Emily, unbeknownst to her parents, had a little plan.  She noticed on their last trip to Omaha that there were little girls in our group.  Homeless?  Not sure.  We see so many people on that corner and so many show up one time, never to be seen again.  It’s really hard for me to keep track.  But Emily had a plan.  She was going to bring a couple Barbie dolls this time and make sure that if there were any little girls on our corner, they’d be the recipient of a new doll.  Now this is what it’s all about to me.  People see a need and fill it.  There are really no rules on our corner.  I mean, we have a few things we try to adhere to.  Cash is tough.  It’d be hard to give out cash to people in that environment.  For lots of obvious reasons.  But if a person came, saw a need and subsequently wanted to fill that need, we are all for it.  And when a little girl from Kansas saw a need and filled it?  Wow.  And  Emily and her brother Thomas collected some crazy amount of money to buy McDonald gift cards.  I think the final tally was 380 some gift cards!  Crazy.  The little ones usually get it and I think mostly more than us adults…

I mentioned, as I was up on the wall, that I didn't know how many more opportunities we’d have to share our faith with our friends.  Every time I come home from downtown, I feel a strong desire to go back.  It’s just different than anything I've ever been involved with in my crazy lifetime.  We've been involved in this community for 5 years now.  November, 2006 we made our first trip into this craziness.  We had a little break a couple years ago and we only go once a month these days.  But we've been pretty steady with most of these same folks every Monday at inCommon Community Development for their Common Table meal.  Robin and I have been engaged there for some time now.  My point, when I mentioned that we never know how much longer we’d be at this, was just that.  I've been experiencing a yearning to do different things.  To work with kids at the Hope Center in North Omaha, if they’d have us.  To maybe re-engage with my own family.  My 17 year old son, who’ll be off to college next year.  My 14 year old son whom I love so much and I need to spend more time with.  My 10 year old daughter who is so special to me.  And my incredibly beautiful wife, with whom I never seem to spend enough time.  And since my trip to the City of Refuge Children’s Home in Jamaica this past July, I sense a need to do more.  There are a lot of children that are homeless, parent-less, etc. in this mixed up world.  That just shouldn't be.  Period.  And I pray that we’d somehow be able to make a difference there also.  So I say all that to simply say that we never know where we’ll be led next.  Could we be on that corner for 5 more years?  Who knows?  All I know is that no one here gets out alive.  To quote a line from a Switchfoot song, “this skin and bones is just a rental”.  I just want to be able to make a difference while in this broken, busted rental and I pray that somehow, God will allow me the opportunity to do that.  Wherever it may happen...

My sincere thanks go out to the group from Kansas.  To Wade’s family.  You made a huge difference on a downtown Omaha street corner.  Your efforts will never go unnoticed.  Especially by the One that matters.  I know how difficult it must be to make the trek to the place where Wade spent his last days.  I know what it’s like to lose a family member way too early.  Or at least way to early in our boxed in, human minds.  But I think there is One who can make it a little better for us while we are here.  And the only way I can manage that is to somehow use these events to glorify and honor Him.  You did that today.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Today, you made a difference.  What you did mattered.  To all of them.  And to Him.  Thank you!

‎"If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one."  ~Mother Teresa


...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  ~ Hebrews 12:1, NLT

Make a difference…it matters.