Happy Valentine’s Day to all our peeps!! Thank you to Ann Craft and some of the other Sunday school teachers at Lakeview church for getting the 4 and 5 year olds to make up 100 valentines to our homeless folks and letting them know that Jesus loves them. You guys ROCK!!
Sondra spoke today and gave her testimony. She spoke about the drugs, alcohol and prostitution she was involved with at that time in her life. And how in a crack house she felt the Holy Spirit’s prompting to get the bible. She got it and that was the turning point in her life. She is and has been on fire for the Lord ever since! Glory to God!!
Steve also got up today and shared his heart about how 2010 was the worst year of his life. He spoke of his divorce, and how his kids break his heart with their conduct. He read from 1 Kings 2:2 & 3 and Philippines 2:5-8 about how God wants him and the homeless in the room to be men. It was a powerful message, he prays they listened and took it to heart. Don’t you just love it when a man is man enough to show his heart?????
Don told me what his purpose in life is… it’s to keep me in line :o) He told me that he loves coming to the diner because he knows that we care about him and listen to him and love on him. We find that they are trusting us more and more every week. Praise the LORD!!
Danny has family but he hasn’t talked with them in 20 years, he said they disowned him. More on that later.
Danny… Monday (a week ago) Amanda with Sparrows Ministry took him to Wishard Hospital because he said he’s been vomiting blood and blood in stool. He doesn’t have any ID or birth certificate, so a social worker came in to talk with him and Amanda was in the room also. Social worker asked Danny some very personal questions of why he didn’t have any ID. He told Amanda he needed to use the restroom. She said he must have bolted because she sat there for 20 minutes waiting on him and he never came back. She called me and it was after work so I came downtown and the hunt was on. I looked for a couple of hours. He finally called me later that evening. He told me he was embarrassed by the questions she asked him. I told him I would be there Tuesday morning early to take him there myself and that I would be a “pit bull” and they would not disrespect him.
I showed up at 7:30 on Tuesday and there was a note on his tent “I went to walk I am so hot I feel like pass out I am sorry, Dan.” I looked inside his tent where the note was, not there, I checked his clothes tent, not there, I looked over at the “Taj Majahl” (the big tent at his camp) and saw a candle flicker. I called out “Danny”… he said, “yeah, how’d you find me?” I told him I was a blood hound. We went to the hospital and saw 3 different people and the last guy I talked with I started to cry because I was so frustrated. He told me they couldn’t do anything for him because he didn’t have any ID or birth certificate.
Wednesday night MMUTB put him up in a motel room for the night. I picked him up Thursday and we went to the Marion County Health Department for his birth certificate. Couldn’t get it without picture ID. Went to Social Security Office and got a print out of his SS number. Then to the BMV to try and get picture ID. Can’t get without a birth certificate. At the end of the day, we went to the BMV twice, Horizon House once, Social Security once and the health department twice. I’m finding out if you don’t have an ID you can’t get a birth certificate and if you don’t have a birth certificate you can’t get an ID. I know… don’t get me started. By the way, Janet at the east Rural Street MCHD is wonderful!!! Finally Danny said, “let’s go to my sister Judy’s house.” We went there and I told him to wait in car for me because I wasn’t sure how she would react toward him. I told her who I was and what I was trying to accomplish. She said absolutely she would go to MCHD and prove his identity. She was glad to see him, gave him a big ol hug. We got Danny’s birth certificate, Halleluiah. Next step is the photo ID.
His sister called his 2 living brothers and one sister and over the weekend he got to see his family. Praise God Almighty. They didn’t know where he’s been all this time. He was supposed to call Don Hawkins Monday and didn’t do it, so he was M.I.A. again. He called me around 7:30 pm, he’s ok but doesn’t want to go to the hospital. I will try and talk him into it. Please, please keep him in prayer. As Outreach Volunteers we do all we can to help our friends. Most of what they need is PRAYER!!!
It was a frustrating week with the “system”… but the weekend Danny getting to see his family and finding out they still cared about him… priceless. To God be ALL the GLORY!!
Kathy Albright