What seems like an eternity ago, but was really just Saturday morning, I woke up to what would be a crazy weekend. This weekend was a collage of people from different walks of life, different socio-economic sections, different generations, different mindsets. It was lovely, I love diversity!
Saturday evening was spent at the Luke 14 party. A Luke 14 party is a party in which a house is opened up to homeless people, dinner is shared, and time is spent with what our society views as "undesirables". This party was hosted and organized by a River small group which my family is part of. The attendance was unprecedented, both for the guests and the hosts. There were 11 hosts and 22 guests, and 6 of the hosts were under the age of 10. I felt like my role was more by-stander and observer, and not so much converser and connector. This was not too surprising to me, because I am not the most immediately outgoing person. Alex had several buddies by the end of the night, and the guests were asking what my name was. The things I noticed and heard and saw and wondered about were many and confusing.
Many of the guests were middle-aged, I think only 3 or 4 were under 30. My big question was "How did they come to be here? What was the life story that brought them to this place?". Hearing some of the guests talk, they were not always homeless, and at least 3 were from different states. One was from Ohio, one was from Texas, and one from Minnesota (or somewhere around there).
There are two class of homeless, in my opinion, those who you would expect to become homeless. The mentally handicapped, those from poor homes, disadvantaged neighborhoods, and opressive circumstances. The other group are those who ware slightly surprising, they are ambitious, learning languages, taking college classes, and showing a general intelligence on par with the rest of society. How can we understand those two groups? What drives either of them to homelessness? What can be done to prevent their becoming homeless?
I spend enough time out and about that I have talked to a few homeless people, and the one thing I noticed they all had/have in common is a desire for relationships with "normal people", wanting to talk, about anything, and a willingness to share a whole life story with little prodding.
END SATURDAY!
BEGIN SUNDAY!
Church at the River is always a bit different, any expectations or preconceptions based on previous experiences are usally thrown out the window. Youth group was fairly distracted this week, with minimal discussion, minimal interaction, and a lot of non sequiters. I admit, with my youth group there is a lot of potential for such a lesson. After class the small groups met, after eating lunch at Pizza My Heart. (Great Cali place) The young men (that's right, we are not "boys") met at the ministry center/church offices. The "topic" was How Can A Loving God Let People Go To Hell?, and we did discuss that, but we also discussed lots of other great stuff. Personal highlights: hearing two brothers discuss the ethics of killing, hearing everyone get in on a discussion of sin, and if all sin is equal, and why. After the great discussion, I played 3 games of foosball (3 wins, 0 losses), and then everyone began milling around aimlessly, as we all do sometimes. In my wanderings, I found 4 of those little beanbags covered with plastic sports ball covers, and threw one of them at Jesse. Fast-forward 3 minutes and Matthew and Jesse are sneaking up the stairs each with a ball at the ready, waiting for me to pop out and just peg them. (Kyle, I think if we got some of those Nerf balls of similar size, that would be a hecka fun game for the lock-in!) We must have played for 15-20 minutes, and for some reasons beyond my comprehension Jesse and Matthew, who were on a team, were scared of my, who had no back-up. Age has its benefits!
Tonight long-time family friends came over for dinner. We have known them since I was 1ish, so a long time. At the end of this year my family will be going to Disneyland for one day as part of a handicapped thing. (Thanks Al!) Our friends are lovers of Disneyland, they must go at least 3 times a year, and they know people who work there, and they know all the little secret cool things. As they were helping us plan what rides to go on at what time, I had a small eureka moment. The way they feel about Disneyland is how I feel about the MBA, I want to share all the stories, and the little secret cool things, and show everyone around. Passions are such interesting things!
Just for an overview, I spent some time with strangers from one of the most disadvantaged populations in the U.S., then time with friends from my generation, then time with well-off long-time friends. Tommorow, I know holds no such diversity, just cleaning.
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