Homeless Families

7 - The average age of a homeless person in Austin. www.greendoors.org. On the Tuesday after Easter a typical thing happened at our church.  A family of at least 3 showed up on our doorstep.  Mom and Dad and baby in stroller came to the church for help.  In their native Spanish, speaking to a Native Spanish speaking congregation member and the pastor who understands Spanish but speaks only English they told their story.  The dad had come to town for work and had brought his family because he loves his family and wanted them to be safe.  They were invited to stay with a friend of the family in the apartment complex behind our church. They came with their baby and their three other children.  Everything was fine at first -- his works was good and steady and their friends were enjoying having them there.  Then everything fell apart.  His job ended and the next job didn’t show up.  The apartment complex told his friends that if they didn’t kick out their guests then they would be evicted.  This family came to the church asking for help to get a hotel for the night.  Except we don’t do that.  We have learned from long experience in our community that getting into a hotel is the pathway to desperation and often leaves families in worse condition then they started in.  (Plus -- because many of us live at or below the poverty line we don’t have money for a hotel either).  In conversation we found out that they had already tried all the (very limited) resources that are available in Austin.  We stopped and prayed together.  Then we continued our conversation.   Because we are a church that tries to focus on the abundance of God we often try to hear past the seeming limitation to try and get to the solution that God is offering.  So we started with an inventory of what we DO have.  We do have showers in our gym and a kitchen - so we had a place for the family to bath and cook a hot meal to share together.  We have a food pantry.  We have a big parking lot.  We showed the family what we had.  The Dad asked questions and got more information because the mom couldn’t stop sobbing long enough to ask or even speak.  It was obvious that this was new territory for her. Like many of us she never imagined that she would be faced with homelessness.  The dad asked if they had permission to sleep in their truck in our parking lot if it came to that.  Normally we say “no” to that kind of request but this time we said, “yes.”  The dad started using his limited English to communicate with the pastor and to teach her the right was to pronounce a few Spanish words.  And there was a moment of laughter as the pastor’s “white” tongue tripped over the Spanish pronunciation. The mom stopped crying and asked a few questions herself.  We prayed together again and they said they would be back. The congregation member and the pastor re-entered the building to return to the Bible Study they had left to meet the family.  The both said, as they walked down the hall, “That is a far too common story.” We are grateful to be doing charity in our neighborhood -- offering the little we have to alleviate the suffering of our neighbors. And we know that that we are also called to work for justice in our neighborhood.  To make sure all of us have meaningful work and a safe place to live.  It’s not easy -- it’s difficult work. But it’s good work if you can get it. If you’d like to learn more about what it looks like to offer charity even as we work for justice check us out at www.parkerlane.org.