Reminiscing...

It's hard to believe that last year at this time we were living in Atlanta. Our lives have changed so much from that experience, but sometimes it seems like it all happened a lifetime ago. I've been thinking about Atlanta a lot because I received a letter from Demilo, a man I got to know last year while working at the homeless outreach center (centraloutreachandadvocacy.org). I worked with Demilo in his struggle to get off the streets. He was in and out of several shelters and was hospitalized several times because of some mental health issues he was dealing with. We became good friends, and it was really hard to say goodbye to him when we moved back to Indiana. In the letter he sent, he was proud to announce that he now has his own apartment! If you think about it, please pray that he would continue to make good choices and that he can stay off the streets permanently!














I had a love hate relationship with the outreach center. I loved its mission and the hearts of the people who work there. But sometimes I dreaded going in because it was a hard place to be. On several occasions I was cussed out, yelled at, and berated for being white. One time I was physically threatened, and that scared me a bit more than I wanted to admit at the time. Homeless people come from desperate situations, and it's often easy for them to take out their aggression on the people trying to help them. Luckily, people like Demilo made it emotionally possible for me to go into work day after day. He was a bright light in an often dark atmosphere. Demilo would tell you that I saved his life, which is definitely a humbling thought. But in many ways he saved me as I saw the face of God in him each day.