I pulled up and parked off of Gay Street. I was early. Sis. Shirell asked me to be at The Oasis Shelter for Homeless Men at 5:45pm. I was parked and waiting at 5:15pm. Shirell asked me to bring a word of encouragement to the men. I’ve been preaching for 5 years, but last night I was nervous. I don’t even roll with the King James version of the Bible like that anymore, but last night, I had my trusty King James Bible…the little black Bible that my grandparents gave me many birthdays ago….the binding is coming off, the pages are worn, highlighter marks decorate the pages. I’ve been through a lot with that Bible, but never had we encountered this.
There I was sitting in the car going through the scriptures, finding my “old faithfuls”, and really praying…seriously praying that God would speak through me and give a word of love and encouragement. 5:30pm. Now I’m reading through the tracts that I was given to pass out. Me? Reading tracts? lol. Now that’s funny. But last night – I needed those tracts. One really stuck out – “What is love?”
It’s 5:45pm. Now or never, brother preacher. I put the club on my car and called Sis. Shirell on her cell.
“Hey Sis, where you at?”
“I’m out front the door. Where you at?”
“I’m coming around the corner. I’ll see you in a minute.”
I walked around the corner to see my sister with that signature smile.
“Hey Bruh!” That woman is so pure…so genuine.
“Hey Sis!” We hugged even though we had seen each other at a lunch meeting earlier in the day.
We weren’t ready to go in the Shelter yet. The food hadn’t arrived. Sis. Shirell’s mother was on the way with the grub.
Shirell says, “Since we got some time, let’s walk over to Tent City“.
Tent City is a park adjacent to St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church off of Fayette Street in downtown Baltimore where homeless men and women are permitted by the pastor and church to literally pitch tents and live on the property. A pseudo-sanctuary…safe haven for people without homes. (Read more about Tent City)
I’ve driven past the park many times. I’ve seen the tents pitched and the people mulling around, but in a car driving 40/50 miles per hour, I’ve never created space to craft a meaningful emotional reaction or response to what I saw….just kept driving.
Shirell and I walk up to the park and to my surprise there weren’t many people in the park at all – only 3 men sitting in a circle in the middle of the park. It’s amazing the thoughts one encounters in these unique types of situations. As we’re walking up on them, I’m thinking, “smile, Brown…maintain eye contact”
It was almost like I was meeting non-humans…that type of anxious and apprehensive feeling coursed through me. In frustration, I began to question myself, “Are not these your brothers? Why are you feeling like this? Stop it! You are just like them – they are just like you!” I was angry on the inside. I realized that I had allowed the media, pop culture, and the darker side of myself to create barriers between me and them when in actuality there is no “me and them” it is only “us”. While walking up on the brothers I was smiling on the outside, but on the inside I was beating myself up.
Sis. Shirell calls out, “Hey Bruhs!” “What’s up?” they responded.
The brothers sat in a circle with hunched backs. The one in the middle sat with a fat blunt and hurriedly explained himself declaring that it wasn’t crack and that the Bible says something about herb. The other brown skinned brother who looked to be in his mid to late 30′s sat with a mischievous smile like the “bad little boy” in school who was constantly thinking of a way to disrupt class. Shirell eyed him up and said, “Do you remember my name? “Yes, ma’am”, he said. “Shirell”, he said still with that smile.
Shirell asked the third brother with a blue short sleeve shirt on, “Do you want to pray?” He jumped up without hesitation. “Yes, ma’am“. Shirell instructed me to pray with the brother, but I knew the circle wasn’t complete. “Come on, man. I know you about to spark up, but let’s connect with the MOST HIGH first, ” I said. The brother in the blue shirt co-signed my request. “Yea, man, come on and pray.” The dark skinned brother with the blunt, twists in his hair and dreams to be a successful rap artist agreed and “mischievous smile” man joined in too. Now we were ready to pray.
We joined up in a circle, held hands, and I prayed. Afterwards, Shirell led all of us in the prayer of repentance. The brothers thanked us for coming by. We told them that we were serving food around the corner at Oasis and they said they would be there. Shirell and I began walking around the corner and we walked up on a brother sitting on the steps with all of his belongings.
“Hey Bruh, we’re serving food around the corner at Oasis come on and get something to eat.”
“I can’t,” he said almost in a whisper, “I’ve been banned from Oasis because of my mouth”.
Apparently, the brother’s temper and language gets him in trouble at the Shelters. He’s been banned from Oasis and Our Daily Bread.
“Well do you want to pray?”
He raised his hands and gestured in polite refusal. Shirell was persistent eventually getting him to agree to have her pray for him. We joined hands and prayed.
“Now come on and get something to eat, I’ll give it to you at the front door.”
He gathered his things and we began our journey. As we walked he was constantly mumbling something slightly under his breath…not at us, but almost as if he was having a conversation with himself. “What?” Shirell said. “Man, I can’t hear you. Just say “Jesus” behind me. Start mumbling “Jesus.”
Shirell in front with me and the 6’2 mumbling brother trailing behind her, we made our way back to Oasis.
[READ PART 2 OF MY NIGHT AT OASIS ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13]
Hey Bro!
I am glad that you had that experience. Some people choose to work in other career areas that somewhat takes them away from the reality of the horrible conditions here in Baltimore. Since graduating from Coppin, I have worked with the homeless, mentally ill, substance abusers and currently persons with mental retardation. Yeah, in fact, when I even began to think that I have “arrived”, my job smacks me in the face with fixing the problems, on the state level, for my brothers and sisters. It is really humbling. Even though I receive a paycheck, my reward is touching the many lives of persons and advocating for their needs and changes withing the human service delivery system. Have you ever tried talking to someone who has NEVER saw or expereinced what you have just expereinced? It is so easy to become bais and stereotypical of our environment. I thank God that you had your expereince. When you get a chance, there are others that need help: Helping Up Mission, Reaching The UNreachable Outreach Ministries (My Internship)!, Healthcare for The Homeless, and the list goes on. It is alot of work to be done and I pray that we continue to make ways and opportunities for people who sometimes, see no way out!
Be Blessed
Keisha Tatum
I applaud both of you in your efforts. I was blessed with the opportunity to work with homeless children who were living with their mothers in the YWCA shelter. I couldn’t have met nicer children. They were so happy that someone cared about them and simply wanted to spend time with them. We never know what people are going through, and we never know how much they appreciate us until we open ourselves up to them.
http://charangueros.com/bluehi0793i9/blog/211-the-ideal-preference-to-buy-monster-beats-headphone-110/
Hey Keisha,
Thanks for this information. I’m working with Brother Marcus to do some things at Helping Up and I’ve been in touch with the Healthcare for the Homeless folks.
I didn’t know you interned with an organization that reaches out. We definitely have to get together. I have an idea for Shiloh.
So many people approached me yesterday about what they are doing in their community. I think the soil is ripe for a new and exciting initiative.
I see something truly interesting about your site so I bookmarked .
I consider something genuinely interesting about your site so I saved to my bookmarks .
Hey, I just stopped by to visit your site and thought I’d say thank you.
God bless you for being so committed, sincere, and kind. You’re serving those who have been forgotten about and/or ignored by so many. (the homeless, the disabled, drug addicts, the mentally ill)
I’m a little mad at myself for not doing more in my community. Reading you all’s posts really motivates me to get busy, especially Heber’s posts. It seems a little hard to admit this-But I really have not used my gifts as much as I can to improve the condition of my brothers and sisters. I’ve been so caught up in my personal life in the last three years, that I haven’t taken any time to do mission work outside of my house.
While I firmly believe that charity begins at home, I feel like we cannot allow our issues at home to distract us from doing what God has called us to do outside of the house. And that’s exactly what I have allowed to happen to me.
Don’t get it twisted… My hands are full. I take care of my mother day and night. She was left physically and mentally disabled after a massive stroke. Plus, I have my own hurdles to climb. (Being totally blind, totally Black, and totally a woman… Triple Minority) But that’s no excuse for not selflessly serving in my community.
I’m going to join the National Urban League’s Young Professionals tomorrow night. I’m also going to volunteer for the Glaucoma Foundation, Prevent Blindness America, and the National Stroke Association this year. I want to start organizing health fairs at local churches. Pray for me. I know what I must do. I just need the motivation and passion to execute my plans. Plus, I need to stop allowing family issues to distract/burden/immobilize me.
I’m looking forward to reading the second part of Heber’s experience at the shelter. I’m also eager to read posts from others. Reading about what other’s are doing is so inspiring!
Angie
I am really impressed together with your writing talents well with the layout for your weblog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Anyway stay up the nice high quality writing, it is rare to peer a nice weblog like this one these days.
I definitely wanted to compose a small remark so as to say thanks to you for these fabulous hints you are posting at this site. My time-consuming internet research has now been compensated with beneficial facts and techniques to share with my friends and classmates. I would assume that most of us readers actually are rather endowed to dwell in a very good site with very many lovely individuals with beneficial tips. I feel somewhat happy to have discovered the weblog and look forward to plenty of more pleasurable moments reading here. Thanks a lot once more for all the details.
you are in point of fact a great webmaster. The web site loading velocity is amazing. It sort of feels which you are doing any exclusive trick. Furthermore, The contents are masterwork. you may have completed a excellent task on this make a difference!
MrN63G Say, you got a nice post.Much thanks again. Great.