Yesterday (14th March)

Phew.. been so busy this week, every time I think I have time to do some blogging, something happens..

Yesterday morning I was walking through Collingwood (9:30am) thinking 'I've got nothing planned for today so I should have plenty of time to go to the library and do some blogging, but first I will commit the day to the Lord...' As I finish praying an Arnotts delivery truck pulls over and the driver jumps out to say hello. It's a Christian guy I met on the Steps around Christmas. He asks if I am still doing my street work and we have a catchup before he then gives me a box of stuff (chips and about 100 Heaven chocolate bars [just expired]) to hand out to people!

Next, I stopped at St.Mary's House of Welcome, handed out something to everyone and then sat with a lady and had a good long talkbout her discrimination issues and prayer for her back pain. Then I walked around the city handing out the chocolate bars to street people I knew, a good busker (with his bass guitar), an Amnesty International girl (who thanked me with a kiss on the cheek [Woo hoo!]), and a Big Issue guy. I still had some left over, so I dropped a bunch off at the St.Pauls reception, for the staff there, ate two myself and kept the last one for Jen (a little street girl I'd been talking to recently) whom I hadn't seen yet. Then I walked around the city for a couple of hours with Angela (another indigenous street girl I had been befriending). When she left at 3pm I thought I would go and sit down the back on the comfy seats in the upper level of HJs and have an hours break before I was due to meet a friend at 4pm. As I sat down someone shouted out 'Hey John!' from even further down the back, and it was Jen and some friends sitting there, so I joined them until it was time for me to go and meet my friend.

At 5pm I was free again, I thought, but moments later as I was walking along I came across Warren and some others sitting under a tree, drinking, and (I am always learning new things) smoking chuff using empty cans as smoking pipes. I sat with them for a while and at 7pm an internal dispute was getting a bit aggressive, so I headed off and went to Small Group out at Hawthorn.

When I came back in at 9:30 I talked with some people at the Rosies tea and coffee van, which I always enjoy as they often have fresh volunteers (Catholic teenagers) that are a little timid to talk with the street people and so sometimes they see me, and my cross, and think I will be an easy(Christian) person to talk to. I take the opportunity bushwhack them and open up on them with full force Christian topic discussions and get them to think beyond their normal boundaries! LOL (Don't worry I do it in a caring tactful way) They enjoy it. One guy said he learnt more in 10 minutes, from our talk, than he ever had from Church, which is a good point that a lot of Churches assume everyone knows the basic practical knowledge stuff you get as a kid from Sunday School, but what if you never went to Sunday School, where do you learn that stuff if your Church doesn't offer anything extra beyond Sunday sermons?

After Rosies I thought I would take a break and headed down to Elizabeth St, but I ran into some street kids I knew there. So then I decided to get away on a tram and head across to the other side of the city. I got off at a random stop and... there were some more street kids I knew, standing at the stop, who told me the Salvos outreach van had just come by and was heading over to HJs and asked me to head over there. So I caught the next tram back and met up with everyone outside HJs and waited for the Salvo's van. It came along just before midnight with some pizza and drinks, which a lovely little old lady (about 90 years old) handed out with a smile.

And then God let me head off for some sleep.