Today:
As I go in and out of the State Library every few days, I have gotten to know one of the security guards here. Today we traded stories. He (knowing what I do) asked me for my testimony of what led me to this journey.. and in return he told me about the homeless people around the Library. (One man used to sleep in front of the Library doors every night, but was bashed there a month ago. The guard came across the beaten man and called the police and ambulance. The bashers were caught but the homeless man hasn't been seen since. I guess he doesn't feel safe there anymore.)
Yesterday:
I went to court in the morning to support Dougy, but his cases were adjourned for a month. Then I played table tennis with a homeless man who just wanted a quick hit, as he hadn't played for 20 years. He really enjoyed it and we ended up playing for a couple of hours and he began screaming and swearing with excitement, before the center closed for the day. Then I took another street guy ten pin bowling, which was fun. Afterwards I came across Dougy in a back street where he was shouting at anyone in his range. He shook my hand and I asked him what was wrong? He said he was upset as he had just blown $170 at the TAB and then he headed off to State Trustees to try and get some more money..
The day before Yesterday:
I took a street guy in a wheel chair to Credos for dinner. While there I got a call on my mobile phone from my girlfriend, who was in Darwin doing some mission work with the Bagot Community Indigenous Church. One of her friends had contacted her about a man that had a heart attack and was now in Box Hill Hospital. The man was unwell and urgently wanted someone Christian to talk with. I immediately drove out to the hospital and met him. I called my girlfriend and put him on speakerphone as she got the Bagot pastor and church to pray for him live, during the service. Afterwards the man told me he was born in Tanzania (to missionary parents) and I told him about the faith walk I did there ten years ago. I mentioned the missionary vet lady I had stayed with in Dodoma, at the time, and was surprised to find out he knew her as she was currently his neighbour, out in Blackburn North! We both felt it was God's plan that we meet. It's what we call a 'Divine Appointment'.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Social Group Change - Autumn
Over Summer, I mostly hung out with the alcoholics, drug users, and indigenous people on the street. After I was away sick for a week, early March, I came back to find most of them had gone. Why? It's not easy to work out. I think it is mostly a range of factors..
First: it was getting cooler, and while it is easy to maintain a '24hr party' with hot days and warm nights, when it gets cold consistently, people start looking for warmth and shelter. Warren was the master of sleeping rough and not being bothered by the cold, he seemed totally immune to it. He was one of those gone when I returned from my week away sick. I always wondered where he had gone for the last six months. I had a phone number for his mum at her home in the country, he had trusted me with, but I was pretty sure he would not have returned there, and I didn't feel I could call her up without his permission, as there were probably issues there. Then just a few weeks ago, I found him on the street again. He was excited to see me and told my he had got himself a place to rent further up north, and was doing much better. He wants me to come up and visit him there as soon as possible. After a while we sat down on the sidewalk and he was shivering from the cold. I had almost forgotten about it with my thermals. I offered him one of my tops or a blanket, but he refused (out of pride) and just sat there for the next hour shaking. I said to him "the cold never even bothered you before?" and he replied that even for him "once you have had it good living in a heated flat, it's impossible to go back" (to not being bothered by the cold). Infact a lot of people are like Warren in such that they come in to the city over Summer, party all night and day, and then head back out to the country over the Winter. It's also as good as a holiday to have a mental break by leaving the city for a few months and just getting away while it's cold. This particularly applies to the indigenous community.
Another reason why people disappeared was that they went back to jail. BJ soon disappeared after he told me he was due back in court for assault. When I first met him on the street he told me about how hard life was to cope with (personal drive and responsibility) and he expected to have fun for a while, then 'muck up' and return to the safe routine jail. His own words becoming a self fulfilled prophecy.
Also, late March, I was told (from a reliable source) of an official Police crackdown in the area. In other suburbs you are allowed to drink publicly (such as Smith St Collingwood) but where it was banned around Swanston St in the city the police response changed from checking up on things every few hours, to an immediate response the moment someone sat down with a drink. Once I was sitting down at the meeting place and along came Robbie and he opened up a can of VB and along came the cops within 5 minutes. They told him 'there's a new boss, and we have to enforce the rules now..' I chuckled, as it implied they didn't enforce the rules in the past, which they certainly did. Which is totally fine in my eyes. They are there to protect the community and enforce the law, and it's probably in the community's best interests not to have excessive drinking and drunkenness around such an open public area of the city. Even Dougy was told he would be left alone as long as he didn't come up to the top end of town, and stayed away for months.
So people I had started building relationships moved on, and that was ok (I have caught up with most of them again at different points over the Winter), but it made it a lot harder for me to find people to sit and talk with. I felt the wind had gone a bit out of my sails, but it worked out well as my eyes were opened to another social group. Those street people that were no threat, not into any crime, but were hanging around all day and night, just chatting to each other. They were the Disability Pension group, and I started to get to know them.
First: it was getting cooler, and while it is easy to maintain a '24hr party' with hot days and warm nights, when it gets cold consistently, people start looking for warmth and shelter. Warren was the master of sleeping rough and not being bothered by the cold, he seemed totally immune to it. He was one of those gone when I returned from my week away sick. I always wondered where he had gone for the last six months. I had a phone number for his mum at her home in the country, he had trusted me with, but I was pretty sure he would not have returned there, and I didn't feel I could call her up without his permission, as there were probably issues there. Then just a few weeks ago, I found him on the street again. He was excited to see me and told my he had got himself a place to rent further up north, and was doing much better. He wants me to come up and visit him there as soon as possible. After a while we sat down on the sidewalk and he was shivering from the cold. I had almost forgotten about it with my thermals. I offered him one of my tops or a blanket, but he refused (out of pride) and just sat there for the next hour shaking. I said to him "the cold never even bothered you before?" and he replied that even for him "once you have had it good living in a heated flat, it's impossible to go back" (to not being bothered by the cold). Infact a lot of people are like Warren in such that they come in to the city over Summer, party all night and day, and then head back out to the country over the Winter. It's also as good as a holiday to have a mental break by leaving the city for a few months and just getting away while it's cold. This particularly applies to the indigenous community.
Another reason why people disappeared was that they went back to jail. BJ soon disappeared after he told me he was due back in court for assault. When I first met him on the street he told me about how hard life was to cope with (personal drive and responsibility) and he expected to have fun for a while, then 'muck up' and return to the safe routine jail. His own words becoming a self fulfilled prophecy.
Also, late March, I was told (from a reliable source) of an official Police crackdown in the area. In other suburbs you are allowed to drink publicly (such as Smith St Collingwood) but where it was banned around Swanston St in the city the police response changed from checking up on things every few hours, to an immediate response the moment someone sat down with a drink. Once I was sitting down at the meeting place and along came Robbie and he opened up a can of VB and along came the cops within 5 minutes. They told him 'there's a new boss, and we have to enforce the rules now..' I chuckled, as it implied they didn't enforce the rules in the past, which they certainly did. Which is totally fine in my eyes. They are there to protect the community and enforce the law, and it's probably in the community's best interests not to have excessive drinking and drunkenness around such an open public area of the city. Even Dougy was told he would be left alone as long as he didn't come up to the top end of town, and stayed away for months.
So people I had started building relationships moved on, and that was ok (I have caught up with most of them again at different points over the Winter), but it made it a lot harder for me to find people to sit and talk with. I felt the wind had gone a bit out of my sails, but it worked out well as my eyes were opened to another social group. Those street people that were no threat, not into any crime, but were hanging around all day and night, just chatting to each other. They were the Disability Pension group, and I started to get to know them.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Spring is Here :)
The thermal underwear is off this week, as Winter has come to an end. It's warming up, and I continue walking on, into Spring..
I've just come back from the local shops in Balwyn (where I have been house sitting my parents place while they are away). When I sat down at a cafe for a drink, a guy next to me asked what my top(Cross on front / 24hr Church on back) was about? I explained that after an experience of going to Heaven and meeting God, a couple of years ago, the story of 'the rich man and Lazarus' [Luke 16:19-31] spoke strongly to me, and after 30 years of being a Christian and not taking any notice of beggars and street people, I decided to do something about it by direct experi-action.. and I lived on the city streets over summer and in a garden shed, through winter, to get to know and understand the community..
He replied "Don't punish yourself to hard, it's not your fault." and he then got up and walked away. I called out "It's something that I wanted to do.."
Punish? I thought as I continued to sit there.. This is not punishment, it is freedom. This Journey has been the most interesting, challenging and rewarding experience of my life! What was not my fault? Certainly that I had never taken an interest in the 'Lazarus people' was my fault, but was it my fault that they were there? Perhaps as a cooperate Christian, yes I did have some responsibility. (I am beginning to think that street people are there; not due to a lack of material support, but rather a lack of spiritual support..)
Time for some updates to let people know what's been going on..
I've just come back from the local shops in Balwyn (where I have been house sitting my parents place while they are away). When I sat down at a cafe for a drink, a guy next to me asked what my top(Cross on front / 24hr Church on back) was about? I explained that after an experience of going to Heaven and meeting God, a couple of years ago, the story of 'the rich man and Lazarus' [Luke 16:19-31] spoke strongly to me, and after 30 years of being a Christian and not taking any notice of beggars and street people, I decided to do something about it by direct experi-action.. and I lived on the city streets over summer and in a garden shed, through winter, to get to know and understand the community..
He replied "Don't punish yourself to hard, it's not your fault." and he then got up and walked away. I called out "It's something that I wanted to do.."
Punish? I thought as I continued to sit there.. This is not punishment, it is freedom. This Journey has been the most interesting, challenging and rewarding experience of my life! What was not my fault? Certainly that I had never taken an interest in the 'Lazarus people' was my fault, but was it my fault that they were there? Perhaps as a cooperate Christian, yes I did have some responsibility. (I am beginning to think that street people are there; not due to a lack of material support, but rather a lack of spiritual support..)
Time for some updates to let people know what's been going on..
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