Ankle holders

This day at Haywood Street was a trip to Hawaii complete with leis and a luau, pig's head and all. The meal was fun and the food, as always, was abundant and delicious, barbequed pork, rice, potatoes, mixed green salad, fruit salad, and corn bread. To drink was mango punch and tea. Lots of people enjoyed seconds of the pork. It was barbequed at the church yesterday.

I went to the Clothes Closet to work when I arrived. Anthony had unloaded the boxes of clothes I had dropped off on Saturday and the clothes closet looked great. We had some baby things to unload and put away, but except for those, there was very little to do until other donations started arriving. We had two new companions in the closet, Nicole and Mary. Nicole has lived in Asheville for quite awhile, but Mary and her husband had just arrived on Friday from Montana. Along with Lora and Marie we all worked hard. To have just arrived, Mary fit right in. It was a pleasure to meet these two new workers.

I am learning what happens to some of the people who end up without housing. Most of the time it is losing a job that starts the dominoes falling. Finding another is often very difficult from a state of unemployment. Sometimes losing a job happens because a mode of transportation like a car is too expensive to repair or keep up and there is no means of transportation to reach the old job. From there a house may be lost. Illness also precipitates loss of a job and then a place to stay. So far I have not encountered addiction as a reason for losing a home. Instead addiction came after the string of losses. Many at Haywood Street have climbed out of their spiral with the support of the community. Everyone rejoices when someone gets housing, but being homeless is not something to hold anyone back from being loved and cared for. The stories of the whys and how comes are myriad. The simple stereotyping of those who are unhoused is a way to distance ourselves from the possibilities that it could happen to us.

Brian's Scripture today was Acts 1: 1 - 11.  Luke begins to tell the story of Jesus's Ascension and what happens to the Apostles afterward to Theodophilus. I am disappointed to say that I had no pen or paper to take notes today. Brian had so many choice words to say and metaphors he used.  However, he began by discussing that every church has some ankle holders that try to hold Jesus down and attempt to make God smaller and less powerful and loving than He is. They limit other Christians from letting their "faith have feet." We can't just study the Word and think and pray about the Word; we have to live the Word. The question today was why was the Ascension important? There were many answers. Jesus had to ascend to the Father so the Holy Spirit could come.  His physical presence did not allow his followers to expand their faith. He went to prepare a place for us. He showed us how he'd return and what we would do one day. The congregation was totally immersed in understanding the Ascension, something we rarely study in Sunday School. Brian shared that it is the Holy Spirit working within us and through us that brings about the Kingdom. The Apostles, even though they had spent 40 days with him learning everything He knew about God, still asked Jesus when the Kingdom was coming. They did understand even then that He would give them power, but it would be His kind of power to heal, to bless, and to spread the Word that God loved them and was always with them through the Holy Spirit. So rise up was the call before Brian spoke and afterward.

I met Brian's father today. He and the church lady dog, Penny, sat behind me. I said, "I bet you are proud of Brian." He said, "Yes I am proud, but it is most important that he is doing what he loves." How wise he is! Though Brian's father has blue eyes, I see a deep resemblance in their souls.