Yesterday at Haywood Street the lights went out in the Clothes Closet and the Library where the haircuts were being offered just as the first hymn was sung upstairs in the service. We have daylight from the glass brick windows, but it is still quite dark in the CC. Customers continued to pour in during the service. I guess this is a good time to discuss the workings of the Clothes Closet since I missed the service this week.
Haywood Street Congregation is unique in so many ways. It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain how it is different and what makes it so, but the Wind of the Spirit blows through the place, surrounds the people, and emanates from the people. The ministry is based on radical hospitality which is centered around choice, free will, if you would. People are accepted just as they are, right now, in this moment, no questions asked, except how can I help you or what do you need? That is what being a Companion in Christ means. Sometimes we can't meet the need. We can't offer a ride or pay a bill or find a place for someone to live or a job that pays money. We can listen, though. We can explore options. We can offer a way for someone to help in the ministry, but most of all we can just be with people, help them know they are heard. Sometimes we fail. Most times at Haywood Street we learn how not to fail in that most important way because we have good models around us who have been doing this for a long time. I told my husband when I first started going to Haywood Street that I wanted to "catch what they had." This Spirit you can catch is seeing more clearly the Christ in others.
Yesterday in the Clothes Closet business was brisk. It has been raining for days, as it has done all summer, and it began raining during the hours Haywood Street is most busy. We had record numbers of people looking for clothes, especially jeans, t-shirts, underwear, and socks. Halfway through the morning we were nearly out of t-shirts, which is unusual. AHOPE used to have a place for people to wash their clothes, but funding was cut and they no longer are able to offer that service. Therefore many customers to the Clothes Closet needed fresh new ones, especially since it was raining. There were many needs that went unmet for umbrellas, rain ponchos, and blankets, now that the nights are getting chilly. We only had one blanket and one sleeping bag to offer and no umbrellas or ponchos. Paper products like toilet paper, diapers, and feminine products were in short supply also.
The lights went out in the Clothes Closet during the service, a fuse blew or someone flipped a breaker, I am not sure what, but we continued to serve people during the service. In fact, one of the miracle moments happened in that dimness. A woman who is going through her third round of chemo came in to get new clothes as she has lost forty pounds. Just as she entered one of the Welcome Table Companions came in with a small bag of clothes from her teenage granddaughter and a man came in with three bags of women's clothes, all beautiful and very stylish. The woman had five teenage children to dress for school as well as herself. Another woman came in who was just shopping. She liked what we were hanging up also. The two began to share the clothes. As it turned out, we were able to outfit the woman who needed clothes for herself and her children with enough for the girls, at least, to start school in style and for the woman to have new clothes that fit. The woman said she felt like God had given her an amazing gift. The real miracle was the interaction between the two women. The one who was not in great need deferred to the other as we put out new items, but the woman with the children began asking the other woman to choose first because of her generosity. In the end they both left items for us to hang up "for someone else" because someone else might need them more. The lights were out, but the Light of the Spirit was burning bright.
People have the choice to attend the service upstairs or to continue to eat or to shop downstairs as they choose. Sometimes the living of the Gospel is as appropriate a praise of God as worshipping Him in song and prayer. Our souls require both.
I felt God smiling over Haywood Street despite the rain and the
darkness.
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