Learning through CARITAS

CARITAS is an event at my church that I’m forever counting down the days until it comes. I love to get involved and hang out with all of the amazing people I get to meet and befriend. These men who come to my church for two weeks in February are homeless. They all have different stories, but the one issue they all have in common is that they need help and friends. One of the terrible aspects of being homeless, besides not having a home, is the snowball effect that comes with it. Once a person is homeless, often they don’t have money for food, it is extremely hard to get a job, they don’t have any family or either they were disowned, and the list keeps going and the snowball grows bigger and bigger until it’s an avalanche of misfortune. Many consider anyone who is homeless to be a “bad person” or a “convict” because how else could they end up homeless? Well, this is absolutely wrong. By working through CARITAS, I have experienced the most extraordinary people who helped me look into myself and change.
Last February while volunteering at my church, I met someone who inadvertently impacted my life. His name was Rodney and while I don’t know how he actually became homeless, I know enough. Rodney was searching long and hard to find a good, providing job because he needed to get his little girl through college. Every time he spoke about her, he would just light up as bright as the sun and a wistful look would flash across his face: a mixture of hope and faith. He had me pleading with my parents to go to church almost every night for the two weeks he was there just so I could play games with him and listen to all the wisdom he had to share with me. He became my friend and had me wanting to change the way I lived my life, because how could this man who did not have a home, food, money, or a job have so much more life and spark than me, who has all of those things?
I am not the only one who has experienced this eye-opening experience from a homeless person. Wendy, one of the leaders of Embrace Richmond, has encountered a very similar situation. She graciously came to Thomas Dale and told us her story of Stephanie, which sounded like Rodney. These remarkable people are the ones Embrace Richmond, the Red Cross Efforts in Japan and now the musicians in Thomas Dale’s own Rock4Life concert are trying to help! Even through their struggles, the Rodneys and Stephanies in the world are the ones who show the most faith, hope, love and gratitude. Let us reach out to our friends and help pull them back up. They deserve more, and with our help they can finally have the life they’ve been dreaming of.

~Kaleigh W.

Homelessness

Homelessness is not only a distant problem.  It is not a trouble faced by others only in far away countries who we cannot relate to.  Homelessness is an unfortunate situation that affects more than 842,000 people a week in the United States.  Another astonishing number (from 2005) estimates over 300 million individuals worldwide are homeless. 

 I cannot recount the first time I witnessed this tragedy-probably when I was a blessed, young, curly-haired blonde with a warm, inviting home and bed I was sure to sleep in every night.  While I looked up at the glow-in-the-dark adhesive shooting stars on my ceiling and wished for the next popular toy, another little girl was peering up at the real stars wishing for a bed.  Granted, I, along with us all, was expectantly ignorant as a child to the complications of the world.  We are old enough now, old enough to understand and make conscious decisions to help each other.  Not one person on this very earth deserves to be homeless.

 The thought of such a large number of people experiencing homelessness-kids my age and younger, older adults, unlucky all the same- brings tears to my eyes.  Unfortunately though, in this community, I see homelessness.  There are the rickety, old cars you see around town sometimes with “stuff” packed like sardines in all the air space available.  Now this does not mean this person is homeless, but when you are stopped at a red light, and coincidently turn and gaze into their eyes at the precise moment they do the same, it is impossible to deflect the hurt and heart-wrenching emotions in their eyes.  Impossible.  I have seen this hurt.  I have looked into a stranger’s eyes and known their life story, their suffering.  It hurts me too.  So when you see this, the natural human response it to shut out these harsh feelings and emotions.  You ignore the look from the person beside you when they may scare you.  You roll up the window when the person stands on the street asking for money.  Really though, we should be rolling down the window and offering silent presents and smiles of encouragement. It is easy to see that they have struggles and difficulties.  If they are homeless, the last thing society should do is shut them out too.  As Robert Fulghum said many times, “When you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”  It couldn’t be more true to me that, in general, you never know how gracious a roof is until you’ve heard the story of someone without one.

~Cameron Kiddy