November 2007 Archives

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?
Well this week was pretty "normal" as far as my project goes. I did my usual shifts on Wednesday and Thursday night and nothing really remarkable happened. I just handed out the usual provisions and talked with the people. The one story I had was a man named Ted who cares for a woman who is a schizophrenic. He was just telling me the hard time she has getting help and how it's so hard to relate to her. Basically she can't understand anything from another person's perspective. This limits her ability to get a job and other things of that sort. It got me thinking a little about what do we as Christians can do for people who are mentally insane. I mean how do you share the Gospel with someone if they can't really understand. Are they saved? I have been tossing this around in my noggin all week.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?
I have been thinking about what we can do for the mentally insane. A few homeless have no way of getting off the streets just because they have no qualifications to get a job. Plus, what do we do for the salvation of these people. Lets say someone doesn't believe in Christ, gets messed up on drugs, and has permanent brain damage. Then can they be saved, can they stand in the presence of a holy and just God? I'll have to take up this question with some of the professor's around here and get their insight.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?
I didn't do much work other than just volunteering. My hours are coming along fine and I've started thinking about sources for Chapter 2. I would give myself an A for this week just because I have done what was required.

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

One of the biggest influences on my thoughts came from a new staff member and not one of the patrons at the Listening House. She doesn't know I'm writing this so I'll keep her nameless. She left the military as a Sergeant First Class and was a drill instructor along with serving in Iraq. Her stories of war just blew me out of the water. I heard her talk about one of the people in her division getting shot and her best friend in the military getting shot in the head right next to her. I couldn't even imagine what she still goes through. Her motivation for going into social work came one day when she was handing someone food with one hand and pointing a gun at them with the other. She had an "aha" moment that she needs to rethink her role as a servant. I have been pondering what it really means to serve God's creation.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

This lady was making the point that fighting to end poverty with guns rarely works. I found thought in this topic and really tossed it around for the rest of the week. She also felt that sometimes military force was required to bring justice and peace to a land. Both of these had their own time and place. I also though of the popular phrase by Jesus who says "Love your enemy." This was one of those weeks where I added more questions to my mind but didn't really add any answers, but that's ok with me.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I got another 11.5 hours this week so I feel I'm keeping up with my hours. Plus the time spent on Chapter 1 I would give myself an A-. I still need to work with my organization to get a research topic set up and the sooner the better.

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?
This entry will include this week but also a little bit of previous weeks when I started at the Listening House. Basically my job is to hand out the amenities they receive as donations. This includes everything from basic hygiene to clothing. One thing that caught me off guard is the diversity of the homeless. As bad as this sounds I though of them being mostly drug addicts and lazy, but there have been several of them that caught me off guard. One guy (who looks like he'd pull a knife and shank you) came up to me the first night and thanked God that I was donating my time. Another guy works 15 hours a day for a moving company.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?
The first and most important hurdle I felt I got over was the gap between us. I realized that they are really just people like us looking to find their way home. At the Beautiful Feet conference in Portland there was a speaker who kept referring to his homeless ministry like this. "I don't do anything special, I just meet beautiful people, just beautiful people." It's so true, the physical appearance may catch some people off guard but they are just like me. I thought more about how this world, as big as it is, also has the simplest needs. Most importantly God.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?
The time I've spent so far is right on track to meet the requirements. I do need to get my scope figured out and start doing some research, that I am slacking on. I have been doing a great job with the volunteering hours but I do need to do more of the school work side of it. Right now I would say I have an A but if I don't start getting on my Chapter 1 soon it's going to go down.