Rollercoaster

This week has been good & bad, coming from a small bible belt community to the Tenderloin, a place full of poverty, sex trafficking, drugs, alcohol & addictions. But the truth is, these are the people that need God the most, they are the ones that are open to hearing us speak to them about a relationship with God, they may look scary, and very intimidating, but they just need people to talk to, they need people to just listen to what they have to say. The transition from Winkler to San Francisco was huge, a lot of changes, but there is a reason why I am here, and with time I will understand why. This week we have talked a lot about prayer and evangelism, my eyes have been opened to what prayer can truly do. God has already talked to me through a few of the girls here and I know more and more great things are in store for us here at YWAM.


Yesterday, we did the Homeless Plunge, being homeless for a day.
The night before, we slept on the cold, hard floor in the Ellis room, on the main floor. The night was long, cold and loud. Because we were right beside the door, we could hear people outside all night, people were screaming at each other, they had music on, and even prostitution occurred, just outside our door.... how awful, how sad. I woke up countless times that night, to hear people on the streets and sirens ringing. The leaders woke us up at 5 AM, which I was thankful for because the night was so brutal. We were then kicked out onto the streets, they gave us garbage bags to put over our clothes because it was pouring outside. So, 5:15 and we are on the street, we were to be "homeless" till 5 that afternoon, where we then met up for supper.


We were not allowed to shower, brush our teeth, brush our hair or wash our face before we went to bed that night, we were to be like the homeless, who for some, may not brush their teeth for weeks at a time.
We walked in the rain, in the dark to the Bart station (underground subway) we sat beside the homeless men who were sleeping in their sleeping bags. We were just like each of them now... we sat on the cold, hard cement for two hours, we then got up and stood in line at Glide, which serves food to the homeless. Going in the foodline was one thing I did not want to do, it was such a surreal experience, standing in line with the homeless, being one of them, being served by volunteers, sitting beside the homeless, who ate every last bit of their food, while I barely touched mine.


We walked to the City Hall, walked in the rain, then went to another Bart Station, we sat there for four hours, on the floor. The stares, glares and looks we got were astonishing, people would walk right past us and not even look at us, just because we were lower then them. One man even dropped change on the ground for us, I guess the garbage bags beside us made us look even more homeless.
We starting walking to Fisherman's Wharf around 2:15, we had three more hours to be homeless, so we had to do things throughout the walk. We walked through Union Square, then in Chinatown we spent our 2 dollars we had received for the day. I spent mine on candy :) typical Tessa. We walked through a few beautiful parks, then we got to the beach, we sat there with the Golden Gate Bridge to the left and Alcatraz to the right, it was beautiful, how could you be down when things were that pretty. We met up with the other group at In N' Out Burgers (a California restaurant) and all had a meal together.


The night before we went on the homeless plunge, they asked us our feelings on going out, I told them I was not happy about it and knew I would have to keep myself from becoming frustrated and grumpy. But the thing is, I didn't have to. Each one of us had a smile on our faces all day, things went so much better then anticipated! God can work through us, in these times.


We have all grown so much closer as a family here at YWAM, through the homeless plunge and living in community. I am so happy that each one of the people that are here came, there is a reason for each one of us to come, and it is so exciting to be working together with this group. Today in church I remembered something the pastor said, that has stuck to me all day today "More of God, Less of Me"


Tessa