It's three o'clock in the morning, when I am roused from my bed. There is a loud bang that came from the deck. At first I think nothing of it, but a few minutes later there is some more shuffling and a bit more sound. Nicky and I are both sitting up in bed. "There is definitely someone there," I say. I climb out of bed, my heart racing, is someone really trying to break into our house while we are here? I look behind the bedroom door for any sort of weapon to take with me (the right to bear arms has not been an excuse for us to buy a gun), thankfully I find a crow bar there. It feels like it could do some damage. I slowly walk through the living room to the kitchen and towards the back door where the sound had come from. I can't see a thing outside since it is pitch dark...I clutch the crow bar and flick on the outside light and swing open the door simultaneously prepared to attack. There, standing about 2 feet away from me is the bandit...a raccoon...digging in my garbage. I yell and shake the crow bar at it and it runs off into the neighbours yard. So embarrassing and city-person of me!
I have been thinking quite a lot about homelessness (over the last two years especially) and have come to all kinds of conclusions about myself and the things that I (and the church) need to do in order to help people who are in that situation. I have been involved in a few organizations who work with homeless people and met with many people to discuss what I/we should be doing to help. I finally discovered something very important that I can do right now. I am reading t his book called Bent Hope which is a really interesting read. The author is a Youth Worker who works with young people who live on the streets in Toronto. He walks the streets and hangs out with them and helps when he can. He basically just tells the stories of his encounters with people and talks a little bit about what he has learned from them. I am loving it! So, I know what I am supposed to do to help homelessness. In his book, pretty much everyone he encounters he mentions how they come from a family situa...
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