Casting Seeds
“I keep waking up to a nightmare.”
“Is it ok for y’all to give me a ride to Homeless Healthcare? I don’t want other people out here to miss out on getting supplies because of me.”
“I’m done with being abused and mistreated. I have to take care of myself now. I’m leaving today, and I’m not coming back here. I mean it! I don’t have any clothes or anything, but I will figure it out and be ok.”
“Thank goodness I scratched my eye today instead of any other day. If it had happened any other day, I wouldn’t have had a ride to the clinic.”
R.O.C. Member: “How are you doing?”
Client: “Not good.”
ROC Member: “I am sorry to hear that. You want to talk about it?”
Client: “No. Not really. But how are you all doing?”
R.O.C. Member: “Well, we are doing the best we can. We’re seeing a bunch of people with a bunch of problems that we don’t have answers for. But giving the answers that we do have when we can, and trying to figure out what the answers are that we are missing.”
Client: “I like the way you put that. Well, you all do a really great job.”
Client: “When do you think my housing case manager could come see me again?”
R.O.C. Member: “Well, actually, they don’t work in that position anymore. So you will have a new one that we will help to get you connected to.”
Client: “Awww! Really?! Was it because of me? I really like them! See, this is why it’s hard for me to start liking people. Because as soon as I do, they leave. Are you going to leave?
R.O.C. Member: “Me? No, I am here for the long haul!”
Client: “Ok, good! Because you guys are awesome! I really like you guys!”
R.O.C. Member: “I just had to Narcan someone who had overdosed out here. They are ok now. The part that is tearing me up the most is that instead of calling an ambulance, their dad was running up and down the road begging people for Narcan.”
One R.O.C. member this week confessed to throwing an apple core out of the window of their car at the same part of the interstate every day on their way to work. They said they hoped to one day see an apple orchard appear from doing this.
Each time we show up at these numerous encampments all over the county and meet these individuals experiencing homelessness week after week, we are participating in a similar exercise. With each caring act, with each encouraging word, with each expression of grace and love, we cast seeds that have the potential to sprout hope. We cast these seeds into the desolate places, where hope is unexpected to exist. And once hope has taken root and sprouted, we tend to it and nurture it. We watch those slivers of hope grow into a beautiful, emboldened, strengthened, and determined character within our clients. A type of character that can endure the dry soil of doubt, the vines of violence, the thorns of trauma, the infestations of insecurity, the scorching heat of heartbreak, and the weeds of worry. We work to see them transplanted from the desolate environments into thriving environments. Our ultimate goal is to see the desolate places no longer desolate but deserted and unpopulated. Woods, bridges, overpasses, parking lots, and railroad tracks are no longer places where people survive day to day. Clients are instead in permanent, affordable, and stable housing where their lives can become orchards ripe with the fruit of unlimited potential.
#ROCAndRoll
#ROCRetrospective
#CastingSeeds
