Thursday March 11th 2010

Our last day at the DRM :(

We got to sleep in today which was really nice! Then we wrote letters and encouraging verses to the guys at the mission. It was cool to find a ton of verses for the guys and write them personal letters telling them how they impacted our life. Earlier in the week one of the guys had told Lindsay that he hadn't received a letter from his family in 7 years!

We got to the city kind of early so Alicia and Lindsay decided to let us explore downtown for a quick little bit. This required parallel parking our 15 passenger van between an SUV and a Fedex truck, and Alicia did it! Then we headed down to the 16th street mall and took a bunch of pictures and stuff and stopped in a sports store so some people could get souvenirs. Then we headed back, a quick but fun trip.

We all assumed we were going back to the DRM but we were soon in a random neighborhood and didn't know what we were doing. Alicia then parallel parks again in an even smaller spot! We got out and learned that we were going to the Champa house, a DRM rehabilitation center for women and their young families. They gave us a tour and showed us all of the different things that they could offer there. They had a daycare area and a school/learning area, and other cool things and then upstairs they housed all the families. Each family got an apartment style room with their own kitchen and bathroom that they could style in a way that was best for them. I believe that there were 8 families living there at the time, which is impressive because the house was not very big at all. None of the families or women seemed to be around so we couldn't talk to them or anything but from the stories it sounds like it's doing really well.

After that we headed to the DRM and were ushered into the chapel again. Nate and Nicole, another staff member who seemed to teleport to all the different DRM centers, chatted with us about our week and what we've been learning and liking and stuff, it was cool to talk to them about it since they live it everyday. They gave all of us a shirt that says "I fought hunger and homelessness at the Denver Rescue Mission" and a book called Under the Overpass written by a guy who decided to be homeless for 6 months and started his adventure at the DRM. It was so exciting to get those things because they could always remind us of our time there.

We went downstairs and laid out all of the cards for the guys so they could grab them before getting Lunch. As they got there and saw a card with their name on it, something that was truly theirs and addressed just for them, their faces all lit up and as they read them they kept thanking us and telling us how much they loved it. Such a simple thing as a letter, but with so much love it had really made a difference in their day and life.

It was amazing to see how much we had changed from the beginning of the week when we were scared to go and sit with these guys but now we fearlessly walked up sat down and struck up conversations with them. And the guys had really taken us under their wing and joked around with us and wanted to share their lives and struggles with us so we could learn. We learned a lot from them in just one week.

After eating and serving lunch Nate and Mike wanted to take us to the 16th street mall, where we'd been that morning, so we went. While we were walking a guy came up to us and asked if we had any change, we directed him towards the DRM but he said he just wanted a cup of coffee so Nate said he could walk with us and he'd buy him a cup of coffee. He walked with us for awhile and started saying things like "Jesus Christ isn't real, he's dead and never came back to life." Mike immediately spoke up and said "I'm sorry you feel that way because he is alive and he lives in me!" and just sharing the gospel with this guy. Here's Mike who at one point in life was probably close to the position that this guy is in and he's now sharing the gospel with him, that's crazy, and proof of God's work in people.

The guy walked with us for awhile but he dropped away when we got closer to the city. Nate stopped us and pointed out that alot of guys have this idea of space, that down by the DRM is acceptable space for them to be but in the main part of the city it is not. And we also discussed what is best to do when someone asks for money. There are a lot of people who will just use that money for drugs or alcohol but at the time you pass them maybe what they really need to see is God's love and by giving them money they might see that. He says that the best thing to do is probably buy them food, get them a burger or a cup of coffee, something that they can't use to buy alcohol or drugs and still shows your love for them, probably even more than just dropping a dollar for them.

Well who would've guessed, that guy came back and so we stopped at a Starbucks and got him a cup of coffee and Nate talked to him a little bit about the DRM and stuff. Nate stayed and talked with him but we needed to head back to serve dinner.

After we had served dinner to everyone our group got together and sang a couple songs for the guys. This was definitely a different expereicne than when we sang for the people in the mission, because it's probably true that a lot of these guys didn't know Jesus. Before they come to dinner they have to go to chapel but in Under the Overpass he says that the chapels often revolved around sin and how they should repent, sermons he said that often just brought him down, but the songs we chose were songs of hope and of getting a second chance and of the love of Jesus. Our group was in no way a choir but we offered a joyful noise and the people loved it. In the back we could see Matt and Mike with huge smiles on their face, Alicia said that they looked like "proud papas."

Our time with them was coming to a close. We cleaned up after the first group and another group of volunteers took over for the rest of the shifts. We didn't want to leave so we delayed, just saying good bye was hard. We decided to pray over the guys, Mike and Matt, it was very cool to share our love and pour our hearts out onto these guys, I doubt there was a dry eye in the group. Matt said how he'd changed so much and that he used to pistol whip guys and stuff but now all it takes is a sad commercial and he'll be crying.

We took a bunch of crazy pictures and then we had to leave. Someone decided we should dance all the way outside so with Matt leading we danced all the way through the cafeteria and up the stairs then took more pictures outside with the Jesus Saves sign in the background and headed across the street to our van. As we were saying our goodbyes we saw Matt leaving and heading back inside, later he told us that he was losing it and had to leave. :( Tearfully we climbed into the van and rode back home with only the stereo breaking the silence.

When we got back we talked about our experiences and what we had learned throughout the week. We also did this thing they called "the hot seat," where someone sat in a chair and then 3 people told them what they liked about them, or what they had learned, or just something encouraging. It was really sweet and cool because we had all really grown together and had shared so much in those first days.

The next day we would be leaving CCU and heading off to go backpacking so after that whole day we still had to pack and get stuff ready to leave the next morning. I don't think we went to sleep until after 2, and even then it was hard to sleep knowing we might not see some of those guys again.