gratitude and graduation.

it is with sincere gratitude and love that we would like to thank you for your prayers, thoughts and comments of encouragement. we have ended our trip a tad bit early for a few reasons. the first and foremost being that my grandfather was just recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has been given less than two months to live. the second is that we believe we have learned the majority of what we could learn by staying out a few weeks longer, and the third is merely that we were exhausted… which i suppose was the point.

ben’s dad picked us up in DC this past week and i arrived home on friday night while they have headed out for a bit of vacation at grandma’s. our first shower and bed in many weeks was a wonderful thing. we finished our trip with a long, hike out to the hotel, showered and passed out till his dad got there later that night.

the trip has taught us a million things which we may choose to share at a later date, but for now we will need quite a while of personal reflection to process the entire journey. we also have not completely decided where this trip has brought us and where it will continue to take us… which i suppose will come along with the processing.

again, i’d like to thank you so much for everything you all have given to us through comments and prayer. we appreciate those prayers in the middle of the night when you’ve woken up thinking about us, and we appreciate all of your encouragement through this blog. thank you for following us on this little journey in our lives, and i’m sure ben will be on shortly to say much of the same.

a final note… no matter what your church, your neighbors or your own pride tells you… continue to live for love and justice however God leads you to do it. thanks again.

love,
timothy d.

the cries of the lonely.

i am convinced that many of the mentally ill on the streets are mentally ill simply because they have nobody to talk to for so long that they begin to talk to themselvs. then, after a long period of time of talking to themselves they become to wrapped up in having their own conversations that they lose touch with reality. i don’t know if that’s possible… i’m no psychology professional, but i’ve witnessed so many mentally sick people and i have witnessed the loneliness of the streets. sitting on these streets for so long, especially on a rainy day where you are confined to something with a roof (if you are that lucky), you have all these thoughts, all these struggles that naturally need to be vented in community, but being alone you have nobody with whom you can do that. i have caught myself talking to myself several times, and it is depressing. our energy is running low because it has rained all night and we slept pretty poorly on concrete because we were in an open area where we could be seen and could have easily been kicked out or arrested. it is hard to sleep soundly when you are nervous of being arrested.

well, the clock is ticking on my time here. other than the continual rain and a cloudy, depressing day, a lack of food and only $00.35 in our pockets… we’re doing well. thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

I’m a Martian.

“You into aliens? … aliens?” asked the young black man. He had a thick beard and clothes covered in dirt.

“Aliens?” I replied, not really sure where this conversation was going.

“Yeah, aliens. You know… Roswell, New Mexico… XFILES… Martians?”

“Oh… yeah. I know what you mean.”

“Are you into ‘em?”

“Umm… no, not really. <long pause> Are you?” I asked this hesitantly, not really wanting to know the answer.”

“Yeah…. they’re my people.”

“Your people?”

“Yeah…. my people. I’m a martian.”

“Umm… how are they your people?” I asked trying to avoid the awkward silence in which this … Martian who really looked like a normal, black man … would simply stare at me.

“They’re my people. You ever heard of Leviathan? I locked all their asses up. All of ’em. Black, Asian, Hindus, white people. I locked all of ‘em up in Leviathan.” He points to the sky. “You heard of Leviathan?”

“Umm… no?”

“Leviathan!?” he says excitedly.

“Oh, yeaah… Leviathan.” I’ve never heard of Leviathan unless you are talking of the creature in the bible that was some sort of dinasaur. I believe that was called leviathan or at least something close.

“It’s the prison up in space. Leviathan.”

“Right! I’ve heard of it,” I said.

This was the end of our conversation. I wasn’t sure whether I should stay and wait for him to come back to ask him why his skin wasn’t green or whether I should run … run and not stop. I chose to run. I’ve heard of an album by Lil Wayne, a rapper, where he sings one whole song about being a martian. I’m fairly sure, however, that this martian that I met had not just listened to that song but in fact had lost every ounce of sanity left in his mind. He as well as he could figure… was a martian.

Welcome to DC! So far it doesn’t seem so bad. It is not nearly as homeless friendly as everyone says. The parks never close, but you are not allowed to “camp.” I’m not sure how he considered us camping that first night since we had no sleeping bags, tents, or fires. I guess a small blanket and a backpack made into a pillow counts as camping. Anyway, we found a place to sleep that is somewhat out of sight, and we can see the back of the Lincoln Memorial from there. For my dearest Uncle Phil… I spent 2 dollars I made from playing guitar on the unabridged book of speeches by Abraham Lincoln and I am currently memorizing his second inaugural address. What else can you do while you’re homeless?

We went to a mission last night with a bunch of youth group kids from Alabama, Georgia, and Cincinatti, they were young and I’m sure quite intimidated by old scruffy homeless people such as ourselves. As we were leaving one group asked me to play my guitar and I did, but then they were called back into the room to have a meeting and one said, “Have a great night… ours is about to suuuck!” So, I replied with, “Well, we’re gonna go try to sleep on the street. It can’t be that bad.” Needless to say it sort of killed that conversation, but that is what I do… savor awkward moments. Hopefully it made them think about their situation.

So long for now…

Jack (Dimps)… (Tim) 

“Why don’t you get on the spaceship? Why don’t you get on the spaceship? It’s right there. I said it’s right there,” he siad.

“I’m not sure,” I replied.

“It’s supposed to be right there!” he says as he motions to a circle that was once the home of a tree but has been since filled with asphalt.

“Really? Where is it?”

“I don’t know,” he says sadly.

Jesus on the Streets’

I saw Jesus on the street the other night and He looked like a 25 year old black woman named Priscilla. Tim was on the phone so I was sitting on the corner with my Starbuck’s cup with a few cents at my feet. I looked up to see her with a huge smile on her face. She asked me if I wanted the rest of her chips from Chipotle, which of course I did! That right there pretty much made her my favorite person we’ve met out here She began to tell me how she didn’t believe in consequences and she thought there was a reason we had met that night. She told me a story of about a year ago when she was rollerblading and got hit by an SUV. They said she wouldn’t survive, and obviously, she did. She went on from there to tell me how much Jesus loved me. She went through the entire Gospel and got to the end and asked me what I thought. I told her I was a follower of Jesus and she got way excited! She asked why I didn’t stop her when she was telling me the Gospel, but it was so nice to hear from another person that I just let her go. She ended up giving us about $7 which was a huge blessing! But even without the money she blessed me so richly in other ways. She told me over and over how much she loved me and how much God loved me. WOW!! The joy, compassion, and excitement flowed as she talked. She made Jesus very happy simply by loving someone. You don’t have to give money to be a huge blessing. Respecting someone and talking the time to stop and talk can make their day or week…trust me. Be Jesus to someone today. Even if it isn’t a homeless person, you can go out of your way to show love and to well, look like Jesus. Oh how different this world would be if followers of Jesus looked like our Master. Love you all!

Shaggy