A Night in the Mission

Part 4 of Life on the Street series

I went to the front desk to find out what it took to stay overnight. Question #1 – Have I ever been convicted of a sex offense? NO! Ok then – go to the police station and have them do a search for open warrants. So I walked to the police station – who of course – sees this all the time. I was a non- person to them. Driver's License…Name…Here's is your paper. Bye.

I walked the twenty minutes back to the shelter and went through an application process. I asked the guy if it was possible to leave the next morning to go over to the nearby high school to see my daughter perform in a vocal competition. He said he was not sure but that I should check with the morning person. He did not know why not so it looked and sounded good. The chapel service was starting so I went in and sat down. The guy in front of me said to his buddy…"What are they burning? Smells like they are burning something." Well, that was me so I identified myself as the campfire guy and the just sniffed and looked at me and went back to talking to each other. I sat through the chapel service and then the front desk guy told me to look up Chester to see if he could help me dry out.

When I found "Chet" – he was the most helpful man I could imagine - he had me wash my socks in the sink and wring them out and then, when he realized that I had no clean ones to put on, he went away for a couple of minutes and then returned with a mismatched pair of socks. He showed me how I could possibly dry my boots in the bathroom under the hand dryer and then disappeared. Every half hour or so, he made his way from the laundry area (in another building) to the dorm. He stopped and checked in with me each time and eventually brought me my dry socks. He also made a special trip back to the front desk to get my box of linens since I was never given any. He checked in with me before going to bed to make sure that I had a mattress and a place to call my own for the night. What a guy.

I met several others that night and the next day one of them, named Greg, invited me to sit with him for a couple of minutes in the reading area. This guy was a professing Christian, although his language and choices of music had not been renewed yet! (Led Zeppelin is not the most wholesome group to listen to as a believer) Anyway, he said that they had me on a chore chart already so I must be on a fast track to getting a permanent bed. "Why?" I asked and he did not know but that I had some chores right after breakfast. Red flags went off in my head because I had promised my daughter that, even though I was doing this project, I would be there at Elkhart Central that Saturday for her vocal competition.

I proceeded to the front desk before breakfast to see what I could work out. That is where I met Frank. As I soon discovered, the people from the night before at the front desk were residents of the mission's program and were volunteering. Frank, whom I was about to meet, was on staff. I explained my predicament to Frank – that I was told last night I could leave to go to this program and that I promised my daughter I would be there. He proceeded to tell me that when you using in to the mission you are there for THREE days with chore duty and NO FREE TIME! I had to get permission from a staff member or a member of senior management. I asked if there was someone available to in that capacity to speak with and he informed me that he was "senior management". Uh OH! Decision time…

Check the next blog – "Runnin' from Frank" to see what decisions I had to make in the next ten minutes.