Street Corner Preacher

Many people we meet at Allelon remind me of a song by Amos Lee, Street Corner Preacher

When I walked through the doors, all I could focus on were my throbbing forearms screaming from the wall I just pretended to rock climbing. It didn't take long before the people and circumstances in our house quieted my selfish whining.

Before I could think another thought, I was instructed to rummage through my phone in search of a local pastor's number who is known for working with homeless, hurting, people. Through a series of phone calls, we were able to leave a message.

In the midst of all this, Kendrick needed a ride to Dollar General to pick up some dog food. On went my shirt, and out the door we marched.

When we got back, our new friend Jo Jo had hopped in a much coveted shower. His paper sack with protruding bottle neck (Steel Reserve) took its own much needed rest near the couch. Wes and Moo Moo had hustled over to Walmart to pick up a new set of clothes. (Wes doesn't know this yet, but he is going to fill in his part of the story here. Thanks Wes!) There was a slightly awkward gap when Jo Jo finished his shower when Wes and Moo Moo had not yet returned with the wardrobe. So in nothing but a towel, Jo Jo started hollering about his bottle, excessively thanking his hosts, and cheering about how sweet a shower was.

While Wes warmed up some left over sloppy joes (irony at its best), Josh filtered through the pile of our cleanest clothes to find Jo Jo a fresh shirt to wear. By now Jo Jo had plopped into the recliner and the housemates started munching. But not Jo Jo.

Despite our efforts to get Jo Jo to eat, he instead heeded our fervent requests to receive the shirts we had placed beside him. With tears and a quivering voice he indeed was at loss for words, but only for a moment as he traded his inhibition for a pulpit where the sermon began. Stories of other homeless friends, associates, enemies, preachers, 5-0, among others. That gritty smile gleaned reciprocity from our trim faces. With a concerted effort from all of us, Moo Moo included, Jo Jo eventually whipped up his plate off the floor where he'd forgotten about it and tackled the mound of beans, chips, and sloppy joe piled high on a plastic neon orange dish fit for royalty (thanks JB), or at least I think that might have been what the Prince of Peace would've eaten from.


Between his admitted 19 public intoxication charges, tussles with other homeless characters, shaming encounters with pastors, and (I imagine along the way) upsetting spats with ignorant passer-bys and highway drivers, pieces of Jo Jo have been cut away. But this night, Joe received his dignity back. "Nobody lis'ns to me. Y'know. I try ta tell'em, but day juss don't lis'n to me." Little did he know, he couldn't have asked for a more captive audience. Our eyes and ears were fixed to his every story, sermon, and request - though he'd tell you "[he] didn't ask for none of this." Which I suppose he didn't technically verbally inquire. But when Wes started playing that music, with Jo Jo as the only audience, you could see the unprotected self-worth make a liberating leap past the hard leathery exterior.

Enter The Gambler. What an appropriate song and title for the situation, for Jo Jo had indeed learned the hard way how to know when to hold 'em, fold 'em, when to walk away and when (and from who) to run. But he'd learned how to take a hit, too. I don't know what made him decide to come back to meet Josh that day but it was divine, indeed.

As for me, one of the most entertaining parts of the evening was Jo Jo's introduction of Trigger, his imaginary horse during Wes' rendition of "You Are My Sunshine". But perhaps the most noteworthy remains the hug he gave when he left It is forever impressed into my memory. Even as I come back to edit this parable, my heart pounds a deeper thump. Full of genuine appreciation, connection, and unabashed affection, we started with a simple obligatory embrace. But to my relief, that was not enough for him. His only hidden requirement for the extent of the evening was a willingness to receive his warm, shirt-clutching hug.


Below I've included some other quotes and highlighted a couple other moments from the evening with our new friend:

In response to Moo Moo's comment regarding walking:
"See these old legs I got, these old man legs - they walked 93 miles from Oklahoma to Snyder, TX. ... I walked it. Ain't nobody gonna pick you up on the highway. I slept beside railroad tracks, all dang parks. If I can walk my 52 year old ass, shee-it. you can walk too." (often followed by a rhetorical "you hear me?")

Taking a breath from preaching to take a swig:
"Old Jo Jo might drink some beer, but he can do some preachin' too. For real boy, shee-it. Let me tell you, bubba."

In conversation with Josh about some other homeless men:
"I think I know him... I know who you talking about. He's a good friend of mine. I think so. What he in for, PI? You get 4 hours 'n yer out."

Talking about Kenny Rogers -
"He married that girl... I'm'nna tell you right quick, quick now. [snaps fingers] What was her name..?" [staring into the ceiling as if the answer were printed there in tiny letters at a funny angle]
Then for some added flavor, when "I Walk the Line" twanged across those strings, Jo Jo didn't hesitate to take lead on vocals; that old boy belted it with the best of them.

The First Supper

By now, whether he wants to or not, Aaron has decided to become a carpenter upon finishing school. Or at least that's what we say around the community. Its a good vocation - Jesus was a carpenter after all. What better way to serve, and well really our house hold? So much love can go into the work of carpentry, so much intention, so much passion, and in the end, so much communion.




After we prayed - and we pray like this a lot: "Lord we sure would like to build a picknick table," Aaron went for a walk in the woods behind our house. As he almost always does, the Lord provided in an amazing and peculiar way. Aaron happened upon a junk pile with really nice two by fours and many other things necessary for building our table. When he came back from the woods with... the wood, we weren't surprised - more I would say we were gratefully caught off guard. We have come to expect things like this but God never ceases to amaze us!



Anyways we built a table, and the next night we ate on it.

It seats twelve and that's how many people came for dinner that night...




Praise the Lord

Pumpkin Carving Party!

Early last week, our realtor, Dave Dalzell, dropped off 8 pumpkins with a note saying, "Have fun carving some pumpkins with the neighborhood kids." Thanks, Dave, for those words and those pumpkins! They sat on our patio for a few days, and every time we passed them, our dream for how to use them expanded. I guess the Lord really wanted us to do a pumpkin carving party, because a few days after receiving the pumpkins, we received a box full of food for the kiddos - party food like oatmeal cream pies and capri suns. Then Josh talked to Jim, a guy from his church who owns a farm down in Buffalo Gap, who invited us to bring the kids down to his farm. The Lord throws way better parties than we do, so when we saw him putting this one together, we got pretty excited.

The only thing left to get together was the guests. Our plan was to walk around the neighborhood with Kendrick and Denise the night before to tell kids about it, but dinner ran late, and it was dark before we got to it. I was pretty bummed about this, thinking that all the other stuff the Lord had prepared was going to go to waste and that the party would be a failure. So I went out to the park in the middle of our hood and just turned it over to the Lord. He showed me an image of us just standing outside our house watching a wall of kids coming towards us. So I felt at peace about it as I went to bed on Friday.

On Saturday morning, we went down to Kendrick's house at around 9 o'clock. We had told everyone who we had gotten a chance to talk to that we would meet at our house at 10am to carpool down to the farm, so we figured we would try to meet up with Kendrick a little before that to go around and tell some more kids. We knocked at his door repeatedly, but there was no answer. We just kind of stood there, not really knowing what to do. I was thinking of the comforting image from the Lord the night before, so when Josh said, "Man, let's just pray that the Lord brings some kids," I was definitely on board. So we stopped right where we were on the street near Allelon house and prayed. When we got back, Angel was at our house waiting for us! We told her about the party, and she went home to get her nine year old, Jerrod. That's one kid! A few minutes after that, we found Kendrick; and within 30 minutes we were piling 7 kids and several of us into a few cars to head down to the farm!

That day was filled with so much joy! The Lord put the whole thing together, from the pumpkins to the food to the farm to the kids. We just got to enjoy His spirit being poured out on all of us as we rested in His true life.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the outing:

I'm helping Jerrod and Allenia while Aaron and Kim help Bobby.

Stephanie, Allenia, and Poon pet Mr. Jim's baby donkey.

Bobby was hungry!

So were Stephanie and Tarneshia!

Stephanie looking precious.

A little ornithophobic. Luckily Candace was there!

Possibly my favorite photo ever. If you've never seen joy before, this is what it looks like.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Word

In the middle of our house we have an old sliding glass door. When the living room got extended it never got removed, so now we have what looks like a big aquarium on one side of our house. This is the room where we have the piano and all the guitars. For this reason we do a lot of our house praising in there. Also because the window is seethrough we bought some markers a couple of months ago, so that people could write prayers and encouragments on it. People in the house wrote things like: "May Jesus be Praised" "Love is supreme" "Your love never fails it never gives up it never gives out on me." but over the course of the last month the kids have been writing things as well. The other day we were looking at the things they have written, and we just feel blown away. So here's the word of the lord from Cockerell Dr:

He loves us

- Moo Moo


He Loves us and he will always love us in the house of the lord

- Allenia


Jesus loves you

-Allenia


Only love comes to the house of the lord, if not dont think about coming to the house of the lord. Amen.

- Moo Moo


Allenia loves Jesus and he love us too

- Allenia


Denise Love you all and Jesus do too.

- Denise


Only God can wake you up if you need to, dont ever make plans if you believe that Jesus lives in your house

- Moo Moo


Thank you lord for your living word. Amen.