Weekend burblings

I am relaxing after yet another busy week.

Drop-in centre blues.

Let me tell you about our drop-in centre people. It is really hard to describe because there are a variety of people there. They arrive at 6:30, they are offered food, often sausages, bread, sandwiches and filled buns. Sometimes it is vege soup, or savaloys and sometimes they have portions of pie donated from a local bakery. We have an urn going and they can drink as much coffee, milo and tea as they want along with orange drink. A TV goes on the platform, there are two pool tables, a table tennis table and easy chairs arranged around coffee tables. There are usually sweeter cakes, biscuits and buns produced during the night. We shut up shop at 9:30 p.m. and it is all free. 

We have a number of mental health patients come. There are some folk with intellectual disability. There are people with alcohol and drug problems. We have three young children aged from 13months through to 9 years who are regulars. There are a lot of "lost souls". I am not sure what else to call them. Some may not have high IQ's but they are not handicapped. They are older teenagers through to young adults, unemployed and most probably unemployable. They are drop-outs from the education system. Most often tattooed, "stroppy", poor, suspicious of authority figures, and yet with a lostness and sadness in their eyes that makes your heart break. They often tend to put each other down. It is like they are saying, "I may not be much, but at least I am not as cracked as her!" They sometimes tend to be paranoid, and think others are talking about them. 

These later trends often result in tense times at drop-in centre. In the last few weeks it has been an ongoing build up. A group will sit together passing snide comments about others. The "others" will burst out in anger saying, "come outside and we'll sort this out!" or sling a whole lot of obscenities. The first group will plead innocence, but it all makes for unpleasant times. My wife often settles things down in a motherly way with an early quiet word to one or two, but in recent weeks the newer people have not respected her efforts. I stepped in on Friday night and just said if behaviour did not improve, I would close the drop-in. It is useless trying to sort out who said what to who. I ended up on the footpath outside standing in the middle of a group helping them to talk it out. I don't know what Friday night shoppers thought about this white haired old man standing amongst these scary young adults? I told these young people that I had run the drop-in for nearly fifteen years and I had only ever thrown one man out. I said that my reasoning was that I think we have to be accepting of people, but that meant that we ALL had to be tolerant of one another and not put each other down. If we don't we muck the night up for everyone. I don't know if they listened or not, but some left and it was quieter. Don't tell them, but I will probably never shut it down... but it does get difficult.

Smacking referendum... After it quietened down on Friday night, I got asked about the smacking referendum we have to vote on. We got talking and it would break your heart the stories of child abuse that came out. One after the other these people told their stories. It was sad listening. Often it is thought that it is a problem just among lower socio-economic levels of the community. One of these stories came from a lady whose father was a lawyer. Another came from a doctor's child. We have to change the way we do things. I see the ruined lives.

Habitat for Humanity... We had a great day at the Habitat for Humanity site. We all worked very hard together putting the roof framing in place. We finished about 3:30 with very sore bodies, nailing arms and backs, but with a deep sense of achievement. It was one of those good days. One interesting encounter I had was with Ray a plumber who is helping us out. He is now a plumbing inspector.  I got talking to him and told him I used to be a plumber, but changed careers.  "Oh yes" he said, "Too hard?" ...more as a statement than a question. He continued, "I worked at plumbing for 30 years... it is pretty hard!"  I was momentarily flumixed by the comment and not sure how to answer, especially after my Friday night Drop-in centre adventures.   My friend Martin started laughing, and said, "Not nearly as hard as what he does now!" "What do you do?" Ray said. "I'm a minister... give me plumbing any day. Pipes stay where you put them." I responded. Martin informed him that I was "not your usual sort of minister". I'm not sure what he meant by that??? 

I have tomorrow off but another busy week ahead. Every night out, a new "Healing Grief" series to share in, the night shelter street appeal to do and a busy weekend where I have to do the things my daughter and son-in-law usually do for me. Wish me luck.

Photo: Right to left. My friends Martin, Jane, Allan (one of my church elders) and then me. The tattoos belong to Mike.