“Once you meet the devil there’s no way he’ll let you be, when I am not chasing demons there’s demons chasing me” lyrics from song, Demons by Kenny Chesney

Today, we had the privilege of serving 25 people.

• A lot of our friends were not out this morning.  With the cold, the shelter let them stay in later.  We ran into (Jeanne) and noticed she was wearing flip flops in this weather.  She never asks for anything other than our packet of $10 bill/$10 DK card/prayer card.  I asked her if she wanted some boots, and she said “yes”.  Luckily, we had a pair that fit her, along with some gloves and socks.  Our hearts ache when we run into her.  She is never one for conversation; her eyes tell the story of a lost soul just surviving one day to the next.  God have mercy on her.

• What we did notice is that a lot of our friends had swollen hands.  This is caused by the cold restricting blood flow to their fingers.  We give them gloves every Saturday, but they get lost or stolen.

• We ran into our friends (Kathy/Shane).  We asked about (Carly).  She has been in and out of the hospital with MRSA and now she has problems with her spine.  Unfortunately, she keeps leaving the hospital AMA, so they can’t really treat the problems.  Our friends tell me she can’t walk so they move her around in a shopping cart.

• We gave out a lot of sweatpants this morning along with the usual socks, underwear, gloves, sweatshirts, and packet.  We spoke with one of our friends who just got out of the hospital for pneumonia.  I asked if she had spoken to her dad and she said “yes”.  Her son still will not speak to her.  We don’t push about the conversation with her dad.  When we do talk about her family, her facial expression says it all - she would rather not talk about it.  We are sure her family is praying for her to leave this lifestyle behind.  What we have realized is there’s a codependency of couples who are on the street.  They feel if one gets well, they both need to get well together which rarely happens.  It’s a vicious cycle, the one getting well in the hospital or in treatment, is being lured back out on the street by the other spouse/partner.  It’s sad.

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God Bless,

Claire and Shaun Teed and Tito

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“For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in”. Psalm 27:10

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