Street Ministry Journal: July 8, 2014

I've not blogged about this before, but my congregation has a street ministry that is out in the community every Tuesday and Friday nights providing water, clothing, snacks, candy, hygiene, and other items to people living on the streets. We also go into Chippewa Falls once a week or so to check out the homeless there as well, as they recently lost the only homeless shelter in that city. I go out twice a month usually, and leave it to the volunteers, who have the real expertise, to do this important ministry. Mike Henry is our leader - he has done street ministry in San Francisco, Chicago, places in Central America, and elsewhere. He has many decades of experience and great passion. He is the one who took the photo below. We keep a street journal that we who take part in the ministry occasional write stories for, of our thoughts and experiences. The following is my write up from last week Tuesday:

A beautiful night, weather-wise, and it became an even more beautiful night with a surprise encounter with a man with a silken baritone voice. Lilly, Dave, Sandy, Mike, and I were there to help the many visitors we had to the van. We were busy, but not so busy that we didn't stop for about ten minutes to listen to Wahya, recently arrived at Sojourners, sing us some serenades of 1970s-era blues rock tunes and even some country. He had been a singer in a band many years before, but circumstances led him out of that profession and eventually to where he is today. He has lost much, but not his voice or his passion for song. Mostly he sang alone, but I joined him to sing the beginning of Bob Seeger's "Turn the Page". A gentle man, mostly (perhaps all) Native American. He told us the story of how he received his name, a name that in his tradition can only be given as a gift for doing right things, never claimed for oneself. A fascinating man who I hope can find his way off the "long and lonesome highway" and back into the life that he knew and that he deserves.

Caption: Wahya singing in his rich baritone voice for Pastor David and others.