Inner Circle

Thursday, March 4

Dear Inner Circle,

The rug got pulled from underneath a rough sleeper this week when he got word that his father was fighting for his life in intensive care. He was told not to go to the hospital but to wait at Wayside until he got further word. By late afternoon he was really undone and he announced to me that we were going into the Chapel to pray for his father. He poured out his heart as he expressed his deepest fears. I recited a psalm and he said most of it with me, revealing some kind of religious education in his past. We stopped and I suggested a cup of coffee and a short break from the emotional roller coaster. Before we got to the cafe, there was a call to say that the father's pacemaker needed some kind of adjustment but that he was going to be ok. Tears running down his face, the man looked at me said, "Doesn't God work in mysterious f...en ways?"

The tensions of living on the street sometimes reach explosive proportions. It surprises me that generally people are so well behaved at Wayside. People who have no private place for retreating and unwinding and whose every move and mood is observed by the public, build tension that causes premature ageing and sometimes the odd emotional explosion. The mood has been pretty explosive in the last few weeks and last Thursday what ought to have been a fight between a couple of young women developed into a pretty ugly incident. Thankfully our staff showed maturity and skill in preventing an even worse situation. The Kings Cross police were there in minutes and they showed in such numbers that order was soon restored. One young lady was carted off to hospital; one young lady went with police to assist with their enquiries and our staff issued exclusion notices to another half a dozen people. It's a rough step to be excluded from Wayside for a week especially when it is your source of food and the only place to shower but sometimes love is tough. I've no doubt that eventually we'll have all the players apologising to us and to each other. It's a pity that our neighbours only see the bad behaviour and not the lessons being learned.

My lap top that was stolen has not returned in spite of the best efforts of the street mafia. I'm still concerned for the health of the thief. It's a shame that people are so keen to visit judgement upon someone who they judge to be worse than themselves. It is not just a quality of street people. I've seen people of good will turn into ugly monsters, filled with a conviction that they've found someone who is worse than themselves. I recoil when the media encourages all to feel morally superior to a wrong doer and nothing is worse than a holy huddle that laments the evil "out there" rather than "in here". Our insurance won't replace my machine because it wasn't a result of a break and enter. I'm humbled to tell you that I've had the offer of lap tops come from all over this city. Thank you all so much. I have accepted the offer from the Kings Cross Rotary that will enable me to buy an apple machine; which is after all what God had in mind when he said, "Let there be computers."

Cooler weather is here and we are right out of blankets. One guy this morning asked if we even had a table cloth that we could give him. If you've got a spare blanket and you live within cooee of us, we'd love you to donate it to a brother or sister who is cold at night.

A Wayside visitor went into drug rehabilitation last February and was released in August clean. It seems like he had beaten his habit and was pulling his life together at a wonderful pace. He died this week of a stroke at age 33. It's an unspeakable honour to stand with his mother, father and sisters tomorrow when they say good bye.

I forgot to mention that lately you can hear me read this inner circle note on the James Valentine show on ABC 702 on Mondays. I don't think I have much of a voice for radio but I'm glad to stretch the circumference of this inner circle.

Thanks for being part of our inner circle,

Graham

Be sure to follow Graham on Twitter if you have an account; @waysidepastor