The program “really means we are being creative in helping to solve or find a solution, really, to this homeless crisis that we have,” he said. “We’re using land that we have been blessed to own for something that is creative and productive. Prior to us building the cabins, all we were doing was harvesting tumbleweeds. … That was the unofficial name of it, was tumbleweed village.”
Homeless people are multifaceted, sometimes suffering from various mental illnesses, and other times working full-time jobs and unable to afford housing. Slade and Meridian Baptist ascribe to homeless people the dignity due them as children created in the image of God.
The homeless man who had refused to speak to Slade was a military veteran for whom life had become too much. By the time he returned Slade’s greeting, his immediate need was a signature on a piece of paper certifying he was homeless.
“He pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper and on that piece of paper was information about him being homeless. And he needed someone to certify that he was living on the street,” Slade said. “And so, I simply signed that document. … He came back after being absent for three weeks.
“I didn’t recognize him. He had cleaned up, shaved, cut his hair and everything. Different person. And he came and sat down at the table next to me. And said, ‘Hey pastor. Thank you.’” The man described himself as “doing much better.” He had gotten an apartment and a part-time job. “I had Veteran benefits available to me,” the man told Slade, “but I just checked out.”
Years earlier, while caring for his wife who was dying of cancer, the man’s son had been convicted of a crime and sentenced to life in prison. The man abandoned his home and lost everything.
“And he said he just got depressed. And he said you know what happens when you get depressed. You don’t go to work. You stop caring about stuff,” Slade recalled.
He had one question for Slade.
“Why did you sit down next to me every Wednesday for three months?” the man asked Slade. “I didn’t say anything to you. Matter of fact, I was probably pretty rude, just grunting at you and ignoring you.”
Slade told the man he was determined to get him to talk.
“He had said that since I was doing that, since I was sitting down next to him, he was determined not to talk to me,” Slade said.
“Basically, we had opposite challenges and, in the end, when he just got tired, I came through for him. And it was simple. All I had to do was sign that piece of paper.”
This article originally appeared here.
