Chaos

It's been almost a month since I wrote about brokenness, and gave some specific examples of some of the ways I've seen brokenness at the Mission.  In the past three weeks, the community at the Mission has experienced some of the most unstable time I've seen in my year and a half there.  Last November, I sent a mass e-mail to many friends and family, recounting the hardships we were facing at the Mission as we watched 9 people walk out in 11 days - many of them men with whom we were close friends.  Then, last February, I sent an e-mail again, recounting the tale of our run-in with Eddie, a street drunk [and Christian brother], who was going through a particularly rough spell, and who we had to wrestle through the rain, sleet and snow to the Emergency Room so he could get medical clearance to go to detox.  

It's been a year since that run-in with Eddie, and now I can honestly say that I've seen the clearest picture of brokenness and chaos that I've ever seen.  Since February 1st, we've watched more than 20 people leave our community.  That's more than 1 per day.  Not everyone has left under bad circumstances.  A few people have made positive transitions to other programs or to permanent housing.  However, those transitions have been few and far between.  The vast majority of folks have departed for the following reasons:

*  They got high in the house.

*  They went back to prison.

*  They got high outside of the house and disappeared.

*  They got high outside of the house and got caught.

*  They were in a relationship with another person in the house.

*  They disappeared.

*  They got arrested.

This is the reality of the chaos that we encounter every day.  However, it has been more rampant in the last few weeks than I have ever seen it.  For many, it is a hopeless endeavor; it is a battle they cannot win, nor wish to.  As one of our former clients so dismally stated, "I will probably just go back home and screw up again."  This attitude of hopelessness reveals the chaos working at the root of these men and women's lives.  

Please pray for us at the Mission, as we continue to fight to see light shine in the darkness; order restored in the chaos; hope conquering the hopelessness; and brokenness mended by the power of the gospel of Christ.