Inner Circle

Thursday, July 29

Dear Inner Circle,

Some people, when they see a brick wall, think it is their destiny to run at it as hard as they can. I was sitting alongside such a guy yesterday in the rain, drinking coffee. This fellow has been pepper sprayed by the cops so often, you could call him a seasoned criminal. As he was talking, I wondered if his story will ever be known or told. Many people have seen snap shots of this man's life, but no one has seen the whole movie. I've seen such life long habits of self destruction lose their power over someone but I'm blowed if I know what brings the actual turn around. When you see it, it's just a miracle! This guy told me that he wouldn't see me here today because he had to "move house". He is relocating from Randwick to Parramatta and the move was being made on public transport. I have a daughter moving house this week and that requires a truck just for her shoes. I asked how this man was going to manage to move everything on a train and a bus and he told me that everything he owned fitted into one overnight bag.

The Chapel is a more holey place today. You can see from the street, right through the walls to the back of the property! We've got trucks and angle grinders and workmen and hammers and traffic control. After years of talking and planning, all this noise is like music to me. I stood outside for a while on Monday, just to watch some of the erection of the hoarding and work site office. It was quite entertaining to see such large trucks and heavy loads, efficiently managed in our narrow street. I noticed a skinny young kid walk into the street as this was going on. He walked toward where I was standing and then exploded. He started throwing our neighbours rubbish bins across the road and kicking the side of a building. He ended up in a foetal position near a garage door in our lane with one of our Youth Workers applying her usual tender care. It turns out that the young man suffers from a form of autism and for him, pretty much any major change in the physical environment, brings on a sense of panic. All the assumptions I made about what was happening as the bins were flying across the street, were completely wrong. How sad for this young kid! There must be many people who find change, even change for the better, very difficult.

Yesterday a man told me that he sleeps in a car park near here. He said that there are about 50 people who sleep in the car park and that the operators of the place are OK with this on the condition that everyone and all their mess are gone by early in the morning. He told me that recently a lady who parks there every day, opened her boot and produced enough 1 litre bottles of orange juice for everyone. Another lady who parks there early, opened her boot and gave a warm jacket to every rough sleeper. No one missed out. There are some amazing people in the world.

Thanks for being part of our inner circle,

Graham

Click here to listen to podcasts of past Inner Circle's, aired at 1.30pm each Monday, on ACB 702's 'Afternoons with James Valentine'

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