Real Life at the Crisis Shelter March 26-April 1, 2012

Monday March 26:   A youth group arrived to give pedicures, foot massages, make crafts and play with the kids.  What a great evening!  Staff held an accountability for one of our guests and she was invited back in.  One of our guests refused to participate in the modules so she was given one last night before she was asked to leave.    

Tuesday March 27:  One of our guests planned on blowing out today but her ride canceled so she was forced to stay another night.  This is the second time that she felt like leaving but circumstances have kept her at the shelter.  God must want her here for a bit longer.  Staff dealt with many parenting issues.  Monday night group returned with more of the same.  The ladies felt loved!

Wednesday March 28  Guest that God had been holding in place left on foot today with her belongings and her man.  I am confident that she will be back some day.  Another guest got a job today!    

Thursday March 29:  Kicked off Phase II program today.  No guests used it.  Phase II will be a room for those who can not stay in regular shelter for some reason.  They might be out for a week or on accountability.  Essentially they come in at 5 pm and must leave by 8am.  They must take their belongings with them when they go for the day.  They get food and evening classes.       

Friday March 30:  One of our guests is over medicated we are working to help her pull it together.  Another guest was stealing from her room mates and asked to leave.  Another guest in that room was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Another guest got a job today.        

Weekend:   We had several ladies using our phase II over the weekend and worked through some challenges.  A guest who has repeatedly violated our guidelines was given a same day accountability and it worked beautifully.  She left and returned with a new attitude.  She continued her stay.

General comments:   We have just begun the phase II program and are fine tuning this week but I believe that this will work great!         

Progress on my goals March 25-31, 2012

	Target	Actually Done
Leadership Bible	Be on page 455 (5 pg a day)	On page 456
Faith in Action Bible	Be on page 546 (6 pg a day)	On page 546
Message Read Through	7 Days youversion program	On track
Running	15 miles a week	21
Running 2012 Overall	1212 miles by 12/12/12	198.5
Crunches	1000 a week	1000
Floss	7 times a week	7 Days
Face Cleaning/Lotions	7 times a week	7
I Like Book	7 times a week	7
Modules	2 a week	2
Social Events	3 a quarter	2
Guy Time	10 X a quarter	10
Self Exam	7 a week	3
Book Reading	1 Book a week	1
Evening Prayer Meeting	26 times a year	8
Paid Speaking	3 a quarter	2
Date with Cara	3 a quarter	3
Date with Rachel	1 a quarter	1

I close out the first quarter of the year.  Not too bad.  Though I did not accomplish all that I set out to do, I did accomplish alot.  Sometime this week I will be adjusting my quarterly goals on here to reflect some of the changes that I have decided will need to be made to keep me on track for the next quarter. 
The book this week was Mastering Your Way to the Top.  This was a very insightful book that was also fun to read.  I want to be a master communicator.  That part is wierd because I really like silence best.  However, I have been feeling God pushing me to develop more skills at communication on a one on one basis.  Also learning to ask for help and encouragement will be a new skill that I will need to develop.
I begin this quarter wondering what God has in store for me.  I hope that at the end of the next quarter I will have qualified to go to Orlando for the World Champion of Public Speaking.  I hope to have had some interesting conversations with politicians and others of influence.  I am hopeful to have a Heroquest website, twitter account and Facebook fan page up and running.  So much to do, so little time.

Hero Quest Chapter 1 Part 11

“Can they stay with you?”

“Don’t try to make me the villain here.  You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

“Well ok.  How quickly do you think you can have her out of here?”

“We’ll take as long as we want.”  With that the aunt barged her way out almost knocking down two or three other guests who had come into the office. 

“Hi, how can I help you?”  John tried to put a friendly smile on though it is certain that he was fairly rattled by what had just taken place.

“I’m looking for a place to stay.  Is there room?”

“Are you looking for a place with kids or without?”  Deep inside John was hoping without since those beds were already put together.  The only open mom room was now being vacated in room 3.

“I have four kids.”

“I do have room.  But it will take us just a bit to get it cleaned up.  Can you wait in the dining room for a bit while we get it ready for you?”

Tears began streaming down the woman’s face.  John handed her his hanky and she wiped the tears.  “Yes, we’ll wait.”  John showed the family to the dining room, gave them all some left over sack lunches and discovered that her name was Julie.  She was fairly certain that her abusive husband would be coming around and that was why she kept looking over her shoulder toward the gate.  “You’ll be safe here, Julie.  God protects the ladies here.”  As John made his way to get Becky whose social worker should be here by now he ran into two other ladies wanting a room.  One was a mom and the other a single.  If you can all wait here in the dining room I will figure out if we can help you. 

Becky’s social worker looked way out of her element at the Crisis Shelter.  It was pretty obvious that she had never so angry and also did not know why.  “Can you come down to my office?”

The two ladies nodded and followed John toward his office.

“Can you maybe, tell me what happened?”

“She called my man a punk. So I told her that I would be taking her down.”

“So you threatened her?”

“Yeah but it wasn’t here. So you can’t do anything about it, you punk.”

A flash of anger shot from Becky’s eyes and John sensed the tensions inside of him skyrocket.

The social worker suddenly became visibly nervous.

“If you were threatening her, and I would say that you’re threatening me right now.  You can’t stay here.”

The social worker tried to usher her from the room as her anger began to escalate.  Fortunately, the social worker got Becky out the door and was helping to get her packed up.  They were gone from the premises in less than ten minutes.

John took a deep breath.  At least the rest of check in seemed to be going ok.  Now he also knew that he could get that single in and went to make Becky’s bed.  That completed he was going to get the single to get her checked in; but noticed a lot of noise coming from around rooms two and three.  The aunt and Sarah were working up an audience and had developed a bit of a fan club with the mom in room two.  It was obvious that they were taking their sweet time.  John decided he needed to get them out of here before he left and now it was down to the last 30 minutes if he was going to get home in time to let Corinna get to the conference on time. 

Real Life at the Crisis Shelter March 19-25, 2012

Monday March 19:  A very heated discussion began in one of the singles room.  It progressed to the point where one of the guests threatened to kill one of the other guests.  The lady making the threat was asked to leave.  Later another guest had an argument with her brother at Oasis Park.  The fight culminated in the guest breaking a window at the shelter, punching her brother and going to jail.  Gate is now fixed!  Staff were able to meet with a mom who is struggling to parent in the midst of all of the stresses of being homeless, alone and afraid.    

Tuesday March 20:    Room 5 broke out in a fight amongst the singles.  There is some prejudice and other issues that is sparking the tension.  The guest who had broken the window came by to pick up her belongings.  She tried to spin the story that she was the victim.  This was hard to believe because of her 47 charges of violence and 2 murder convictions in the past.

Wednesday March 21  Room 5 was at peace today.  The discussion staff had with them seems to have soothed things over.  One of our guests lost her job this morning.  Her first reaction was to tell us that she needed to go use.  We talked with her and she has some other plans now.  Ultimately she moved across the state.    It came to light that someone had taken all of the lunch meat and we would not be able to provide sandwiches for the ladies in the morning.  However, a donor came by and donated enough lunch meat for everyone because it was buy one get one free and she could not use the second package.  Again God provides!   

Thursday March 22:    We had a same day accountability meeting for one of our singles who was very argumentative with staff.    She opted to not come to the accountability. 

Friday March 23:  One of our guests said that she went to the hospital last night but then had no paperwork.  When we were going to call the hospital to confirm that was where she was, she told us that she had used an alias at the hospital.  As the conversation went on and the story started changing rapidly it became apparent that she had not gone to the hospital and was asked to leave.  Another guest had a same day accountability meeting.  She showed up and staff was able to have a great conversation and the guest will be staying with us.        

Weekend:    One of our guests went to the hospital and had her baby!  One of our mom , one who is on her third stay, finds interesting excuses each evening for why she can not or did not do modules.   

General comments:   Same day accountability meetings is part of our latest experiment.  When a guest refuses to discuss some non safety issue and their part in it we have them pack their belongings and leave for a few hours.  Usually they are given some homework or told the accountability questions ahead of time.  If they come back at the assigned time and the meeting goes well they keep their bed.  If they don’t show up or are still unwilling to discuss their role in the drama they are checked out of the shelter.  So far mixed results but overall I am happy with the idea.        

    

Current Crisis Shelter Purpose Statement:

 The Crisis Shelter for Women and Children exists to increase the impact of our ministries of rescue, recovery and restoration by partnering with staff, volunteers and donors.  We will do this by meeting basic needs in a safe, clean, temporary shelter, with instruction and guidance for life transformation in a healing environment.

Progress on my goals March 18-24, 2012

	Target	Actually Done
Leadership Bible	Be on page 420 (5 pg a day)	On page 422
Faith in Action Bible	Be on page 504 (6 pg a day)	On page 507
Message Read Through	7 Days youversion program	On track
Running	15 miles a week	10
Crunches	1000 a week	1200
Floss	7 times a week	7 Days
Face Cleaning/Lotions	7 times a week	7
I Like Book	7 times a week	7
Modules	2 a week	3
Social Events	3 a quarter	2
Guy Time	10 X a quarter	9
Self Exam	7 a week	3
Book Reading	1 Book a week	1
Evening Prayer Meeting	26 times a year	7
Paid Speaking	3 a quarter	2
Date with Cara	3 a quarter	2
Date with Rachel	1 a quarter	0

This week was I was tired most of the week and not very motivated.  I'm not sure why.  I did manage to get in my goal number of crunches and read a book.  I finished reading a book about the Puritans.  While they have a repuatation for sternness and top down authority leadership, that may not be all that accurate.  The Puritan colonists instituted many democratic reforms that have become common place today.  While history shows very stern and seemingly brutal responses to sin.  They rarely went the distance to actually perform those capital offenses.  They also went out of their way to demonstrate Christ's love to the poor, which I can appreciate.  I wonder if I would have made it as a Puritan.  I become concerned that our world today is swinging too far to all roads lead to Heaven and everything goes.  Much as the book of Judges describes the children of Isreal, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  This is true everywhere even in the church.  I know I will come across as a legalist but we as Christians need to rise up.  We need to live different.  We need to not curse, not go to vulgar movies, not smoke and the like.  We also need to rise up to defend the helpless, the poor, the unborn and others that are living in pain of rejection.  We need to love the homosexual but let them know that they are living in sin and unable to get to Heaven.  Right now we simply say no you can't get married.  We must go to the soul and pray for them to be saved.
Overall I would consider this quarter a success even though I fell very short in some areas.  I am hopeful that I will be motivated this week to do and be more of what God has called me to be.  Oh that I could love as He loved.

Hero Quest Chapter 1 Part 10

“I have heard the way that you speak to your children.  I know that the staff has talked to you about your tantrums over this past week.  I want us to be able to help you but you can’t keep biting us.  We’re on your side.”

“That’s BS.  If you were on my side that chick would be gone already.”

“I’ll be meeting with her in a little bit.  But that really doesn’t pertain to you.  I’m talking with you now.  Sarah, you will need to move out.  I’ll give you about an hour, less if you keep up this fury.”

Sarah slammed the door and loudly proclaimed that she was being mistreated.

Maggie sat down in the office. “Well that went well.  What’s going on?”

“Funny thing is I still don’t really know. I’m still waiting on Becky’s social worker.  I’ll get this cleared up before I go home.  Go ahead and get ready for check in and I’ll lock the park.”

Maggie went to check out the check in office to make sure everything was ready to go as John went through the dining room and around the back of the shelter.  As he locked the park he noticed Becky’s man waiting around the back of the building. 

“Listen Pastor John.”

“Just John.”

“Oh sorry I thought that you were a pastor?”

“I used to be and some still call me that.  But the reality is that I’m better off without the title.”

“Whatever, listen don’t kick Becky out.”

“I really haven’t decided what I’m going to do with all of that just yet.”

“She gets mad but did you know Sarah’s man is in a gang.  She’s the one who’s dangerous.  Becky might be crazy but she’s harmless.”

John kept walking but nodded to let the man know that he was listening.  “Got it!  I’m sure that you will hear what ever I decide here fairly quickly.  I really can’t be talking to you much about what I decide about either of these ladies.”

Even though John had been gone for less than 5 minutes he could sense the tension in the parking lot.  Sarah’s aunt had arrived to set the shelter straight and she was looking for John.

    Sitting back in his chair with his hands laced thoughtfully behind his head; John listened intently to what this obviously angry woman was saying.  “You are throwing my niece out with her children?  You call yourself a Christian.  Pastor, yeah right.  Are you some kind of fruitcake?  What can’t handle men?” 

John attempted to get in some words but the longer the woman ranted the less that he could come up with in response.  “But she is threatening,” he tried to reply but was cut off.

“You don’t even know what happened and you’re throwing children, children I tell you, on the street.  You are a monster.”

Real Life at the Crisis Shelter March 12-18, 2012

Monday March 12:   We had a dramatic evening when a mom lost her temper and began threatening first staff and then said it would be staff’s fault when she beat her children later that night.  The conversation never really calmed down until the mom moved out.  Why it is likely that the tantrum had escalated to the point that we would have had her leave she left on her own so we did not need to ask her to leave.  Another single about the same time also threw a humdinger of a tantrum.  She was asked to leave.  Both ladies are now on our accountability list.  

Tuesday March 13:  One of our moms and her kids were all verified to have head lice.  Her room mate was moved to another room while the mom takes care of the cleaning up of the issue.  This mom does not have a good history of follow through so we will need to stay on her to make sure that she gets it cleaned up.

Wednesday March 14   One guest reported having her open bag of tobacco stolen.  There were two good suspects.  But neither one seems to have the tobacco.  Both suspects have men at the mission so it is possible that they simply passed it on to their men.     

Thursday March 15:    One of our guests was offering to sell some of her prescription medications to other guests.  She moved out when we addressed the issue with her.  She was in the process of denying that she did such a thing but then moved out instead.   

Friday March 16:  A donor stopped by and dropped off some little boys underwear and socks (new) and a coat (used) for a little boy.  Within 5 minutes of the donor leaving a guest stopped by to see if we could arrange for her little boy to get underwear, socks and a coat.  The sizes were exactly right for this little boy.  Amazing.      

Weekend:     Lots of drama around one of our guests who has been on an emotional rollercoaster during her entire stay here.  She was doing really well on Friday but over the weekend became erratic, got physically sick and then started an assortment of arguments with her room mates.  By Monday she was verbally threatening everyone in her room and was asked to leave.  

General comments:   We had two more ladies get full time jobs this week and several that have upcoming housing verified.  Staff are very excited.