My days at the rescue mission are a blur of activity.
When I pull in the parking lot they guys meet me at my car ready with a run-down of all that is going on. "She's here!" I hear from across the room before I get inside to my office door [I often wonder why they don't sense danger and just give me a minute to get inside my office. All I need is 2 minutes.].
The line begins with the "I need ..." and the "Can you's ..." and the feeding of the multitudes begins with generous donations, volunteers and workers.
Sometimes I am absolutely amazed at what we pull off every day. It is truly like running a restaurant, except we are based off of donations and 90% of volunteers and workers have zero experience. Thus the need for my mighty team, my assistant Ulonda and my kitchen manager, James.
It has felt like a full moon for the last month. Tempers flaring, attitudes piquing, several arrests made. They know my zero tolerance stance and I have put a couple safety measures in place:
1st: A police officer comes in every evening for added presence.
2nd: James, my kitchen manager, comes in several nights a week to be an added set of eyes and presence when I am outside handling issues, he has the inside [I am the only staff present when feeding up to 240 in an evening.].
The officer who comes in is a very large man with quite the presence. He said the behaviors we are experiencing at the rescue mission is the same all over our city right now.
He said he is much more hard-core at the public bus station because he has hundreds at one time there.
He shared as a police officer, they are familiar with local area businesses, but he is shocked at all we have going on at our rescue mission. He cannot believe that I do not have a police officer present all the time with the confrontations he has had with dinner guests since he has been with us for the last week and what I handle every day [Thank you for noticing, it feels overwhelming at times].
I laughingly explained that I can handle a lot, but there has been so many issues happening that I cannot handle multiple issues an evening and keep control inside the dining hall.
In the midst of bad attitudes really good things happen ...
My shelter guys are ready to take out one of my 30-something year old dinner guests, Andrew, for talking during devotions. The guys take everything personally when it comes to me. I motioned to Andrew last night across the dining hall with the mom finger that I needed to speak to him. Not understanding what he did now, he walked over looking like a 5 year old boy in trouble. My hands on his shoulders, "Andrew, I need for you to be respectful when I am doing devotions. You do not have to listen but I need to you to be respectful and quiet it is only a few minutes." I explained many are getting aggravated with him.
He apologized and agreed. Later, I was able to smile and give him a thumbs-up, thatta boy, thank you for sitting quietly and respectfully. He smiled.
I have a good relationship with him, but my gosh is he a handful. He responds very well when I am in mom-mode.
Many of my younger kids, 20's and 30's hang out in groups. Street kids, lots of drama, but good kids for me. They are a loving bunch for traveling in packs.
One of the boys just got out of the hospital from being jumped and stabbed multiple times. Pulling up his shirt to show me his battle wounds, they all laugh and know I don't look at wounds, but I will hug them and tell them how happy I am that they are here.
The girls see the hugs and ask for hugs, too. It is very much mom-mode that they love to stand in my arms like my own daughters and be hugged. I wonder if they have relationships with their own moms. They stand there in my arms, let me hug them and they each tell me how pretty I smell.
For the record, I colored my hair yesterday morning so I am certain I smelled like rotten-egg hair color and I worked in the mission for 9 hours and always end up smelling like whatever food is being made.
They said, "No, you smell like shampoo."
I love these kids and I care about them. For as ornery and rough as they can be at times, they all turn into 5-year old's wanting hugs and sharing their stories of their lives.
They respond well to me and I was especially pleased when the officer stands amazed at the population I serve and what I handle.
They are quiet a group.
I absolutely pray for safety and protection over our mission as well as know when it's time to call in for reinforcements.
