Miracle Music

Sometimes you just need to settle back, turn up the volume, and listen to your favorite tunes for awhile.  The right music can clear your head, soothe your heart, and help you cope with the day. At least that’s what it can do for Jason. (Me too, for that matter.)

When Jason first came in to the Resource Advocate Program at Springs Rescue Mission, he was angry and bitter. Kathy, his advocate, assisted him in applying for food stamps. But during that interview Jason learned that there would be a delay in his receiving the assistance. That set Jason off. He immediately wanted to give up. He didn’t care anymore, he told Kathy. He wasn’t about to make the phone call to get his final check from a recent employer.

Then Jason launched into a litany of hate. He hated the government. He hated the homeless community. He hated Colorado Springs. He hated the shelter where he was staying. He hated God. He even hated his mother (who doesn’t do meth on Sundays because she’s “religious”) for putting him in foster care at age 10.  Kathy knew she needed to redirect the conversation, and gently asked Jason what it would take to help him feel better. 

Jason softened a bit. He was quick to reply that listening to music was one of a very few things that could help him calm down and relax. The problem was that there was no real way for him to listen to music when he really needed to. So while Kathy was encouraging Jason to hang in there, she was also praying God would provide something to show his love for Jason. 

Later that day, someone like you dropped off an iPod at the Mission in hope that it would get to someone who really needed it. Kathy was able to give that iPod to Jason as a new-to-him way to access music. And since that event, Kathy has noticed the difference in Jason. He’s more open to conversation, and so more open to receive the help he needs to stabilize and move forward.

Miracle music has a beauty all its own.

The Key for Mike

Note: Mike has been featured in a couple of Light on Las Vegas Street blogs since January. I thought you might appreciate this update on Mike from my colleague Sarah Stacy, 

the Director of Spring Rescue Mission's 

Resource Advocate Program.

Early last fall, the Resource Advocate team at Springs Rescue Mission met Michael. Camper, drug addict, felon, and very quiet man.  What was notable about Mike at that time was that nothing about him was particularly remarkable.  He was never loud, attention-drawing or even looking for help.  He camped with a rowdy crowd and it’s possible that their general boisterousness accentuated his quietness.

             Mike's life changed in early January when he woke up in his tent with a foot so swollen he couldn’t put on shoes. Somehow he made the four-mile-plus trek to the homeless health clinic to learn that toes on both feet were frostbitten. He spent a little time in the hospital to make sure there was no infection and right away made his way to RAP to figure things out with his advocate.  As if this wasn’t trial enough, less than two weeks later his daughter was killed in an auto accident that left his youngest granddaughter on life support.

            “Until Miss Susie, no one ever cared about me." Mike’s advocate did work hard to make sure he had clean dry socks every day, a special pan to soak his feet, and some privacy in an unused office for that laborious task. How do you sit and soak in warm water when you live in a tent in the dead of winter?  Susie was with Mike when he got the news that his daughter had been killed, and she was there to listen to his pain through the process of hitchhiking to Denver on weekends to visit his precious granddaughter, Angel.  But there was another team of angels who came to Mike.  

             Lisa and Tim are faithful volunteers in Supportive Family Services who offered him prayer on February 23rd, and he accepted their offer and came to understand and accept the offer of his Heavenly Father for redemption and a new life. “I never knew it was that simple and that I didn’t have to earn it” Mike says frequently. Life certainly hasn’t become perfect for Mike since receiving Jesus, but he has been clean and sober, even through making the decision recommended by medical staff that he withdraw life support from his granddaughter who gently passed the next day. Still he has persevered. He has turned to God’s Word on an MP3 player for growth and encouragement. He has led one campmate to receive the Lord.

 And yesterday, he walked into my office, put the key to the first housing he's had in years on my desk, and simply said "Thanks." 

The key – maybe it really came long before the physical key to an apartment was in his hand.