The Gossip of Grace

Happy New Year! 

And I mean it. This trip around the sun has begun with, probably, more uncertainty than many of us in this part of the world have experienced in quite a while. More of us are more anxious, more angry, more frustrated, more disillusioned. We're all going to need to be taking deep breaths over the next while.

Depending on how the political situation plays out, for many of us this will be our first ever 'first-person' experience of the kind of thing other humans have dealt with in times past, or in other parts of the world. So keep being kind. Keep doing your best. Keep Calm and Canada On.

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Because while all that is happening, all the other stuff that's been happening will keep happening.

Since the Encampment closed itself down and its residents scattered, the... (what's the collective noun for volunteers?) ...of community volunteers has carried on. 

Some of our friends are now housed in motels around town, some are couch surfing with family or in trap houses. Others are still tenting and using the warming hub of our local Shelter, and some are in actual rooms on the second and third floors of that building. 

A few vignettes for consideration:

First: One of our friends, in a motel, is fighting a fentanyl addiction. One of the tools that comes into play on that journey is methadone, taken in a daily dose as a fruit flavoured drink that can only be accessed by prescription, and is usually consumed (every day) onsite at the providing pharmacy. 

Our friend is, at the same time, recovering from several reconstructive surgeries made necessary by injuries sustained during a severe beating at the hands of someone who is now in the hands of The Law. My friend is not (and won't be for some time) able to walk more than a few steps without support. 

So... the volunteers have assembled a team who take turns (most of us about once a week) day by day meeting this friend at the motel, helping them into the vehicle, driving to the pharmacy, out of the car, into the pharmacy, waiting for them to drink their medicine, then back out of the pharmacy, into the car, back to the motel, out of the car, up the steps into the motel. Lots of fun on icy sidewalks :-P

This rota is organized by someone with a job and a family and a life, through a social media account.

Second: On occasion (a little too regularly for my understanding) folks are suspended from using the Shelter's warming hub for 7 days at a time. 7 days minimum. Which is way too long in a Canadian January. 

But anyway... When they are put out, it's usually on short notice and they find themselves without their survival gear and with nowhere to go. 

So... one of the community volunteers has organized a network of people in town who carry with them survival packs: thermal blanket, high energy food, hand warmers, gloves, hat, etc. Just a few supplies to get through until the sun comes up, and other County resources become accessible. If someone is kicked out, they can contact one of the group by text, and a pack will be brought to them as quickly as possible. 

One of these packs is hidden away in a secret spot which is checked daily by another volunteer who passes on word if it needs to be replaced.

Third: One of the people who got kicked out of the hub on a Friday night was evicted because they responded badly to taunting by another client about being LGBTQ. The person, out on the street, was picked up by a local constable who transported them to a motel and paid for the first night out of their own pocket. 

So... the motel manager, who has a few local Pastors on speed dial, called me to ask if I could cover the cost of the second night. I had enough in my cash box to cover it, so I sent an etransfer. The manager followed up with other folks who might be able to help with the third night and beyond until the County's supports could catch up. 

Which they have.

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The activities of this network of volunteers is a type of sub-economy that I wonder whether anyone has ever studied. What is the Gross Domestic Product of spontaneous grassroots volunteerism? How much money do we save the taxpayer?

I don't believe for a moment that we're the only municipality where a micro-community like this exists, functioning beyond and parallel to the auspices of any organization. Running on just phone numbers and WhatsApp and Messenger and an idea of who's out there.

We wave at each other, driving in and out of driveways. We pause to chat and vent when we meet in the parking lots of the places where our friends congregate. 

I keep a pile of supplies in the corner of my office and when someone in the WhatsApp group posts, "Does anybody have a sleeping bag?" I can say, "I do. Come get it."

So-and-so needs a ride to the food bank. Can somebody pick up so-and-so downtown and drive them to Emerg? I've been given some sandwiches, who needs them? When does such-and-such open? When does it close? Is the foodbank open on the Monday of the long weekend? Someone needs pressure socks. Size 10 boots. A visit in hospital. Has anybody seen so-and-so? Are they ok? If you see them, tell them that so-and-so is looking for them. 

This is the constant gossip of grace. The infield chatter of compassion. It's the consultation of one heart to another about someone they love. 

When my kids were in elementary school, there was a rumour that our bus route was going to be eliminated. That meant we'd have to drive them to the town next door each weekday. We wanted to connect with other parents on the route to arrange car pools, but the school wouldn't give us names or numbers. "That information is confidential." Which made it completely impossible (aside from maybe following the schoolbus around its route one day and handing out business cards, or alternatively getting arrested for general creepiness) for the parents to work together.

Official-type organizations have similar rules. They're not going to violate their "confidentiality" standards (because they legally can't) even in times of need. 

We have an advantage: just being neighbours. People who happen to know each other. Friends. A community. There's no policy book we have to abide by. Just common sense, vetting of new members, and street smarts.

Of course we respect the privacy of our friends, and we don't give out their information without their permission, but if I can say, "Alice gave me your number" and they know Alice is a safe person, then I'm ok, too. If Alice says, look for Pastor Ruth, she wears a purple hat, then I'm vouched for. We can stay connected to people who are particularly vulnerable, or who--while unsheltered themselves--are helpers and advocates for others in the same boat. 

We can support people who won't, for various valid reasons, turn for help to official channels. We bridge some of the cracks (like needing a daily ride to the pharmacy), or look for anyone who has fallen in. We travel light, and can respond quickly. 

We all come to this arena with different stories and strengths. Some are retired, others working part- or full time. Some have school-age kids. But we all, I think I can say, have responded to a calling to be here.

This is something that our town has done well. This funny little underground network of people who give a crap, and who have found a way to meet a need. People who I would never have met if they hadn't included me in their circle and looped me in on this gossip of grace.

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I can't help but parallel this conversation with the idea of prayer. 

The first part of praying for someone is getting to know who they are. Then, necessarily, talking about them behind their back to a mutual Friend. 

The rest of praying for people is being willing to be the answer to someone else's prayer. The power of prayer isn't simply filing a request and waiting for God to do something. It's opening yourself up to the possibility that maybe God will. And maybe God won't. Or maybe God will, but by telling you to do it. 

Regardless, I trust God; I know "...God is love," and it's my job to pay that forward. To be loving, and trustworthy.

Prayer is also opening yourself up to a connection with all of the other people who are praying the same things to the same Being who leans close to hear us all. Who sometimes answers in mind-bending ways, and sometimes answers through another ordinary human being who 'just happens' to be in the right place at the right time. With the right idea. With enough love. With a car and half an hour to spare on Wednesday mornings.

I talk to God about my unsheltered friends the same way I talk to God about my friend in the hospital, about my church, about my family.

I talk to God about my unsheltered friends the same way I talk to the WhatsApp group about them. Speaking truth about the situation, asking for wisdom, listening for guidance, doing what's down to me to do.

I'd like to think that there are people out there talking about me in the same way, both to each other and to God. I've had experiences that lead me to believe that's true.

May you know what it is to be a topic of the gossip of grace.