Los Angeles: The City of Angels and the City of the Forgotten

It's April 1st, and here I am just now telling you about our time in Los Angeles that happened over six weeks ago.  Seems that when we have time to write, we don't have Internet access, and when we have Internet access, we have too much going on in the streets to write!

I want to tell you about our time in Los Angeles, but I am really unsure where to begin.  Having been on the road for 3 months now, and having served the homeless for many years, I really thought I understood about homelessness in the United States, that is until I went to Skid Row.

Over 10K homeless, poor and marginally employed residents live in this area.  This area has been dubiously nominated “the homeless capital of the nation.”  It is also the most policed area in the nation.  I can say, first hand, that is so true.  If you have not seen Skid Row, you have not seen what the true homeless population really is.  I’ve got to say my life has now been changed forever.  It is like looking at a picture on TV of Africa with rows and rows of hungry men, women and children.  Coming from Houston, I thought that I understood a bad homeless situation, but take all the homeless in the state of Texas and that’s what’s on just a few streets of LA’s Skid Row.

So you can imagine how difficult it is to tell you the stories there, and why we are so late in getting those stories to you.

As always, I want to begin by telling you about our hosts, Gary and Stella Heimbinger.  They were friends of a friend of a friend from The Woodlands, TX.  Gary and Stella are each in their late 70’s with the hearts and spirits of a 21 year old. They have been married for over 50 years, have four sons, several grandchildren and even a few great-grandchildren.  Oddly enough, their eldest son is a minister in Burleson, TX.  What a small world!  We stayed with them for 4 days, and then we went to stay at the Dream Center located in LA close to Skid Row.  

Our time on Skid Row is filled with so many stories, brilliant moving stories.  I wish I could tell them all to you, but you will just have to wait for the book to come out at the end of this journey!

The first guy we met on the streets was Bobby Buck.  We were parked on the street to take a picture of a beautiful painted mural right in the heart of Skid Row.  It was around 10 p.m. and all of a sudden this guy walks over (keeping a distance good between us, being polite and not wanting to scare us). 

I said “Hey, what’s up?”  He said “I saw the window on the back of your car that said 5252 Ministries, and I wanted to see what that was all about. “  He told us later he’d already written our phone number down and planned to call us but decided to approach us since we had stopped!

Bobby was from Malvern, AR, but came to California about 5 years ago.  After a 19 year habit of drugs and alcohol, Bobby found sobriety on the streets of Los Angeles and has been sober for the past 5 years.  Sober, and homeless.

Here's the cool thing about Bobby though.  He has started  a homeless campaign called ACTION,  “A positive movement," he says.   "I tell people that in order to promote your community, you need to look good, be good and do good.”  Bobby believes everyone has talents and gifts of some kind and they can learn to use those gifts and be entrepreneurs.  “Use them in your community and it will come back to you.  People need to dig down deep and find out what their hobby, trade, skills, talents and gifts are.”  He’s trying to help them do just that.  He says everybody can create a service and get paid, “create your own business plan and make money at what you like to do.” So he's created a business online!  Bobby has made enough money now to afford an apartment.  He was a great guy to meet, and was very gracious to show us around Skid Row and all the ministries available to homeless people there.

As you can imagine, with a homeless population of 10,000, we met and talked to many people.  There was Saul, homeless and on the street.  He said he was on the streets because he lost his job and had no money.  So we prayed for a job because he wants to help himself. 

And there was Try (pronounced "Trey"), homeless and on the streets.  He said he was a Christian, and has been living on the street for 5 years.  Born in Memphis and got a divorce and moved here.  He has a job loading trucks and does box collecting on the streets.  It’s all part time and not enough to get his own place.  He has a girlfriend that is pregnant.  He’s praying for a job making more money so he can take care of her and himself.  His prayer request was for his girlfriend to have good health while she is pregnant.  He was a nice looking young man with a beautiful smile and a beautiful spirit.  He was really not the typical homeless type.

Jesus, homeless and on the streets.  Jesus was a sweet older man with a broken face showing the wear and tear of the streets.  He was a little older and needed a blanket.  I was out giving snacks to everyone and he caught my eye.  He said he’d been here from Mexico for 2 years, but didn’t speak a lot of English.  He was an electrician needing work.  I could tell he was broken and it was sad.

I could go on and on, but time just really doesn't allow me to continue.  I did want to share one more story though.  On one particular night I was able to share my testimony at one of the local missions.  As I always do, I asked the crowd if anyone wanted to pray to receive Christ.  To my surprise over 42 hands went up (there were many more than 42, I just couldn't count them all, and the number doesn't matter anyway because the Lord wrote all of their names down in His book!)  People lined up forever in very long lines to be prayed over.  It was very moving and an experience I won't forget.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to do your work.

-Sammie