In the Dark and Bleeding Places

Today was Ben and I's first official day working in the actual city of Denver. And it was a long day. But even though it was a long day, it was still a great day.

We started by meeting together at Lakewood Church of Christ (the church that supports Dry Bones and allows them to use the building). After we met, we were told that we would be going on an 'Urban Plunge.' Basically what that means is that we will be experiencing a few hours of the day with the resources that a street kid or homeless youth would have. In other words, we had nothing but the clothes on our backs and a few bucks.

We took the bus to get downtown and then spent two hours asking for directions from complete strangers or street kids as we tried to find our way to certain locations. Trust me, finding your way around a new city with no previous knowledge of streets or buildings is not easy.

We found that it wasn't all that easy to spend the morning on the streets with nothing. The streets are packed with busy people who are going to and from places, and help is not easy to find.

In the afternoon, we went on a 'Turf Tour' through a park in downtown Denver. This wasn't my first time to go on one, but it was still definitely just as enlightening. We saw some of the dark and bleeding places in Denver and had our eyes opened by the things we saw (including a near encounter with two men involved in sexual activities).

One thing that definitely showed the contrast of the living conditions here was that the park was situated near some new and developing areas where some fairly nice apartments had been built. Matt Wallace and Reb Duke (two of the staff of Dry Bones) told us that the chances that the people living in these apartments knowing about the squats that were basically right below their buildings was extremely small. The people living there don't even know about the life happening right below them! Makes me wonder about what life I have missed all around me.

As we continued on our tour, we heard stories about street kids living and sleeping in different places and saw drug paraphernalia and other basic living commodities. One story we heard was that of Trent. Trent was a heroine addict who lived on the streets for many years trying to feed his addiction by any means possible. For a few years, Trent lived in a stairwell looking across into the afore mentioned apartments. He could see some of the things that went on inside and realized that while he wasn't happy living on the streets and being addicted to drugs, the people living in much better conditions just across the way weren't all that happy either. Trent realized that while there are things in this world that can certainly make life easier on a person, these things do not make life worth living.

After our tour ended for the day, we went to a bowling alley and met up with 25 or so street kids. We bowled for two hours and I met some pretty awesome people like Steve, Hoss, Undertaker, Karen, Cassi, Leprechaun, and Don. We bowled and just had fun with some new friends. After bowling, we had dinner with these new friends and continued to get to know them.

So all in all, today was very eventful. The stories of some of the youth were really quite difficult to digest. But what was truly great about today was not only meeting some of the people the world has deemed unlovable, but also getting to see them through God's eyes: human beings who have a hard time being able to do almost anything because of the way the world has been set up, people who struggle with very real drug addictions, and yet, people who are very real and have very real hearts and emotions.

Also, in case you were wondering about how Trent is now, he has been in prison for the past three years (serving time for all the tickets and warrants that he had failed to pay and take care of). He is currently clean and sober and very joyful in his situation. And best of all, he is seeking God with all his heart, trying to remain clean and sober through his release from jail in November and beyond in order to be an example of the change that God has helped him to find in his own life.