Last night was a really crazy one. One of the guys that was sleeping in the same room as I passed out in the bathroom. We don’t know what it was, but I had to jump in and use myself as a pillow of sorts to ease him down to the floor and keep his head up to open his breathing passages. I kept holding his hands with one of mine and trying to encourage him to breathe. I was asking him to stay with us and not to give up.
911 was called and we had police officers there in a couple of minutes and first responders only a minute or two after that. He was given two doses of NARCAN and was brought around and speaking with us before being taken to the hospital for further testing. He said he hadn’t taken any sort of narcotics that he knew of, but admitted to smoking some cannabis with friends and having a couple of beers earlier in the day after work before coming to the shelter.
I don’t know whether or not to believe him. This is the same person to whom I loaned my very expensive 45-watt USB-C wall charger and cable before and he returned it by placing it on my bedding rather than putting it in my hand. Also, when he got a new phone and charger for himself and it went missing, he subtly accused me of stealing it.
Shenanigans
While all this is going on, it seems someone went and did a factory reset on the church’s Wi-Fi router so that it defaulted back to the original password. We all could have had internet access last night, if only we had known this. Of course, being the only homeless person with an actual computer, the pastor’s wife and one of the other volunteers have already blamed me, AGAIN, after trying to warn them the first time that anyone who could press down a button for 15 seconds on the router that is sitting on a desk in the primary eating/congregating space could undo all their work ‘securing’ the network.
They can’t trust me enough to do a job that I’ve been doing since Wi-Fi began, but I’m supposed to trust them and their ministry with what is basically my LIFE?
That conversation was what I walked into when I came out of the bathroom after trying to save someone’s life. The pastor’s wife and her cohort giving me the side eye because the network was messed up and I know about networks -_-
So, as I passed them, I paused for a moment and smiled at them. When they asked what I was smiling about, I said the words that the Spirit told me to say, “I’m just glad to see two people who are so free of sin that they have the time to stand around and point out the sins of all the other people around them.”
“You don’t have any right to preach to me. You aren’t a preacher.” Was there response, and I told them “Yes, I’m not a preacher at all.” and walked into the room where we are supposed to sleep.
The Spirit had some other words that should be said as follow up, but the Spirit also cautioned me that I was in a church that I had not been given the right to preach in, so if I said more, I may face the same retribution that another did, when he went before the keepers of his place of worship and spoke what the Spirit said to him. He didn’t live more than a few years after that. I took that as wise counsel and went on to bed.
If you want to know what else the Spirit would have had me say to these women, consider being my patron through Patreon. Just $5 per month could get you some really interesting stories and perhaps a little wisdom and would also go to help me and other homeless people in my area out directly. When I have money, I buy clothes, shoes, medicine, help with bills…. whatever I can to help out. I try to see that the NEEDS of others are met to some extent before my WANTS come onto the table.
Have a blessed Sunday everyone, and as always, thanks for stopping by.
