The First Step

Andy and I

                                             

            Andy and I decided to make a documentary on the homelessness. Building friendships and attempting to live like them were precious experiences for us. However, as we experienced these “crazy” things we realized that helping the homeless was not a rocket science. Through this documentary, Andy and I want to grow awareness of homelessness among Messiah Students (our college friends), and accentuate the importance of small steps over their bubbles.

            It has been almost a month since last time we went out to the street. With all the supports from our dearest friends (and with the cameras from my friend, Lance Williams), Andy and I headed to Harrisburg. Kevin Manieri, a friend and a part of our ministry, took us to Harrisburg. We put our blankets in trash bags and piled them right next to the Presbyterian Church where we used to sleep with our homeless friends. There was another pile of blankets but icicles were forming around the blankets. I prayed that our bags will be fine. With a worried complexion, Kevin said “see you later then.” Unlike other days, Andy and I were planning to stay out in the street longer so that we can document more parts of the homeless life in Harrisburg. We said goodbye to Kevin and he went back to the campus.

            Andy and I started to walk around the city. We got a paper that has all the locations of organizations where we could get help from. Looking at the paper, Andy suggested me to go to Salvation Army. Salvation Army was about 30 minutes away from the place we were. The wind in the city was very strong and sharp. Even though I wore 4 layers of clothes and a thick jacket on top of it, the wind blew right through those clothes. Just like the saying “misfortunes never come singly,” it snowed the day before we came to the city. The 4 inches of snow on the ground made it tougher to walk around –  embarrassingly I became weary only after 30 minutes of walk.      

            Finally, we arrived at Salvation Army; however, the place was closed. Andy pulled out the information paper and looked through it. After he glanced over the paper, he pointed at Bethesda Mission. Bethesda Mission was about 20 minutes away from Salvation Army. It was not hard to find Bethesda Mission; the building was noticeably big and clean compare to other buildings in the surrounding area. Andy and I went inside the building. There were few homeless people walking around the lounge area. For few minutes, we wandered around aimlessly. One homeless guy noticed that we are new to the place and he came close to us and asked: “Looking for help?” I nodded as a positive answer to his question. He pointed at a skinny and tall white guy who was at the information desk. Andy and I awkwardly went to him. He peeked at us as we were walking toward him. I opened my mouth and asked “We are from Messiah College and we are trying to make a documentary on the homelessness. Could you have an interview with us?”

             The skinny and tall white guy led us to a glass walled room. He told us that his name is Jacob and he is a house supervisor. I held the video camera and taped our interview. Andy asked him the questions we prepared. Jacob talked about 40 minutes. Throughout the interview, he threw lots of statistical information at us as if he was trying to prove that he is a professional Christian social worker. After the interview, we thanked him for his help. Right before Jacob was about to open the door, I asked him if I could interview anyone who used to be a homeless but currently working at Bethesda. Jacob paused for few seconds and said “I will ask Tony.”

            Jacob put us in another room and few minutes later, a big black guy came in. Tony told us about his life stories. One thing I have noticed from him was that Tony was quite thankful to God for His mercy on him. He had a rough life in Philadelphia and he heard about mission organizations in Harrisburg thus he came here. Just like Tony, it seemed like there are many homeless people coming to Harrisburg simply because of the organizations in the city (because there are so many organizations, homeless people get 3 meals everyday) The interview was not too long. Andy and I came out of Bethesda and walked back to the Presbyterian Church. There was no conversation between us for a while. We were both tired. I just simply wanted to sit down and rest but there was no place for us to sit down. The silence did not last long; I told Andy that I would not mind just living in Bethesda. Really, Bethesda was a cozy place especially during the winter.

            By the time we got back to the Presbyterian Church, the sky was getting dark. We looked around the area trying to find the place to sleep over and decided to sleep at the parking lot of a Bank (the homeless people told us that we can sleep there). While I was moving my blankets to the place I decided to sleep, a guy came to me and asked if we had any food. We took him to a pizza restaurant nearby.

            The guy’s name was Mike. He was surprised when we told him that we are from Messiah College; he actually thought that we were homeless. We had a light conversation with him. Mike really appreciated us for buying him a piece of pizza. Like a person who starved, he finished the pizza in an instant. It only cost us 2 dollars to make one man be full and befriend with him. After Mike emptied his plate, we wrapped our conversation and stood up. Before Mike was about to take off, I asked him if he can help us by having an interview with us. Mike hesitated for a second but allowed us to interview him. The interview was quite straight forward. When we asked him how people can help  the homeless, interestingly, he said not having judgmental attitude and providing the need.

            Andy and I were back to the Presbyterian Church again (The Presbyterian Church has become our central location of activities in Harrisburg). When we got back, a familiar face was there – Stanley. Supposedly Stanley has lived the homeless life for a long time. He is very seclusive so that he does not enjoy talking to people. Every time either Andy or I try to talk to him, he would avert his eyes from us. Even among homeless people, he is a mysterious guy; no one really knows exactly how long he has been out on the street.  I greet to Stanley and he greeted back. He was carrying a trash bag stuffed with blankets in it. It was very familiar to me so I looked at it more carefully. It was our bag. Andy and I did not want to take it away from him; therefore, we did not say anything.

            Biggest mystery we had about Stanley was the reason he does not go to the shelters. Unlike other homeless friends, he does not like going to the shelters. Rather than going to the shelters, he would sleep on the street. Andy and I got some more blankets (we got donations from people) and gave them to Stanley. When we handed those blankets, he opened his mouth and said: “Since you guys are helping me, I will tell you something. I am going down to south because there will be a big flood and it will destroy everything. You know in 2012, this city will be gone.” Andy and I looked at each other dumbfounded and did not know what to say.  

Issac Won

                                                 Icicles forming

A pile of blankets

Going to the Pizza restaurants with Mike

  

Our bags of blankets