"Welcome to the Pharos, Sarah!"

My second night at the Pharos, at about 1am, the phone rang. I heard Kerri scramble out of bed to answer it. It was one of our "kids". After a brief conversation over the intercom, Kerri determined that he was ready for help to get off the street. She told him to wait downstairs a minute till we could let him in. When she hung up, I asked groggily if I was supposed to do anything. "No, you're not on call this week," then she kind-of laughed, "Welcome to the Pharos, Sarah!" It was an appropriate welcome. Probably the most valuable thing we do at the Pharos is to provide a place for the street kids we work with to come, anytime - day or night, when they need help. They know that we're here, they know what we do, and when they truly realize what they need, they know where to come.

Maybe a more fitting scenario to welcome me to the house came this week, when another kid spent the night before going to detox. On nights like that, we often choose to take shifts praying for them through the night. I got the 4:20 to 7am shift. It was much easier to stay awake than I expected, and the next morning when he shared over breakfast, the obviously significant dreams that he had during the night. I knew it was more than worth it! We dropped him off at the detox center as soon as there was an opening at around noon.

We always work at least 8-hour days, which 8 hours is rather hard to predict because we never know what will come up. We also do the shopping, both for our house, and the Tenderloin location. Shopping usually takes nearly all of the 8 hours of our Thursday workday. Any extra time we spend on Polk Street or doing logistical work for the house. Every Tuesday night we host a dinner and Bible Study, and nearly every weekday we do a Bible Study on Polk Street, which consists of sitting on the street with Bibles and reading a few chapters.

One day last week, after having our Bible Study on the street, we invited one of the guys over for lunch. We realized after he got there, that his B-Day had been a couple weeks ago, but we hadn't been able to find him, so we fixed him a brownie with a few candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He laughed with a bit of embarrassment and said, "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I blew out candles"; then he calculated, "I think I was 15. I'm 22 now." That same guy, at another time, said to me, "Do you know what I do?! I hustle. I sell myself to get drugs. That's sick! I hate what I do!” I think that sums up what most of the guys on Polk Street feel about their lives. The shame that they get from what they do causes them to be shocked when we are willing to let them come into our home and eat with us. By far the best part of our job though, we were able to do last Friday. Here's how it happened:

One of our kids, Jonathan, ran into us as we were coming home for the night after the Hot Chocolate night we lead for local fellowships. He was holding a tan macramé belt, which he was coming to give to us. He said that he had found it that morning and had been wandering around most of the day trying to decide what to do with it. He intended to sell it, but then he remembered how we had invited him over for warm cookies and ice cream last week and thought, “I have to give it to those girls for being so nice to me!” We accepted it graciously, then asked how he was doing. He said he was doing much better and had decided to get into a program and get off of drugs. We asked how soon he would be ready to do that. He said "Well, right now!". So, we asked if he wanted to come with us and talk about some different places. He was a little shocked at the offer, but was excited to accept it. We visited with him about the different places that we refer people, and eventually decided on "The Land", which is a discipleship program a few hours north of the city ran by Prodigal Project. We made some phone calls, and one of the Prodigal Project workers said he could come over right away and visit with him, then take him to the Land on Sunday (that is very unusual, so we were blessed and knew that God was up to something!).

While we were waiting, we asked Jonathan if he had ever committed his life to God. He said that he didn't really think so, so we explained what that meant. When we asked him if that was something he wanted to do, he quickly said yes. So, Ronda and I each prayed for him, then he prayed. I think listening to him talk to God with such deep sincerity was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. This is something that I've heard several times before, but never like that. When he was done, Ronda told him that God had been waiting since the moment he was created to hear those words and that there was a party going on in heaven because he was just adopted by God. We all were a bit teary-eyed. The Prodigal Project people (there were several actually) arrived a short time later and hung out for awhile. They eventually left, taking Jonathan with them.

On Sunday, I saw the Prodigal Project guy and asked how things were going. I found out that Jonathon had left the night before and not come back. My heart sank. "No!" Apparently his sister had come to visit him and they went out for coffee and never came back. They were all surprised. I was told that they were leaving for the Land at 8pm, and were still glad to take him if he showed up. I prayed that wherever he was that God would protect him, that the enemy wouldn't be able to destroy him with guilt, and that he would come back before they left. My prayers were answered a few hours later when Ronda ran into him. She told him that he could still go if he went to their house by 8. He said, "But aren't they mad at me. I got high". She said, “no, they aren’t mad. Just worried about you. They still want you to go." We got a call from Prodigal Project later that night saying that he had returned, and that they had decided to leave on Wednesday instead. He made it there fine and is doing well as far as we know.

Some rather interesting work happened a couple Sundays ago. About 30 minutes after I woke up Kerri and I heard the rumble of motorcycles passing by outside. After it continued several minutes, we realized that something was going on. Around 700 bikers were gathering, less than a block away, at one of the stops on their Poker Run (they draw cards at 5 locations, the best Poker hand wins), put on by the Hell's Angels. We were able to watch as they all pulled away in front of our building. We discovered a few bikers, one apparently broken down, directly outside our back door. We were able to bless them with some coffee, and I got to talk with them about CMA, which my parents are a part of.

My first month at the Pharos has been amazing and I think I'm still trying to get over the fact that I'm really here.