I had a frantic call from my daughter. She was freaked out
because her water pipes had frozen. I reassured her that it might be totally
ok. I told her to go outside and see whether or not any of the pipes had
actually broken. The good news was that none of her pipes had broken and as we
were talking her water was starting to come back on! I gave her some fatherly
advice about covering up her pipes and if it is below freezing again to leave
her water on just a little.
The last four nights Phoenix has broken a 20 year record
with having below freezing temps. I know that a few years ago this type of
freeze had killed one of my big trees at my Chandler house. I was actually
rather upset because it was a large Fichus tree that Moon Valley had given the
impression that it was too big, like 25 feet tall, to be effected by the
weather. The reality was that it was in the 20’s and my tree literally turned
brown in 2 days and then all of the leaves fell off in a week. The tree got
trimmed but didn’t ever recover and eventually was chopped down.
I confess that I go to the same Starbucks everyday and know
all of the Baristas and the manager real well. A few days ago I had gotten a
text from one of the lead supervisors who asked for some help with a homeless
teen that was hanging out at their store. I came in and talked with the barista
and gave her one of my cards and said please have him give me a call. It took a
few days but I did get a call. I said I would meet with him after a lunch
appointment. I showed up and saw him talking
with someone that seemed to be his girlfriend. I tried to get his attention but
end up instead talking with the manager, Joseph, who is a great friend.
I end up texting the teen and that gets his attention and he
realizes that I had been standing next to his table with his girlfriend. We
talk a little and I explain who I am and what we are about. I invite him to
join me as I pick up teens for our leadership meeting at my house. We spend the
next 2-3 hours with our teens talking about life issues, fixing dinner and then
ultimately asking him to spend the night at the house. We have another teen
staying with us that is helping out our new friend.
As I talked to the lead barista I realized that this young
man had been sleeping outside either in a friend’s car or literally on the
street. As we talked I sensed that he did experience the deep freeze the night
before. I had my Anne talk with him for a couple of hours to better understand
his circumstances and understand what we can do to help. Our goal is to get him
hooked back up with his family and get his step-dad to help him. They presently
are at war with each other.
I can’t fathom what it would be like to have nowhere to go
at night, have no money and be a diabetic who has to take insulin everyday. He
participated in our leadership group where we talked about the New Year and
what it would look like to follow wisdom’s path instead of being a fool that
ends up in the ditch. We all have tough choices to make in the coming year that
will show the fruit of our decisions.
All of a sudden I have a few homeless teen guys who don’t
have any real support from their family. You wouldn’t know that they are
homeless because they dress nicely and for the most part are clean and polite.
Please pray with me for wisdom as I am approaching some friends to help birth
some job possibilities for these guys and also the obvious need for
transitional housing as they figure out life and get on God’s path. I know that
most of my friends truly don’t believe that there are many or any teens that
actually end up sleeping on the streets.
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