Mentor/Pastor/Rev. John Vertigan suggested that if I could figure out why I'm surprised and why they keep coming that maybe it would enhance my current/future ministry.
I've figured it out:
1) Ignorance/Negligence
2) Fucked up Foster Care System
The majority of our clients have been kicked out of their house for one of the following reasons: they came out as being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer; they were abused by their parents/foster parents/guardians; they emancipated from the foster care system and had nowhere to go.
I don't know that I have a lot of power in the foster care system, but I have a lot of power when it comes to combating ignorance and negligence.
Bring out the compassion and the ears to hear, folks. I can't do this alone.
3 comments:
ok, so you figured out why homeless kids keep walking through the door ... ignorance, negligence, a broken system. however, grasshopper, you have not yet answered why that surprises you. Why are you surprised that there is ignorance and negligence? Why does it surprise you that the system isn't working? What about YOU makes those realities surprising? Those are the transformative questions for your life. once you answer them, you will be much better equipped for battling the ignorance the negligence, and the systems that are so in need of fixing.
good luck.
my first reaction is my (naive) sense of trust. i like to think that people aren't like that... that people don't beat up their kids... that people accept their own family members... that people are working to make systems work. But they aren't and they don't. Until this year I would have chalked it up to my lack of real life experience. But now that I know these things to be true, it gives me reason to work harder... not that being a follower of Christ wasn't enough...
i don't know John Vertigan. But I like him. A lot. And i like what he's probing with you, Em.
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