Holy Week on the Streets

During Holy Week which is the week leading up to Easter Sunday, I spent 24-hours living on the streets of Nashville as a homeless person.  I did this by choice unlike the thousands of homeless people surviving in middle Tennessee every day.  I went with the clothes on my back, a backpack with a water bottle, bible, notebook and pen, a pull-over fleece, hat, and a blanket.  No money, no phone, none of the things we take for granted on a daily basis.  It started and ended at McKendree Methodist Church on Church Street. 

I one thing I did as a safety measure, I went in a group.  I was out with 10 other people participating in an experience called “Holy Week on the Streets” through the Amos House.  It’s a chance to see what it’s really like to be homeless.

We were actually fortunate that it was Holy Week and Thursday because we were able to get supper at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church followed by the traditional Maundy Thursday service which included foot washing.  Participating in the foot washing took on a new and deeper meaning for me as a lot of homeless have feet problems from lack of care, lack of hygiene, and proper shoes.

Later that evening we visited a homeless camp known as the TA camp.  It’s an exclusive homeless camp as they are selective about who they let in because they don’t want any trouble.  No drugs, no violence, no problems.  They take care of each other, have cleaned up and cleared out the area they camp at and have created a community.  In further discussions with them, we’ve decided they aren’t homeless, they are without a house.  They were very welcoming and really good people.  After a tour of camp which has impressive landscaping, we sat around the camp fire and talked.  It was peaceful, it was enlightening, it was the beginning of new friendships.

We finally bedded down for the night on the steps of McKendree Methodist as it is a relatively safe place and one of the few places in downtown you won’t get arrested.  It’s the only church in downtown that does not have a trespass warrant.  Every other church has one which means anyone found sleeping on the church property will be arrested on the spot.  While McKendree may have been safe, it was a long night though we were only there a few hours.  Concrete is cold and unforgiving.  You stay in one spot until you can’t stand it and then rollover repeating the process over and over.  Downtown has its own set of sounds, people, alarms, cars, deliver trucks, sirens, and the unknown.  Most of us got very little sleep but survived.

Then came my only real dilemma, at 4:30 in the morning where does one that has no home go to the restroom.  As I danced around trying to figure this out and started wondering around the streets of Nashville getting desperate – I got lucky.  I was dressed basically as someone out exercising, I wasn’t too dirty yet, and I didn’t have a pack on.  I was able to get into the lobby of the Rennassce Hotel and use the facilities there.  I know had I been dirty and carrying all of my possessions, a true homeless, I would have been denied.

After the sun came up, we made our way over to some public housing where we were able to spend time with a couple of different gentlemen that were previously homeless but fortunate to now be housing.  The first was so excited to know we were coming and share his space with us, he’d been up since 3am cleaning his very small studio apartment.  We crowded in, mostly sitting on the floor.  He had coffee brewed and our group of ten or at least the coffee drinkers amongst had the highlight of the morning sharing coffee using his 4 cups.

We spent the remainder of the morning down at “The Campus” which is Room at the Inn.  We were able to see some of the programs they offer and participate in their Good Friday service.  During which I must admit I was so tired I missed part of it because I feel asleep sitting up. 

We then headed to the parking lot of the Baptist Church next to the arena for lunch.  Mobile Loaves and Fishes feeds there at lunch on Friday.  We had a pretty good meal of tuna casserole, fruit salad, a granola bar, and a bottle of water.

The afternoon was a trek to Tent City.  I say trek because it was quite a walk but worth it.  It wasn’t nearly what I had always imagined it to be.  The residents were welcoming, some inviting us to tour their campsites.  We sat with others to visit. 

After our time there, we ventured back downtown to wrap up our time together and go our separate ways.  Back to the comforts of our lives and sort through all we had experienced.

Here’s what I can tell you about the homeless:

They are more welcoming than many people I interact with on a daily basis.

A great many of them told us how blessed they were that we had stopped to visit with them.

They are a gracious people.  They have very little but all offered us what they had asking us if we were hungry or thirsty.

While there is a section of them there by choice and there are some that have a drug and/or alcohol problem – that’s not everyone so please stop putting them all in that box.

When you see someone that doesn’t live at the same standards you do don’t look down.  Help if you can.  At least look them in the eye, smile, and acknowledge their existence.

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