Christmas Letter/Advent Reflections

My Christmas letter this year.

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Dear Friends and Family,                                                                                                    

Greetings from Gresham, Oregon! I hope that this letter finds you well and enjoying the holidays.

I find the writing of Christmas letters to be a beautiful tradition. Every year my mom writes a letter for our family to wish those near and far a merry Christmas and share what has gone on with our family in the past year. It honors the vast array of people who are important to our family, even if they may not be present with us in day-to-day life. 

I am sure my mom will be writing a letter again this year, but since this will be my first Christmas not at home, I thought I would begin my own letter-writing tradition. I want to send my love and Christmas greetings, and share a bit of what has happened with me leading up to this Advent.

In July I wrote to many of you just before embarking upon my year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps NW. At the time, I was feeling a deep desire to reconnect with many in my community and family. The shooting at SPU led me to a realization of how loved I am by so many people and how many people there are in my life whom I love dearly. Yet this realization was held in tension with the knowledge that I would soon be departing for a new place and many new relationships.

This season of my life had been one of much transition. Now close to halfway through my JV year, I have come to love the people I live and work with, but I still feel geographically, relationally and spiritually displaced. This is not comfortable, but I also think it may be an indicator that I am right where I am supposed to be. I think of all those God has called out of their place of security to a new land and know that I am in good company.  I am seeking to cultivate my capacity to be present with myself, others and God as I lean into the transition and tensions.  

In particular, this year has invited me to hold together grief and joy. There is loss in leaving SPU and the ensuing changes in many friendships. At the same time, I am thankful for the fun, excitement and care that has come in many new relationships. I have bore witness to great suffering this year. I have seen the harshness of daily life that people experiencing homelessness face and how this individual suffering if a violence of systematic oppression. At the same time, I have witnessed the inspiring resilience of people in some of the most difficult circumstances a human could face. I have seen people secure employment and move into housing. I have had the privilege to be in relationship with people on the margins and see that their humanity is so much larger than the poverty which is just a piece of their story.

I love the Advent season because it allows us to hold lament and hope together, and in fact, see that it is necessary to do so. Hope is not a blind optimism that minimizes, but an acknowledgment of the pain of the world with the expectation that wholeness and healing are coming toward us. If we were not hopeful, we would never lament because we would be in a cyncism that doesn’t expect anything different. In Advent, we sit in holy longing for something better. In expecting the light of the world to come, we must lament the current darkness.

I have never been more aware of the darkness in the world than in this advent season. On the fore of my mind are the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The longstanding reality of racial injustice in America is coming to the surface in a new way, and it is a reality that is difficult to face in its horror, and seeming endlessness. I long to live in a country where black lives matter and justice comes to fruition in our relationships, culture, and social structures. 

I also long for a world where no one need sleep outside. I think of the man who I came across a couple weeks ago when I was the first person to arrive at work. He was out of his wheelchair, asleep in our doorway. As I approached him, I could see that he was soaking wet and absolutely freezing. It had rained all night with temperatures in the mid 30s. Such a night is one of the worst nights to be homeless. When it is extremely cold, the city will call severe weather which triggers the opening of additional shelters and outreach to people outside. But on this night severe weather had not been called because it was not cold enough, even though people can still become hypothermic or even die in the cold rain.

The man on our doorstep had made his way to a shelter but was turned away because he did not have the $5 to pay their fee, he had a dog, and they cannot accodomate someone with his severe medical conditions. Rather than connect him to another service, they turned him away to the cold night. He then made his way to JOIN where a police officer spotted him. He told me that the police would check in on him every hour, but could not drive him to another shelter in their car due to policy. The police did not let any JOIN staff know he was there (who would have found some way to get him inside) so that I was the person to find him in the morning. He has metal plates in his body that cause neorological issues when they become cold making it hard for him to move. I helped him inside, and when one of my co-workers arrived, we helped him change into drive clothes so that he could warm up. JOIN then put him up in a motel for a week as an outreach worker found a longer-term solution.

We live in a world where one of the most vulnerable members of society can be left outside to literally freeze. It would be easier to not see this. It would be easier to ignore. It can be hard to have hope when I witness the struggle of so many and the oppression which divides our society.

But there is hope. The light comes in the darkness. God takes on flesh and enters our condition. The Christ child enters the world in humble conditions, in the midst of infanticide. We have so commercialized and tamed the Christmas story, that we forget how shocking it truly is. The God of the universe becomes a frail baby. The Healer and Liberator of all becomes one of us intimately knowing our vulnerability and suffering.

The work I am doing has been very difficult. It is hard to witness suffering. But I know Christ is there working in me and through me, and in and through the guests that come to JOIN. And I know that Kingdom of God is at hand. Though we live in a world that is sick and unjust, God is with us. The light comes in the darkness. I choose to live in hope and live out that hope.

I hope that in the season you encounter the Light. I hope that you experience healing and restoration in the those place of darkness in your own life and that you may pursue healing and restoration in the places of darkness around you. I hope that the deepest longings of your heart may be filled - that the deepest thirst of your soul may be quenced with the Water of Life. May you celebrate hope coming into the world.

Peace and joy to you this Christmas!

Love,

Scott

P.S I would love to hear from you! You can write to me at 451 NW 1^st St Gresham, OR 97030, and I promise I will write back! 

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The contents of this page, and all links appearing on this page, do not represent the positions, views, or intents of Jesuit Volunteers Corps Northwest.

Severe Weather

Last week our furnace broke, and my community spent two nights without heat right as severe weather hit the Portland area. The morning after the first night, Cecelia’s shampoo was frozen. None of us showered that morning. We all could see our breath. The second night, I slept in long underwear, a sweatshirt, with my beanie on, in my sleeping bag under another sleeping bag covered by two blankets. It was cold.

But I was inside. And it was only two nights.

That second night I spent without heat inside, outside it was 25 degrees with freezing rain and a steady 30 mph making it feel more like 15 degrees out. In the morning the ground and all east facing windows were covered in a solid sheet of ice.

People slept outside in this weather.

Starting with the evening of the 11^th, Portland experienced seven nights in a row that were officially designated as severe weather. When this designation is given, emergency efforts kick in to get as many people as possible who are outside into a warm space. Day shelter hours are extended, the Red Cross operates an emergency overnight shelter, churches open up, other overnight shelters add beds, and outreach workers and emergency personnel go out to connect with people.

Now I am going to return to the merits of this emergency coordination and response, but I must say it is outrageous that it is not seen as an emergency that every night, regardless of the weather, thousands of people are sleeping outside. On any given night in Multnomah County, nearly 2000 people are sleeping outside, in vehicles, in abandoned buildings or in other places not meant for human habitation. Including these unsheltered individuals, there are nearly 16,000 people in Multnomah County who fit the broadest definition of homelessness which includes those sleeping in emergency shelters, staying in transitional housing, couch surfing, or doubled up with family or friends¹. And this is just in one county, on one night. The number of people who experience homelessness throughout the length of the year is far higher. And these numbers don’t even begin to touch upon the number of people experiencing poverty who have to put a large share of their income toward housing thus becoming at greater risk of homelessness. How is it that homelessness has become normalized and accepted as a fact of life in American society? Why is it that we blame the most vulnerable and oppressed people of our society for their plight? Why do we not see the resilience, courage, and strength demonstrated by people who are facing some of the most difficult circumstances any human could face? Why is our compassion seasonal? How can we be apathetic when so many of our neighbors are out on the streets? When so many of our elders and veterans are without housing? When one in thirty American children are homeless?²  When economic injustice is so prevalent, warping the humanity of rich and poor alike?

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings” – Nelson Mandela³

Okay, stepping down off my soapbox. Despite the fact that I think much more should be done to end the injustice of homelessness in general, I was inspired by the response in Portland and at JOIN in particular during the severe weather.

It was all hands on deck at JOIN (where I serve) to do whatever it took to keep our friends warm and safe. Our day space is normally open 10am-3pm, but during the severe weather we began opening at 8:30am and closing at 4 or 5pm. This allowed people to transition between overnight shelters, meal providers and the day space without having to be outside for any extended period of time. Our outreach workers went out every night to find people and drive them to shelters or at least give them blankets, tarps, jackets, food and hand-warmers. The outreach workers were doing this on top of their day-to-day work connecting with people living on the streets and supporting their transition into permanent housing. The night I was sleeping in a cold house, my co-worker Diana was out in Gresham braving the cold and ice to reach as many people as she could.

As the severe weather continued, the outreach workers energies obviously were sapped, so other staff, volunteers and even board members stepped in to help with outreach. We also opened up as an overnight shelter last minute when one of the other emergency warming centers was unable to open Saturday night. I know that our executive director was working Saturday to get everything together to open overnight, helped out by going on outreach that night, and was back Sunday morning by 6am to help close the overnight shelter.

I am thankful for the opportunity to work alongside so many amazing people and at such a great organization. Compassion is not just 9-5 at JOIN. While it is imperative to practice self-care and build healthy boundaries to sustain the work we are doing, it is refreshing and moving to work among people who build authentic relationships with people, and who are willing to go give all they can give in support of our friends on the streets.

The last month has been mentally and emotionally exhausting for me (thus the absence of blog posts), but right now I am feeling re-inspired to keep serving and learning with my whole heart this year. I have been witness to much suffering and trauma in the lives of the friends I have made at JOIN recently. It is hard. But I am trying to intentionally practice self-care and self-compassion as I am privileged to be in the lives of people on the margins. And I believe that in going to these places of vulnerability and suffering, I am being made more human, I am being opened to the tender love of God that is present in all of life, in each life and especially present where life is most fragile.

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Here’s a news story which highlighted JOIN during the severe weather, and that includes interviews with my co-worker Quinn (who served in my position 7 years ago!) and my friend Pete.

JOIN also has been selected to be a part of Williamette Week’s Give! Guide. Please consider making a donation to JOIN under the community section to support our work connecting people on the streets to housing and providing critical basic services while people are in transition. https://giveguide.org/

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¹ “2013 Point-in-Time: Count of Homelessness in Portland/Multnomah County, Oregon” https://www.portlandoregon.gov/phb/article/451470

² “Study: 1 in 30 U.S. Kids Were Homeless During 2013”

http://time.com/3588844/child-homeless-study/

³ “Mandela’s Speech”

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/extras/mandela.shtml

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The contents of this page, and all links appearing on this page, do not represent the positions, views, or intents of Jesuit Volunteers Corps Northwest.