At Andre' House we see and experience a lot of brokenness. We see it daily in our guests as they come to take refuge at our building. We see the pain in their eyes and hear the hopelessness in their voices as they carry the burden of drugs, alcohol, violence, mental illness, underemployment, no employment, loneliness, rejection and much more. Today we celebrate Good Friday...the day Jesus died on the Cross. As I reflect on His Passion, I also reflect on the many Crosses our guests face each day. This year for Lent I didn't give anything up or add anything special to my Lenten journey. As Lent began, I began to truly see the brokenness of the world around me as well as my own brokenness. I have been serving at Andre' House for more than a year and a half and the struggles of our guests are nothing new to me. However, the last several weeks it has seemed more raw. Many of our current guests are new...coming in for help for the first time within the last couple of weeks. They bring in new struggles as they try to find where they fit in their new environment. Many of our regular guests try to either help them out or try to assert how the pecking order works. Its hard to live and serve sometimes in the midst of 'the zone'. As we see the brokenness, the hopelessness, and the pain that walk through our doors everyday, how do we not fall into darkness that seems to surround us. We keep going by the light of Christ. We celebrate the death of Christ so we may also celebrate in His Resurrection. For me, Lent this year has brought much sadness, but it has also brought much joy. One way I found hope at Andre' House during Lent happened on Holy Thursday. Every Holy Thursday our guests have the opportunity to have their feet washed by staff and volunteers as they come into the building for dinner. We wash their feet with warm water and body wash; they also have the option to get foot powder for their shoes and lotion put on their feet before we put a clean pair of socks on their clean feet. It is truly beautiful. I coordinate Thursday soup line so most of the time I was running around trying to make sure dinner is going well. At the end of soup line. I saw one of our regulars, Carlos, sitting in the main dinning room by himself. Carlos is from Mexico, speaks very little English, and is an amazing artist. He has drawn us several pictures while hanging out in the office with us, so we put them on a bulletin board in the family dining room. I walked over to him last night to tell him that we had hung up his pictures and he said something I couldn't understand, so I had him repeat it. He asked me if I knew what humility meant. I said yes and, realizing he had tears in his eyes, I sat down next to him. He said 'Tonight I washed someones feet and I have humility in my heart'. He took my hand and held it for a few minutes in silence while tears rolled down his face. I know he was saying a prayer. He had washed another staff member's feet before he came in to eat instead of having his own feet washed and was deeply moved. Afterwards, he patted my hand and said 'Thank you, Lauren.' I was moved by my encounter with Carlos. As we move towards Easter Sunday, my encounter with Carlos gives me a new way of reflecting on the Resurrection. Just like Jesus came to earth, not to be served, but to serve those around Him, we should do the same. And as Carlos found Christ's humility in his heart as he washed someone's feet, we should also find Christ's humility as we wash the feet of those we serve.
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