So are the Days of our Lives...

Can you hear the Macdonald Carey voice-over as you read that title?


Freshman year, 1983, and I was sitting in the gymnasium listening to the girls around me talk about Hope and Bo, Patch and Kayla, and Victor Kiriakis (Jennifer Anniston's real-life dad for those of you who consider the 80's ancient history).


I realized right away that if I wanted to fit in, I needed a crash course in Days 101. I borrowed Mom's VHS tapes and recorded every episode for the next two weeks. By then I was caught up well enough to engage in the conversations around me.


If you've watched any soap opera over the last five decades you know the storylines: miraculous recovery from deathbed, cheating, paternity scandals, lies, secret twins...the tales dark and twisted and completely fictional.


Or so I thought.


In the last year I've seen every one of these storylines in real-life on the streets, including the secret twin. I'm no longer shocked at anything.


The streets have their own identity and news travels at warp speed. The "information superhighway" I call it, aided by Obama phones and talkative transients, and this road holds no secrets.


The third time I drove my van to pick up people for church was enlightening. The first two times we traveled in relative silence, the occasional comment rising above the sounds of K-Love playing softly on the radio. By the third trip, the barriers were broken and the walls were down.


The conversation went something like this:


Me: "Where's Anna? I thought she was coming to church today."


Passenger 1: "She stay over at Bridgeport with her sister."


Passenger 2: "Nuh uh. Anita got mad and kicked her out. I seen her over by Jay's camp on the South side the other day."


Passenger 3: "Jay got locked up Saturday night cause his baby mama went to the Sally and said he was hitting on her. She was there til the money ran out though. I don't think he even touched her."


Passenger 1: "I bet he didn't. She was probably just mad that Malia's been coming around. That girl is nasty."


Passenger 5: (the only woman in the car to the other passengers)  "Yet she's been in every one of your tents."


A chorus of denials filled the air as I tried to sound nonchalant. I failed.


Me: "Um this is like Days of our Lives."


They laughed. Then I asked the next logical question.


"Who's Sally?" They laughed again.


"Salvation Army."


Oh. Then my final question, and the only one that mattered.


"Where's the South side camp?"


They gave me directions and two days later I set out with food and blankets to meet the tenants of another homeless camp.


I now go to about 25 homeless camps  and visit with about 70 people living on the streets each week. Through phone calls and texts, I stay in touch with about 40 more who've traveled through or moved away, and I visit 10-15 in jail or rehab each month. I get calls from 2-5 new people every day needing help and I make weekly visits to the ones who've gotten off the streets and into housing through the homeless coalition grant program.


It is a rewarding ministry, fulfilling and exciting. At times stressful, yet always interesting. A new storyline each day...but all roads designed to lead to Christ.


And so are the days of my life....