Giving Back

One of the highlights of the last few months has been keeping in touch with alumni above and beyond the regular relationships I've been fortunate enough to maintain over the years. I came up with the genius idea of having an "Alumni Panel"=a group of former Cov youth who could come and speak to the current residents, give some hope, and offer encouragement.

I had one in September and it went pretty well.  I put the whole thing on pause during the Sleep Out/holidays etc. but decided that February would be a decent time to begin again. I started to recruit from the alumni Facebook page I've been so blessed to maintain and then did a few personal invites.  The results are above and mentioned in previous posts--"Coco", "Birthday Cake", "Touchstones" (yes, home from prison), and another youth who was there the day I started (I made her cry when I played "Silent Night" on my guitar my first Christmas there).

Coco and Birthday Cake weren't "officially" there but I knew they knew Touchstones and they decided to come by...and ended up adding to the conversation and doing a great job. The room was packed with current residents...and they listened...really listed to how it was "back in the day", how they knew what their struggles were, they knew how terrible they felt about living in a homeless shelter, how hard it was to follow the rules after doing your own thing for so long.

But the beautiful part was each of their affirmation for the place and the staff...how they knew that even though we fussed and had to be tough at times, we still cared. Touchstones said it best at one point: "How many of you have done a bid?" (jail/prison term)  Several hands went up.  "You know that feeling that you get when you get that letter from someone special, someone you knows really cares about you, and you rush back to your cell to be by yourself to read that letter?" All around the room heads nodded.  "That's the feeling I get when I think about Covenant House.  They have always been there for me...and I know they always will be".

I drove home in a daze...so humbled to even be connected with these kids after almost 17 years...scared because some of their lives are still so precarious, living day to day...but thankful that I, among others, have had the privilege to be a part of their journey (even still!)  Praise God for orchestrating my life to intersect with theirs...still!