Human Development

One of the most hope-filled principles upon which our work at the Campus is built is the belief that every person is capable of making positive changes in his or her life. One of the most fulfilling things we get to see is positive change being made. This can be as simple as when one of our more severely mentally ill participants progresses from refusing to take a shower at all to being coerced to take a shower by a persistent staff member, to signing himself up to take a shower every morning. It can start when we have one of those back hallway conversations with someone that starts with something like, “We’ve noticed that you aren’t looking too good lately. Is everything alright?” and then the tears of pain and regret start flowing.

Some of the best opportunities I’ve had this year to see positive changes have been the times when I’ve been able to work with the men in the recovery programs that the Campus sponsors or partners with.

Every Friday afternoon, I gather with a dozen or so men, ranging in age from 19-late 50s, who are in the Metro Health Department Downtown Clinic’s alcohol and drug treatment program. They live at the Campus’s Guest House facility and attend classes together during the day at both the Campus and Downtown Clinic next door. Typically, they come to Harry’s A&D (alcohol and drug) class, which is pretty much an AA/NA meeting, in the afternoons. On Fridays, we do anger management. I was a little unsure about what teaching a class like this would be like, since I’m fairly inexperienced in things like that, but it has become a nice way to end the week. We begin each session by going around the room and sharing the time during the week that our anger meter registered the highest number. The anger meter is a way to make thinking about anger more concrete by assigning a number from 1-10 to the level of anger one is feeling at any given moment. A 1 is no anger, while a 10 is an explosive amount of anger that results in negative consequences such as violence, jail, and losing friends and family. We talk about the situations that made us angry, and the ways that we tried to diffuse our own anger. I usually present the topic for the day, then give a brief homework assignment, and an hour after we started, I’m letting them out the door.

Dealing with the anger that often comes with recovery from drug and alcohol is an important step in making positive changes. The men I work with often tell stories of anger that’s caused by dealing with the families from which they’re separated, and the mistakes they’ve made in their own lives. Taking a “timeout,” going for a short walk, or talking to a friend or sponsor rather than acting out in violence can be the beginning of a new way of living for these men.

Speaking of new ways of living, our long-term homelessness recovery program, Odyssey, is another place where personal change is lived out in a big way. Men are basically taken from the street and go through a multi-year program of classes and community living that restores their ability to work and live independently. The men in phase 2 of Odyssey, who began the program in November, just completed their Campus internships. Several of them interviewed for intern positions to work alongside regular Campus staff members. Maggie and I supervised David, who worked in the store. I also worked closely with Eddie, who I never cease to give a hard time, and who worked with the shower program, Katron, who worked with the facilities team, and Chris, who worked with Amanda on the administration team. Seeing the dedication that these guys put into the jobs we gave them, no matter how menial they might have seemed, was inspiring. When they begin regular work in the next few weeks, this enthusiasm and dedication will come in handy.

I had the opportunity last week to attend a retreat with the Odyssey guys for an evening. They spent their retreat hard at work, attending workshops and activities, at Henry Horton State Park, between Nashville and Huntsville. They wanted some of the Campus staff to come down to spend some time with the guys, so Maggie, Amanda and I drove down for a Thursday evening. We helped with the cookout for dinner, and then drove to the far side of the park to make banana boats. At dark, we returned to the meeting facility for devotions, led by Mary. She used the familiar passage from Micah 6, “what does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love kindly and walk humbly with your God.” The topic was humility, and we discussed how sometimes the greatest winners in life aren’t really winners in the end. Walking humbly isn’t something that’s admired in our culture, and often doing just that is the first step to making a better life.

At the end of the service, Charlie led us in a service of anointing. First, he marked our foreheads with oil as a sign of blessing for our own lives. After that, we went around the circle, and marked one another’s palms with oil in the sign of the cross as a blessing for service to others. What a change. I remember working with many of these men in the fall when I first arrived at the Campus. They were part of the general homeless population, where walking humbly often gets you nowhere but trampled. Now, ten months later, they have developed into people able to look outside of their own needs a little bit and be commissioned to serve others. Seeing changes in people like this is a bit like catching a glimpse of God’s creative activity in the world, always renewing us, transforming us into an image more and more reflective of our creator. Thanks be to God.

Serenity Prayer

God, grant us the serenity to accept things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Photos from the Odyssey retreat.