Treasure in the Mission

Treasure in The Mission

Papusas! Where's Sylvia?

Saturday night in the Mission. Best burritos and papusas EVER. Hanging out with my YWAM sisters, Laina, Kelsey and Sylvia.
 

Suddenly, a woman I sort-of, kinda recognize is shouting. Rushing toward me. She grabs me in a bear hug. 

“I’m D,” she says. “You remember me.”

And then, in an instant, I do remember.

Except  she, frankly, doesn’t look AT ALL like the woman who lived on a sidewalk in the Tenderloin a year ago.

Her smile doesn’t remind me at all of the angry, aggressive, sometimes raging drug dealer who I once saw beat a man with her fists in broad daylight.

Her warm, enveloping hug doesn’t bring to mind the night I found her, trembling with cold and soaked to the skin, waiting for her “boyfriend.". Leaving her “post” could get her in trouble with her ‘upline” – drug dealers from East Bay who supply street dealers in the Tenderloin. So she waited in the rain.

I look her over with hungry eyes. Her skin in clear. Her eyes shining. She is about HALF the size she was when she lived in front of my home and workplace.

“I lost 130 pounds!” she exclaimed.

“You look SO good. So happy. What’s happening?”

Her boyfriend (whom I hadn’t noticed….sorry about that dude) shook a ring of keys.

“We have a place,” D. said. “We got housing. They offered us [a studio in the Tenderloin] or here. We picked here!”

She hugged me again. I hugged her back. D. said,

“It’s home. The rent is paid. The lights are on. There’s food in the fridge,” D. said. “After that, everything else is extra!”

“You don’t look like your old self. You look so HAPPY!” I said.

She laughed. “I AM happy!”  We continue to talk…

“YWAM is the only thing I miss about the Tenderloin,” D says.

“How are Tim and Karol (our YWAM base directors)?” she asks.

“So good. Good things are happening.”

“And Jan and Trevor?”

Now, Jan and Trevor are YWAMers. A so-so-kind couple from England. Trevor fixes things and brings sanity to  our accounting department. They're the Bay-Area Alpha Course leaders.

At YWAM SF, Jan wrangles hospitality. Imagine something like managing a youth hostel with random people arriving and leaving at all hours from all kinds of places….with a different staff “greeting” each week of the year. AND creating beautiful rooms to welcome them. That’s Jan.

On the streets and in the YWAM base. On the phone with someone inquiring about hospitality….everywhere, Jan calls people “Treasure.”  With a British accent, of course!

You’ll see her chatting with a ragged, bent old man. Homeless for years. Needing a shower and shave.  She’ll smile. She’ll say, “Can I pray for you, Treasure?”

A street kid? “Hello Treasure, how are you?”

A woman in a soiled sequined corset and tight, frayed leggings “chatting up” the guys in front of the park?  “Good morning, Treasure, I’m Jan.”
D., a traumatized, angry woman selling crack in front of the YWAM base? "Treasure" again.

And Jan hugs. Jan prays. Jan slowly builds relationships of trust. She’s so non-threatening. So kind. So ready to pray, believing her beautiful Jesus cares about every single need.

***

So, here we are, meeting D on a crazy-busy street corner in the Mission.

“Who are Jan and Trevor?” her boyfriend asks.

“You know Jan,” D. responds. She smiles. She hugs herself …. That action speaking a thousand words, somehow.

“You know Jan.  I’m her treasure.”