A Few Vignettes from Manna House over the Past Week

A Few Vignettes from Manna House over the Past Week

Some vignettes that give a quick glimpse into the myriad forms hospitality takes at Manna House.  

            “Working the List.”

The first act of hospitality we do with guests each morning is “taking the list.”  Around 7:45a.m., guests line up on the front porch, and we take their names for showers or for socks and hygiene.  Whoever is “working the list” calls guests’ names throughout the morning, and then introduces them in the clothing room, where they will be served. 

The person working the list repeatedly hears the question from guests, “Where am I on the list?”  And as new guests arrive they always seek out the person working the list.  The hardest part of working the list is saying “no” to people who arrive after the list is full.   

Each person working the list has a distinctive style of calling the names. Guests enjoy when Kathleen works the list because she has a mother’s voice which is loud and clear.  A guest once told her (perhaps in jest), “I could hear you all the way from Cleveland and Poplar.” (That’s about a half mile away). 

“Meeting Special Needs”

Last Thursday, June came by mid-morning looking for someone who could help a guest of Manna House, and of her organization, Outreach, Housing, and Community. The guest was scheduled for surgery, but the hospital would not do the surgery if he didn’t have someone to pick him up and take him home after the surgery.  One small problem, he doesn’t have a home.  Ashley agreed that she would go to the hospital, pick up the guest, and with Manna House funds (thanks all you generous donors) make sure that the guest had a place to stay for the night.  Ashley reported later that the surgery had gone well, the guest had been picked up, taken out for a meal, and put up for the evening at a local (inexpensive) hotel.

Meanwhile, Kalculus, our volunteer/intern from LeMoyne Owen, quietly guided a guest through the process of getting qualified for housing with Outreach, Housing, and Community.  This particular guest can be quite difficult.  He has a prickly personality combined with his ongoing struggle with mental illness.  Kalculus was patient, understanding, and ultimately successful in guiding the guest through the process.  When the guest was done he came up to me and excitedly shared, “I’m gonna get a place to live!”

I was asked by a guest to help him fill out paper work to apply for food stamps.  He said, “I can’t read, and even if I could I wouldn’t understand all this stuff.”  We found a quiet place on the front porch and went to work together.  He knew the answer to every question on the forms, so it didn’t take too long.  There was a lot of presumption in the questions that people were going to cheat, or be ineligible for other nefarious reasons (like living with someone wanted for a felony). 

“Serving Coffee”

All morning long, coffee is served.  We think it is important to serve the coffee, to greet guests and offer a cup of coffee.  Mondays, Charles, and Inge rotate pouring coffee.  Tuesdays, Chuck is the main server.  Thursdays, Clyde, Martin, and Jenina keep the coffee serving going.  Others join in as needed, but these are the regular baristas.  The coffee servers also make sure that there’s plenty of sugar and creamer available to guests for them to mix into their coffee as they see fit. 

This work of coffee serving allows for a lot of interaction with guests, and when the coffee line slows, there’s plenty of time for sitting and listening to stories.  A key attribute for this aspect of hospitality is “generous ears.”

 “Garbage”

When I was taking out the garbage cans on Thursday, a guest was sitting in a car with a social worker.  He was getting “qualified” for housing.  As part of that process he needed a “letter of homelessness” to certify that he is homeless.  I was asked to write that letter so I asked him for his full name.  Turns out his full name is not even close to the name he’s gone by for the two plus years he’d been coming to Manna House.  I asked him why, and he smiled a bit sheepishly as he gave me an answer I’ve heard before, “I wasn’t sure I could trust you all.”

There is a whole history of abusive poverty pimps behind that statement.  I’ve been asked if offering hospitality is dangerous, after all, you’re with “those people” who are on the streets.  What is rarely considered is the danger for those who are in need of hospitality.  They have to rely on others for basic human needs.  Bad food, unsafe shelter, surly attitudes from those serving, and sexual coercion for “special favors,” are just a few ways our guests are treated like garbage by those doing “charity.” 

I hope we do better as we seek to follow three interrelated rules of hospitality. The first rule of hospitality: Be respectful of the dignity of the guests for they are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).  The second rule, “Welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you” (Romans 15:7).  The third rule, “Whatever you do to the least of these you do unto me” (Matthew 25:31-46).