Claude

Claude is one of the men that we have befriended that lives on the street. He is one of the sweetest men that I know. Claude has had a rough life but has not let it stop him from having a relationship with God. Claude is 60 years old but life has aged his body. He is a veteran who gave up his early adult years to go fight for our country. Shortly after Claude left the military he was in a motorcycle accident that left him pretty badly injured. The way that Claude tells the story is that his brains were all over the road and he died and went to heaven. He can give very vivid details of what heaven was like which are very far off from anything that you see in movies. He says that he talked to God and that God told him that he was not ready for him to die that he had stuff to do. He says that he has gone back several times since then and that him and God are friends. Claude says "He is a real cool guy". He told me one time he went to heaven and visited with God and the y were joking around and Claude told God "You think you are all that don't you?" Claude says that God then told him "Claude I am All That". From being in Vietnam Claude is scared of being trapped and lost and being homeless he has to live in the woods. Claude will tell you that God has come down and helped him out of the woods several times. He also says that some people glow and that he can see God in them.

Claude is considered the old man by all of the other guys living on the street with him. They all look after him and make sure he is taken care of. Claude will give everything away to someone else in need without ever thinking of himself. The man has nothing and never asks for anything. He has family that lives all around the area but he won't stay with any of them. He says that he needs to be homeless to help the other guys. he also has so many issues from the War that he can not stand to be inside a building for any period of time.

Claude also loves to sing and can play the guitar. The guys will hold their own church services and Claude will sing hymns. He has also sung to me on several occasions, which just melts my heart. God has truly blessed us with being able to develop a relationship with a man who has taught us so much about what faith can get you through.

Eye Opener

We went out last night to help Kenne set up a tent that we gave him because his other one was stolen and he had been unable to figure the new one out. It had been raining all week and he had been trying to get it up for some cover and it was not working. While Josh was back in the woods helping him he stumbled across a couple that is living in the same area. We had never come in contact with them before so Josh went over to talk to them. He found out that the man and his wife had become homeless due to the oil spill. The man was a professional fisherman who had owned his own boat. He made his living fishing in the Gulf until what he was fishing for became contaminated. Lack of income caused him to lose his boat. He was without work and now homeless. His wife is disabled so he took the money that he did have and got them to Jacksonville so that she could get the medical care that she needed. They are now living in the woods in a tent with the only belongings that they have in a backpack. We hear about the oil spill continuously on the news but it seems so far away.

We also ran into Woody last night. He has been in and out of the hospital for about 5 weeks now. Kenne found him behind the gas station 5 weeks ago unconscious and bloody. Kenne said it looked like someone had beat him to death, so he drug him to the pay phone and called 911. Woody had a broken leg, fractured hip, and his ribs are broken. After seeing and talking to him last night I am pretty sure he also has some sort of a brain injury. He does not remember what happened but thinks that he was hit by a car. He can hardly walk and is not himself. It is sad to think that someone could do that to somebody and then just leave them there. He is somebody's dad and he is a good friend to a lot of people. Just because he is homeless does not mean that he does not have people that care about him. This just makes me want to work even harder to track down his daughter.