Those Who Have Eyes, Let Them See

Last week I spent time in Washington DC with the Troy University Wesley Foundation learning about our nation’s healthcare crisis through the guidance of the General Board of Church and Society. I attended seminars focused around the issue itself as well as the ways in which a spiritual community should react to a needing world. I learned statistics about our nation’s deficit, as well as the amounts of people who are without healthcare. After all the statistics and the seminars I attended in a cool, comfortable room, reality was apparent when we visited Christ House.

Since December 24, 1985 Christ House has been an asset to the Washington DC community. At Christ House, the homeless and impoverished are provided with health care treatment, as well as a variety of other social treatments they may need. On occasion, people will enter with leg pains, just to find out that they’ve had diabetes for years and that the only treatment available is amputation. Other times, people enter just to discover that they have cancer that has been active and spreading in their body for years. Christ House offers every medical service they can for those that enter with extensive cases, but also focuses on helping people with smaller medical needs such as flu treatment and basic healthcare that is foreign to those that are living on the streets.

Outside of medical care, the facility offers everything from psychological, job, and narcotic counseling to those that enter into the Christ House doors. Every person who enters and agrees to the rules set out by Christ House is given a caseworker to help them get back on track with their lives. These people are not just given a warm place to sleep for a few hours, but instead are put in touch with people who can help them excel even when they leave the organization.

Visiting Christ House made every statistic I had heard enter into my mental scope of reality. The stereotypes I had grown up believing about the impoverished were ripped away. One of the biggest stereotypes spoken about had to do with drug use. Most people believe that due to drug addictions, people end up living on the streets. In contrast, often people develop these drug addictions due to their time spent in shelters after they are without a place to stay. Shelters are a huge opportunity for drug sales, so those selling narcotics often target those areas. The idea that those impoverished should have helped themselves was ripped away as the founder of Christ House, Dr. Janelle Goetcheus, spoke.

The reason Troy University’s Wesley Foundation goes to Washington every year is to not only learn about an issue, but also speak with Alabama state senators about the issue and inquire about the senator’s plans to work for governmental reform regarding the topic at hand. This year, after a day and a half of seminars and a visit to Christ House, I felt prepared to enter into the offices of Jeff Sessions and ask questions about the healthcare crisis. Though Jeff Sessions was not in Washington at the time, we still spoke to two of the people who work directly under him in legislative affairs.
“Hi, I’m Erin Warde. I’m a student at Troy University and excited first time voter. Yesterday I spent time with people who do not have healthcare when I visited the Christ House organization. Our nation is shoveling large amounts of money into treatment that I believe could be saved if we implemented preventative care. What is Jeff Sessions doing to help provide preventative care to those without healthcare in Alabama?”

The response was depressing. Apparently, the efforts of Sessions towards those without healthcare extend to supporting various causes proposed by other people, specifically things like prostate awareness month. I wanted to respond by asking, “what about those of us who do not have a prostate?” but I held my tongue. There seemed to be a huge disconnect between the heart I brought into the room and the response I had gotten to my question. I felt like we weren’t communicating; I was being told whatever had been rehearsed.

“Hi, I’m Brittany and I’ve received a degree in child psychology and I have a question for you regarding the S-CHIP bill. Our statistics show a large rate of children without healthcare with trends that show it to be increasing. Jeff Sessions voted against the S-CHIP bill which would give healthcare to impoverished children and I would like to know why.”

We were told to remember a few things. We were told to remember that sometimes, in the statistics regarding children without healthcare, children were counted who were transitioning between one healthcare provider to another. We were also reminded that sometimes children choose not to have healthcare. I felt like we weren’t communicating; I was being told whatever legislators said to themselves when the ache of humanity kept them awake at night.

It shocked me to see the different perspectives and hearts brought forth through the example of Christ House as well as the meeting with our state senators workers. In one case, where there was a call, there is now an answer. In the other, where there was a question, there is now still a question.

But my questions have now moved from my mouth to my mind, heart, and soul. Now that I am back in my college city, with my daily schedule back in action, I won’t try to tell you that my entire life has shifted. I have yet to sell all my possessions and give them to the poor. I still buy things I don’t need. I am not innocent here. The change occurred when the statistics I’d always heard stood before me in a hospital room, bandaged across the forehead, feeling the comfort of a roof, a bed, and food that was long overdue. It’s easy for me to throw away a pamphlet, it’s hard for me to walk past a person that I’ve looked in the eyes and forget that they exist.

The change occurred when I walked up to Union Station and saw a man sitting on the street with a sign that said “Homeless U.S. Veteran, Please Help” and a paper cup. Only a week previous I would have passed by, reciting what I tell myself when the ache keeps me awake at night – “He just would have spent it on drugs, anyway.” But that day, I gave the cash I had.

The change will continue to occur. Ideally, it will churn in my heart until I’ve written numerous letters to my senators voicing my concern, I’ve visited countless soup kitchens to meet needs, I’ve tithed appropriately so that my spiritual community can meet needs, and I’ve stooped in front of a many man with a paper cup and emptied my cash.

I don’t have the arrogance to tell you that I’m going to be the next Mother Theresa; I’m not disillusioned enough to tell you that I’ve wholly quit compartmentalizing my spirituality so that it extends only to where I feel comfortable. I can only tell you that last week, statistics took on a human form, and when I was stared in the face, I recognized them for what they were – reality.