Floyd and Clementine
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Floyd and Clementine
by Russ Barrie
Floyd and Clementine were a homeless couple living at the Santa Ana Civic Center around 1990,
when there were three  hundred registered homeless people regularly camped there. The city made little effort to sustain them. They turned off the fountain so the homeless couldn't bathe in public. An attempt to remove all their possessions by tossing everything they had into the dumpsters was met with a lawsuit. The homeless contingency won but the city then passed a "No Overnight Camping In Public Places", law. Many of the surrounding cities soon passed similar laws, forcing Santa Ana to give a year moratorium before implementing it's law, to give the homeless time to find other means of shelter.
Where then were the homeless go? Big churches and small independent teams converged on the scene to assist the homeless. This included counseling and job offers, as well as offering to send them back to their home town, hopefully to give them another start at living. At the homeless shelter,living conditions were deplorable and an embarrassment to the city. Those who ran the program didn't want the homeless to be comfortable.
People who registered as homeless in hopes of getting some type of help were loosely controlled. They payed two dollars a month to an organization formed to "benefit" the homeless. Living conditions at the shelter consisted of Mexican families living in one area, Mexican single males living in another area and the common laws living "over there". Everybody else lived in the middle and in the parking garages. Violations were dealt with by the organization,(thugs) and/ or the city police.
John and I were a small independent team ministering to the homeless in Santa Ana. The thugs approached us about a man named Lenny who had not paid his two dollar rent. So we found Lenny who told us, "I help people make out resumes and job applications for free. The organization does not help with any good. No sirs, I'm not paying and John and you are not to pay for me." That night the thugs set his tent on fire and Lenny lost everything.
Another example of tactics used by the organization was that they knew we gave out clean donated clothes and toys to the homeless. Around Christmas one year they asked if we could bring stuffed animals for the kids. A couple of days after we distributed the stuffed animals we saw those same toys scattered throughout the shelter, with stitches cut and the stuffing removed. Our donated stuffed bears had become little couriers for drug tracking.
Drug indulgence is a major preoccupation with the homeless. John and I witnessed the tragic struggle that went on as the "poor dealt with the poor" for anything to get their next fix. They were not using quality stuff either; like glue sniffing to cut cocaine. They became amateur chemists by mixing different pharmacy and over the counter pills… creating junk drugs. This is never a good thing and it's how those who use these type of drugs became known as "Junkies". It was out of this environment that God rescued Floyd.
We met Floyd at the nearby park basketball court. Floyd was a young strapping black man. He could jump high enough to touch the rim… I couldn't even touch the net! Floyd was tolerant with us even though John and I were both out of shape and would get winded. For about a year and a half, John and I would be there almost every weekend, so we got to meet Floyd and Clementine his partner where they were staying in the common law part of the shelter. Within that time, things got progressively worse for Floyd.
John and I prayed an agonizing prayer on Floyd's behalf. We wondered if we were doing more harm than good, as this strapping young man was deteriorating right before our eyes due to his drug use. He and Clementine originally came from Louisiana to get in on California's jobs. However Floyd didn't have any luck finding a job, and by only having to pay two dollars rent at the shelter, Floyd and Clementine fell into a trap that many of the homeless fall into. Once they are in the trap all hope is diminished and with little to no work to devote their time to, most of them prowl around at night like moles and then sleep most of the day.
John and I offered up a plan to Jesus. We would both go in half to buy one way bus tickets for Floyd and Clementine, back to their home town in Louisiana, with an additional fifty dollars for spending money. Floyd and Clementine reluctantly agreed. "We're going." she said, still with a bruise on her eye from where Floyd had hit her. This trip was going to be the following Saturday because Floyd was receiving unemployment money on Friday. So on Friday, before they were to leave on Saturday, Floyd spent all his income on a "last nights binge." Clementine called us to say that Floyd was in no shape to travel and that neither was she being close to nine months pregnant. Had John and I done more harm than good by setting this all up? It was a desperate time.
On Saturday, John and I were there to send them off. We talked to Floyd's Mom over the phone asking if she could handle Floyd because he was not the same strapping young man that had left home. She said, "I am aware of my son's condition. You send my son home." Floyd talked to her and said, "Yes Ma'am, yes Ma'am." We hung up the phone. Now Floyd was dirt poor again after blowing his unemployment money on the binge, but he had a plan… or so he thought. Floyd said to his partner, "Clementine, let's go to the Salvation Army and they can fix up your hair." Clementine said, "We're going." Floyd then said to us, "As you know, I'm broke, we'll take the fifty dollars." John said, "You can't be trusted. You're a junky." Floyd then said, "OK, give me the tickets." John said, "We are taking you both to the bus station and handing the driver the tickets." Floyd said that he'd be able to hustle enough money at the gas stations and buy both of them something to eat, on the way.
Within a month, Floyd's Mom called us to let us know that the trip home for Floyd and Clementine took three days and they were hungry when they arrived. She also told us that Clementine gave birth to a healthy boy. John and I sent them an infant size Anaheim Angels outfit.
Luke 10:5-6 tells us, "But, whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house' and if the Son of Peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, your peace will return to you." God in His mercy answered our prayers for Floyd. The next time John and I saw Floyd he was "a son of peace", carrying his Bible and as we went on to discover, Floyd had become well versed in it! Through Floyd we were later able to meet many others in need of our Lord, the Prince of Peace.
Thank you Jesus, Russ
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