Street Stories - A Ringside Seat To Over 4 Decades Of Taking Jesus To The Streets Of The World

Chapter 17 Oh, Ronnie - From “ Coyote ” to Totally Transformed

R onnie schooled me on dealing with the chronically homeless. In today’s society, I think the term would be chronically “unhoused.” Well, at this stage in my life I guess I am not really pc in these things, I just call it like it is! If you were to think in your mind what a homeless man would look like, you might just see Ronnie in your mind. He was an alcoholic, wasn’t able to bathe or shower often, changed his clothes infrequently and, generally, did not smell like the men’s cologne section in Macy’s Department Store. You get the picture. But Jesus loved Ronnie just as much as he loved me. Ronnie had a story that led him to alcohol and to chronic homelessness. I’m so thankful that Jesus brought Ronnie into our lives. There are so many “Ronnie stories” I could tell. Some are shocking, some are somewhat funny and some, quite honestly, were a test of my patience. We were working with the Holy Ghost Repair Service in Hollywood, and we had Hope for Hollywood Fellowship meetings every Monday night. The Monday night meetings reached a lot of street people, from punk rockers with Liberty spikes in their hair, safety pins in their skin and chains being worn or carried. Ronnie was in attendance almost every Monday night. It was rare for Ronnie to miss one of those Monday nights.

They all knew they could come to church and receive a nice meal at the end of the night. They would

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