Two Is Fine
Three's A Crowd -- and the Homeless Issue
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Can you imagine living in a small studio-type apartment with two men and one woman? It's very crowded, to say the least. And, privacy...there isn't any. So, ok, it was supposed to be for only two weeks. That was almost a month and a half ago. It's getting quite old.
It all started out that my fiance and I moved from Mesa, AZ to a little bitty town in central AZ, where the desert mountains are located. I mean, this is where the cowboys rode their horses, and it still looks like those days. (The landlord of this apartment has a picture of Wyatt Earp standing in front of hs building) Anyway, we had it pretty good in Mesa. I had a good job, our apartment was just starting to look like a home. (We met in a homeless shelter...and we had nothing, absolutely nothing but our clothes when we moved into our apartment).
There was the endless phone calls, every day for two months. A so-called friend of my fiance sugar-coated an invitation to move up to hs home. Promised the world to us. They said that they'd love for us to stay there as long as we'd like. We could take our time in finding jobs, relax and have fun. My fiance, Tommy, and I toggled with this idea. Was it a good idea, or should we just remain where we were? Back and forth, we went. Yes, we should go. No, it sounds like there's something beneath that sugar-coating. Yes, it sounds wonderful. No, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea. In the end, Kurt, (that so-called friend) made it sound so appealing that he wore us down and we gave into the temptation of the offer.
Tommy and I have been thinking about starting our own ministry. We want to open a Bible-based homeless shelter. The homeless issue around this area, and basically the entire state, is a serious one. It's called the "Homeless Capital of America". What we'd like to do is try to help people to get a better life and off the streets. Most homeless shelters are just that, a shelter, were they go in, stay for awhile, and then leave, eventually coming back. Or they shelter jump. Going from one shelter to another, drifting around their entire lives. They are taught nothing to help them attain productive lives, therefore, the cycle continues.
The shelter that Tommy and I met at was supposed to be a Christian shelter. Yes, there were Bible studies, there was services on Saturday (the pastor observed the Jewish Sabbath). But, God wasn't there. That shelter was more like a cult than anything Christian. I believe that he wanted people to continue to stay so that, through their money, he could keep it running. But, while I was there, it slowly was going downhill. There was drugs, alcohol, gossip, cursing, fighting..you name it. The pastor wasn't running it the way it should have been running it.
I have kind of gotten off the track. Anyway, I think Kurt got it in his head that, once we got to his house, him and his wife would try taking over the ministry. They were to be included in the running of it. Kurt claimed that he had become an 'ordained minister'. So, he was to be the minister who taught the sermons we'd have. When we got there, Tommy and I wanted to find a church. Tomm is Baptist, so that's the type of church he wanted to attend. There was a Southern Baptist church close by. Kurt's immediate assumption was 'Oh, don't go there. Those people are all crack-heads'. We didn't bother to listen to Kurt. When we attended the first Sunday service, we found that the majority of the church was people over the age of 50. Crack-heads? Yeah, right.
They had been praying for someone to come into the church who could build pemanent walls (all they had were folding walls). Well, Tommy could and volunteered. We spent the first two weeks there from about 7:30 AM til 5 or 6 PM. This angered Kurt and his wife. Two weeks after moving into their house, we came home one night, exhausted. They were in the living room, ranting and raving about how we were lazy, how I couldn't control my man, how they were going to get rid of us and keep our kittens and give them a good home.
Meanwhile, we had felt that that was coming because their demeanor toward us had begun to change, so we had talked to the pastor. When all this was going on, we were in our room, behind a closed door, packing, and calling one of the men from the church whom we knew had a truck. When he arrived, that angered Kurt more, as he and his wife had been coveting our furnature. Things escalated, and while Tommy was on his cell phone outside, about 20 feet from their door, Kurt barrels out of the door and bashes Tommy against the truck. Now, how Christian can this man be? Obviously, he wasn't what he proclaimed to be.
We spent three nights in a motel room, thank God, paid for by the church. One of the men from the church cleaned out an old apartment that he'd been using as storage, and let us move in. Shortly after we moved in, Tommy found out that a family member was moving out here. So, he told him that he could come by and stay a couple of days on his way to Las Vegas. I was ok with that, until I met him.
There was just something about the man, Ron, that I didn't particularily care for. I wasn't sure what it was. When he left after 3 nights, I sighed a sigh of relief. But, woe is me.....he was knocking on the door two days later. He was supposed to stay only a couple of weeks, and then hed get an apartment of his own. That was a month and a half ago. Him being here caused an up-roar in the church. They wanted him gone. I wanted him gone. But, Tommy said, no, he wasn't gettig rid of Ron because he was family.
Since then, all that man's done was caused dissention. He's basically ruined our life. He's brown-nosed the landlord, going behind our back, talking crap. He is arrogant, thinking he's all that, and continually tries to vie for my attention. He tries through buying things....the most expensive things. He thinks money is going to lure me away from Tommy. And now, we're on the verge of being kicked out of the apartment.
Tommy does work around here in exchange for rent....that was the agreement. Tommy's a heart patient, so it's a little more difficult for him to do things all at once. Ron's filled the landlord's brain with thoughts that Tommy's lazy, and just doesn't do thngs because he's lazy. He's so sugar-coated himself that, to the landlord, he's all that. But, Ron's a drunk. He sits outside every night watching the cars go by drinking a 6-pack (last Saturday, he was passed out drunk at 8:30 pm). How dull he is. And, what the landlord doesn't realize is that it's way difficult for us to find jobs when we have no transportation. This dinky little town has no work, and the closest area where all the work is, is an hour's drive. The landlord doesn't see that we can't get jobs when we can't get anywhere TO get jobs. So, we're stuck.
At first, Tommy continually defended Ron, saying that it wasn't him who was causing problems, when I told him it was. He's since realized that it's Ron. Ron wants to put Tommy out to try to get me......and the apartment. Tommy now regrets letting Ron stay here....something I knew when he first came here. And now it's too late. We're the ones who's losing out because Ron's done a sugar-coating of his own on the landlord, and now we're crap. Even the church has turned against us because of Ron being here. Now you can see why Two's Fine, but Three's A Crowd. I have lost much of my privacy. I have to listen to Ron's annoying snoring every night, and clean up after him, like I'm his maid or something. At first, being a Christian woman, I didn't mind, even though I didn't like him here, but as it as, I believe the Bibe in saying that we are to honor our guests. Ok, so I honored him.....but he's overstepped his boundries, and worn out hs stay. The two weeks he was supposed to be here has gone on longer, and seems to continue with no end in sight. Well, yes, there's an end....Tommy and I being kicked out.
I don' t want to retun to a shelter, but if that's what will happen, then I guess that's what I've got to do.
I wish we'd stayed in Mesa. I believe that if we had, we'd be getting somewhere with our shelter. We've flubbed it up by moving up here. Kurt went to court last month, and well, he showed them how unstable he is. I guess he started arguing with the Prosecuting Attorney, and instead of taking the light punishment that he was going to be served at that time, he made it much more difficult for himself. Tommorrow he goes to trial. Both Tommy and I have been subpoena'd into court. We'll see how his reaction is when he sees us there. We were at the courthouse the day that he went last month. When he came in, he was all cocky, laughing like it was some kind of joke. I bet when he left, he wasn't laughing anymore. We didn't stay for it that day. We'll see. I bet he won't be laughing this time.
It all started out that my fiance and I moved from Mesa, AZ to a little bitty town in central AZ, where the desert mountains are located. I mean, this is where the cowboys rode their horses, and it still looks like those days. (The landlord of this apartment has a picture of Wyatt Earp standing in front of hs building) Anyway, we had it pretty good in Mesa. I had a good job, our apartment was just starting to look like a home. (We met in a homeless shelter...and we had nothing, absolutely nothing but our clothes when we moved into our apartment).
There was the endless phone calls, every day for two months. A so-called friend of my fiance sugar-coated an invitation to move up to hs home. Promised the world to us. They said that they'd love for us to stay there as long as we'd like. We could take our time in finding jobs, relax and have fun. My fiance, Tommy, and I toggled with this idea. Was it a good idea, or should we just remain where we were? Back and forth, we went. Yes, we should go. No, it sounds like there's something beneath that sugar-coating. Yes, it sounds wonderful. No, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea. In the end, Kurt, (that so-called friend) made it sound so appealing that he wore us down and we gave into the temptation of the offer.
Tommy and I have been thinking about starting our own ministry. We want to open a Bible-based homeless shelter. The homeless issue around this area, and basically the entire state, is a serious one. It's called the "Homeless Capital of America". What we'd like to do is try to help people to get a better life and off the streets. Most homeless shelters are just that, a shelter, were they go in, stay for awhile, and then leave, eventually coming back. Or they shelter jump. Going from one shelter to another, drifting around their entire lives. They are taught nothing to help them attain productive lives, therefore, the cycle continues.
The shelter that Tommy and I met at was supposed to be a Christian shelter. Yes, there were Bible studies, there was services on Saturday (the pastor observed the Jewish Sabbath). But, God wasn't there. That shelter was more like a cult than anything Christian. I believe that he wanted people to continue to stay so that, through their money, he could keep it running. But, while I was there, it slowly was going downhill. There was drugs, alcohol, gossip, cursing, fighting..you name it. The pastor wasn't running it the way it should have been running it.
I have kind of gotten off the track. Anyway, I think Kurt got it in his head that, once we got to his house, him and his wife would try taking over the ministry. They were to be included in the running of it. Kurt claimed that he had become an 'ordained minister'. So, he was to be the minister who taught the sermons we'd have. When we got there, Tommy and I wanted to find a church. Tomm is Baptist, so that's the type of church he wanted to attend. There was a Southern Baptist church close by. Kurt's immediate assumption was 'Oh, don't go there. Those people are all crack-heads'. We didn't bother to listen to Kurt. When we attended the first Sunday service, we found that the majority of the church was people over the age of 50. Crack-heads? Yeah, right.
They had been praying for someone to come into the church who could build pemanent walls (all they had were folding walls). Well, Tommy could and volunteered. We spent the first two weeks there from about 7:30 AM til 5 or 6 PM. This angered Kurt and his wife. Two weeks after moving into their house, we came home one night, exhausted. They were in the living room, ranting and raving about how we were lazy, how I couldn't control my man, how they were going to get rid of us and keep our kittens and give them a good home.
Meanwhile, we had felt that that was coming because their demeanor toward us had begun to change, so we had talked to the pastor. When all this was going on, we were in our room, behind a closed door, packing, and calling one of the men from the church whom we knew had a truck. When he arrived, that angered Kurt more, as he and his wife had been coveting our furnature. Things escalated, and while Tommy was on his cell phone outside, about 20 feet from their door, Kurt barrels out of the door and bashes Tommy against the truck. Now, how Christian can this man be? Obviously, he wasn't what he proclaimed to be.
We spent three nights in a motel room, thank God, paid for by the church. One of the men from the church cleaned out an old apartment that he'd been using as storage, and let us move in. Shortly after we moved in, Tommy found out that a family member was moving out here. So, he told him that he could come by and stay a couple of days on his way to Las Vegas. I was ok with that, until I met him.
There was just something about the man, Ron, that I didn't particularily care for. I wasn't sure what it was. When he left after 3 nights, I sighed a sigh of relief. But, woe is me.....he was knocking on the door two days later. He was supposed to stay only a couple of weeks, and then hed get an apartment of his own. That was a month and a half ago. Him being here caused an up-roar in the church. They wanted him gone. I wanted him gone. But, Tommy said, no, he wasn't gettig rid of Ron because he was family.
Since then, all that man's done was caused dissention. He's basically ruined our life. He's brown-nosed the landlord, going behind our back, talking crap. He is arrogant, thinking he's all that, and continually tries to vie for my attention. He tries through buying things....the most expensive things. He thinks money is going to lure me away from Tommy. And now, we're on the verge of being kicked out of the apartment.
Tommy does work around here in exchange for rent....that was the agreement. Tommy's a heart patient, so it's a little more difficult for him to do things all at once. Ron's filled the landlord's brain with thoughts that Tommy's lazy, and just doesn't do thngs because he's lazy. He's so sugar-coated himself that, to the landlord, he's all that. But, Ron's a drunk. He sits outside every night watching the cars go by drinking a 6-pack (last Saturday, he was passed out drunk at 8:30 pm). How dull he is. And, what the landlord doesn't realize is that it's way difficult for us to find jobs when we have no transportation. This dinky little town has no work, and the closest area where all the work is, is an hour's drive. The landlord doesn't see that we can't get jobs when we can't get anywhere TO get jobs. So, we're stuck.
At first, Tommy continually defended Ron, saying that it wasn't him who was causing problems, when I told him it was. He's since realized that it's Ron. Ron wants to put Tommy out to try to get me......and the apartment. Tommy now regrets letting Ron stay here....something I knew when he first came here. And now it's too late. We're the ones who's losing out because Ron's done a sugar-coating of his own on the landlord, and now we're crap. Even the church has turned against us because of Ron being here. Now you can see why Two's Fine, but Three's A Crowd. I have lost much of my privacy. I have to listen to Ron's annoying snoring every night, and clean up after him, like I'm his maid or something. At first, being a Christian woman, I didn't mind, even though I didn't like him here, but as it as, I believe the Bibe in saying that we are to honor our guests. Ok, so I honored him.....but he's overstepped his boundries, and worn out hs stay. The two weeks he was supposed to be here has gone on longer, and seems to continue with no end in sight. Well, yes, there's an end....Tommy and I being kicked out.
I don' t want to retun to a shelter, but if that's what will happen, then I guess that's what I've got to do.
I wish we'd stayed in Mesa. I believe that if we had, we'd be getting somewhere with our shelter. We've flubbed it up by moving up here. Kurt went to court last month, and well, he showed them how unstable he is. I guess he started arguing with the Prosecuting Attorney, and instead of taking the light punishment that he was going to be served at that time, he made it much more difficult for himself. Tommorrow he goes to trial. Both Tommy and I have been subpoena'd into court. We'll see how his reaction is when he sees us there. We were at the courthouse the day that he went last month. When he came in, he was all cocky, laughing like it was some kind of joke. I bet when he left, he wasn't laughing anymore. We didn't stay for it that day. We'll see. I bet he won't be laughing this time.