Your Helpful Neighbor Since 1996

07/20/2024

I was just told by a Christian, well supposedly christian, friend that I am completely wasting my time in Kensington because those people just don't really want to care. This individual has now excommunicated me from his group of friends and so I can tell you this.

The individuals on the streets are our literal neighbors. They are inspirational human beings. They are made in the image of God. They are worthy of the highest dignity and honor and respect and love.

They are patients of a medical diagnosis of which our society does not totally understand. Substance use disorder does not fit neatly inside the box of medical diagnosis. It is for this reason that 90% of all the women on this streets of Kensington are 100% reliant on providing sexual services men. 70% of all the men on the streets of Kensington are 100% reliant on that 90% of women. Therefore, all numbers being equal, 80% of all the people on the streets of Kensington are 100% reliant on prostitution to provide funding to buy the drugs for the addiction that they would rather not have.

It would make far more sense for the medical community to get its act together at the Medicaid level and take a close look at what is causing people to sign out on the surface of the issue, against medical advice.

We must think far beyond the standard box of Medical treatments for this medical disease.

My former Facebook friend sees the issue as completely within the realm of patients with a disease who should simply say no to that disease. President Reagan's attempts way back when followed that line of thinking and were proven inaccurate.

And so let us look way outside the box of how to handle a disease process and come up with real solutions so as to save the lives of our sons and daughters and best friends and husbands and wives and mothers and fathers.

07/20/2024

I would appreciate your prayers while I am in Kensington for the next couple of hours visiting these amazing people.

07/19/2024

My indoor Memorial Rose garden continues to celebrate the life of my spiritual daughter Beba Maldonado .

34 weeks after you went home to your Savior, we love you and miss you everyday.

07/17/2024

441 p.m. 21 weeks ago today you called me screaming hysterically about what the Medicaid level medical facility into which you had trusted your care had done to you. They destroyed you! Before midnight on this night 21 weeks ago today you were dead. You were dead.

Your grandmother was no longer able to ever see her granddaughter.

Your father would no longer see his daughter.

You were dead!

You were dead!

The stunning level of incompetence at the Medicaid level of healthcare to people in your situation has not gone unnoticed. You were a magnificent individual and

Justice will prevail!

07/08/2024

Please pray for a miracle in the life of one young man I know who is struggling on the streets of Kensington far more than any of us can totally understand. He lost his best friend, my spiritual daughter, the day before Thanksgiving and he's been struggling ever since. We cannot lose him. God must intervene as only a miracle can do. There's no other option at this point. God must intervene or we will lose him. This cannot happen.

07/07/2024

Why do I do what I do in Kensington?

There's lots of answers to that. One of those answers happened today.

I was able to reunite my phone a sister on the street to her sister not on the street. They talked for the first time in at least 3 weeks maybe longer. For the sister not on the street, I know that it was a relief to hear that her sister on the street is still there alive even though she, the sister not on the street, would prefer that her sister on the street not be on the street. And you know what's interesting about that?

The sister who is on the street would rather not be on the street. She cannot seem to find her way out and off the street. That's where the healthcare system comes in. The healthcare professionals must do everything and go overboard in doing so to provide prompt and dignity and respect-filled care in a climate of expediency and thoroughness perhaps more than other disease processes. Why do I say that? The alternative for the patient is far too simple to obtain. In the absence of prompt dignity and respect filled professional care, it's much easier to sign out seemingly ama and go find that little blue bag and continue to do their drugs. And so professionals been detox and hospital and similar settings, recognize that you are the link between that patient and a new life versus that patient and first ever permanent eternal death. Professionals, do everything that you possibly can and add 50% to that to meet the needs of these patients who are in the most horrendous literal civil war within their minds that they will ever experience.

07/01/2024

Happy heavenly birthday to you!
Happy heavenly birthday to you!
Happy heavenly birthday, Dana Marie Cassidy !
Happy heavenly birthday to you!

We would rather that you were here dear friend. Since we don't have that option, I am thankful for your amazing committed Faith in your Lord which has given you an eternal place in heaven.

I don't know if they have birthday parties in heaven but if they do, I hope you have a fantastic one. You are loved and missed by everyone you had the privilege of knowing you.

06/24/2024

8 years ago I came to know two different mother-daughter combinations who lived on the streets of Kensington. We would talk and share thoughts and I came to know them as the amazing people who they are. The daughter of one of these mother-daughter combinations died about two and a half years ago. Her Mom died a couple of weeks ago. Today I saw them for the first time together in nearly 5 or maybe 6 years. The daughters ashes were in a vessel that I had seen at her funeral about 2 and 1/2 years ago. The mother's ashes were in her vessel which I had not yet seen. And they sat there in front of the funeral gathering side by side. One was the victim of incompetence in the Medicaid system as she sought care and did not receive it. Mom's situation was a bit different. They are now together in the glories of Heaven.

The other mother daughter combination is doing for the most part well but struggling. I am in daily communication with them. Please pray for this surviving pair and please pray that I can be whatever I'm supposed to be to them who I love so very much.

06/23/2024

Please do pray for my time of visiting the amazing people on the streets of Kensington. I have water and song sheets and my cheesy smile. :-)

06/22/2024

Prayers please. One of my people has been missing for about 48 hours.

06/16/2024

I would appreciate your prayers while I am visiting the wonderful people on the streets of Kensington this afternoon.

06/15/2024

Earlier today, I drug dealer by current income provision and doing so only because she's sick of being r***d when she tries to do dates, sat in my car and cried about her situation. She called her relative and they talked for a while. This kind of ministry was not really addressed when I went through the youth ministry major at Eastern under the direction of Duffy Robbins . But I wouldn't trade this for anything.

06/15/2024

After 8 years on the streets of kensington, it's amazing how I can be doing Kensington related things, interacting with individuals formerly on and still on the streets as well as their loved ones in various parts of our suburbs and country. I would not trade this experience for anything.

06/10/2024

Outreach on the streets of Kensington has got to be one of the tougher things to be involved in. The combination of death upon death upon death and walking alongside people as they are battling a civil war of the mind the likes of which those of us not in addiction will never totally understand combined with the joys of realizing that a particular someone has actually managed to survive and is thriving puts emotions in the outreach worker all over the place. One half of my heart is nearly dead while the other half of my heart is celebrating. It's hard. And it's joyful.

06/09/2024

I would appreciate your prayers while I am feeling physically emotionally and spiritually exhausted.

I arrived in Philadelphia about 45 minutes ahead of the church schedule to start the worship service at Urban Hope. I parked my car in the back parking lot area of the Wawa store on Aramingo Avenue and took a half hour nap.

I realized it was time to head toward the Church and so I started making my way there. As I was passing Rock Ministries my eyes connected with the eyes of someone I've known almost since day one. This person told me back in those days that while she appreciated what churches do for the homeless addicted community, she had no interest in that church stuff. She's been off the streets for many years now and doing great.

I rolled down my window and we greeted each other with a big smile. She proclaimed with great joy as she was walking with her family...

We're going to church!

This lifted my spirit in a way that it needed to be lifted. I'm still emotionally and physically and spiritually exhausted these days so I still need your prayers. God did use this individual in my life to give me a boost. I just need some more boosting.

06/08/2024

I invite you to review this Google spreadsheet and share it with others and feel free to provide comments.

Sheet1 No one knows for sure the exact numbers involved. The numbers in bold pink are best guesstimates based on available information. Please feel free to change ONLY those pink and bold numbers. Other numbers are part of calculation formulas or results of those calculations.,Original numbers...

06/07/2024

Once again, the Beba Maldonado celebration of life Rose garden continues to bear witness to the Joy of everything that she stood for in life. Her time on this Earth was cut short for reasons that never should have happened. Those of us who loved her from various perspectives will miss and love her forever.

06/03/2024

She signed out of the hospital! He left ama!

She's dead!

He's dead!

When in God's name are we going to start using 302 to hold these mentally ill patients in the hospital because their drug addiction has so much hijacked their brain that they cannot possibly be making rational decisions!?

Substance use disorder completely hijacks the brain's capacity to make proper decisions regarding the ongoing health of the individual. And yet our society seems to have the absolutely stupid logic that these people are making these decisions of their own free will.

Utter nonsense!

It's high time that we start looking at rearranging the 302 process so as to save these men and women who are incapable of saving themselves under the current circumstances of their brain's rewiring.

05/30/2024

Please pray for a loved one formerly of the street who is in court today. Please pray that this person is a ride actually gets them there and if not that they are able to get themselves there by a mass transit. Please pray for a calm heart and wisdom on the part of every Court person including the judge, prosecution and defense Representatives.

Please help those who make decisions regarding this person's future to recognize the goodness in this person and help this person to move into a healthy lifestyle more and more. Please help the court system to see this person as a patient first and foremost.

05/28/2024

Dear friends, the deeper I get into the agony in The souls of people dealing with addiction, the more I realize that the use of the substances is simply the surface issue. These substances generally speaking are painkillers. People take painkillers when they are in pain. Imagine being a young adolescent and having your father force himself on you. Imagine your mother pimping you out so as to bring new money into the family economy for her own addiction. Imagine losing your best friend who happens to be your sister. Imagine being told directly or indirectly by every Medical professional you've encountered, that you are somehow something less than every other medical patient with a diagnosis similar to yours in that they are all referenced in the DSM-5.

Imagine your parent giving you a disease which you must now try to navigate within and live or give up and die.

These are but a few of the many and deep sources of pain I have heard from these human beings who have been made in the image of God and who are worthy of the highest dignity and honor and respect and love. Is it any Wonder that these amazing people turn to a painkiller to kill pain beyond our wildest imagination?

And so what I ask is that if you are in a position of medical leadership or housing leadership or counseling leadership, etc etc, you do everything in your power and authority to help these people in perpetual pain to overcome their agony and find healing through your mood of professional provision.

05/24/2024

A few days ago I mentioned that I've not been spending as much time literally on the streets of Kensington as I was at one point. And yet my Kensington related activities are easily as much as they were in my active visitation time. I'm there visiting at least one day a week. I hope that part will never change. I am more and more involved in behind the scenes stuff related to individuals who I've known and loved for as much as eight years. I've come to know family members and the individuals themselves. It's been a staggering privilege to walk alongside patients of substance use disorder and their siblings and parents in various ways.

And so please don't think that my lack of visiting the streets is somehow a lack of ministry involvement. These are amazing human beings trapped in a miserable situation. Ministry continues to the best of my humble ability. Please keep praying.

05/20/2024

I'm not spending nearly as much time in Kensington as I would like to. And maybe in one way that's a bit good. Being there not much more than once a week, I'm seeing what's happening from a perspective different from individuals who are there every single day. Maybe, just maybe I'm picking up on things that are getting overlooked. But then again maybe not. Anyway, let me share an observation.

As the city in its wisdom has decided to close down to the homeless population a several block section of Kensington avenue, a certain number of people have gone into detox care and that's great. I just hope they're staying there. And then there are the other larger population of folks who have simply moved down or up the block.

The vicinity of Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street is currently filled to the rim with individuals in a desperate survival mode as they deal with an addiction they would rather not have and not getting care from institutions which should be providing care.

Not all that long ago, I could set up my stuff to give away and have conversations with people as they come along. But they are further down Maslow's hierarchy of needs and simply needing the basics such as food and water. The concept of conversation is irrelevant at their point right now.

The city in its wisdom must come to the understanding that this is a tragic medical situation similar in some ways I suppose to a major earthquake hitting the area. We cannot see these individuals as criminals engaged in illegal behavior. We must see them as individuals with a staggeringly painful and dangerous and deadly diagnosis of substance use disorder as is recognized in the dsm-5.

There is so much more that I would like to share but you and I can only tolerate so much at one time. I pray for these individuals many of whom I have come to know and love over these years. Let us all work together from whatever perspective we have authority and or love and or interest and make changes for these individuals whose minds are locked inside of a civil war the likes of which none of us on the outside of addiction could ever possibly understand.

05/18/2024

It is staggering how there is currently death upon deaths upon death upon death upon death upon death upon death in or on or near the streets of Kensington largely due to the ridiculously toxic concoction of drugs that is out there right now.

When you take that combination of drugs and the medical communities lack of knowledge on how to detox a person from those new drugs, and you add on top of that the patients easy cure to finding relief by simply buying one bag of those drugs to relieve the agony, you have a nightmare of staggering proportions.

We cannot totally blame the patients for seemingly signing out ama when the professionals into whom they entrusted their care are not able to provide the care that they need promptly and with dignity and respect and professionalism.

Nor can we totally blame the medical community when this is a totally new situation. Highly trained medical professionals in Major Medical communities have never had to detox humans from animal tranquilizers and so forth. And so there is definitely a learning curve for everyone.

One of the things I would ask is that the professionals and outreach workers etc stop looking at the recently seemingly AMA to patient and blaming them. That amazing individual is in the civil war of civil wars between their left and right ears. One side of the brain is screaming for the healing while the other side of the brain is screaming for relief and ultimately the drug.

Let us do everything possible to stand on the side of the patient and listen to their requests. They know their journey on an individual level far more than the professional knows at the professional level. If they know that they would benefit from a particular legal drug to help them get through the detox, do everything possible to make that happen. And above all else as you the professional do what you do, do not ever make that person feel less than human. They are in agony. They are not specifically mad at you. They are thoroughly disgusted with their situation. They want help. Please give it to them.

05/16/2024

I would appreciate your prayers while I am visiting the wonderful people on the streets of Kensington this morning.

05/13/2024

I won't discuss the details but I do want my Facebook world to know that I have just received some news about an individual who I met on minute one of hour one of day one of my starting to visit the streets of Kensington who after all this time is doing absolutely fantastic in their journey toward health. I just told this person's loved one that I wish I had some fireworks to shoot off in celebration. I am so very thrilled and praising God for God's interaction in the healing process of this magnificent person. Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!

05/12/2024

Here's some fun shots although a bit hard to see which I have just now captured in my indoor memorial Rose garden for Beba Maldonado .

There are several pictures of this multi-rosed stem in the foreground and if you look closely, you will see a deer right outside the window.

05/07/2024

Is there anyone in Kensington who can tell me how things went at the town meeting this evening? Does anyone have any new insights into what's happening tomorrow on Kensington avenue?

05/07/2024

I would appreciate your prayers while I am visiting the amazing people of Kensington on this gorgeous day.