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| The Homeless Bard Image - Ms Jane Campbell / Shutterstock.com |
It's a rare weekend away for my husband and I,
we up in London and quite honestly having a wonderful time. The guise for
coming up here was to attend the Premier Digital conference but to be frank
after meeting Lee, or #thehomelessbard as he's better known, nothing was going
to have the same lasting impact.
After arriving to Victoria and taking a bus ride
towards Leicester Square to go and book some theatre tickets we decide to get
off at Trafalgar Square and walk the last short while. I'm not sure what made
me suggest walking - that the bus driver was a bit laissez faire in his approach
to road safety or whether it was a prompt from God, but off we got.
Within a few minutes I'm drawn to the
well-presented (well, he's wearing a holey jumper, buts it's clean and he
smells good) and well-spoken man writing masses on the pavement. Nothing too
showy about it, he's just using white chalk and there are no pictures but
there's something aesthetically captivating and beautiful about his writing.
Within a few moments of reading and if I'm honest, earwigging his conversation
I know why I'm drawn to it. Lee is homeless but he's also a man of God. He is
living for Jesus and he wants the world to know the good news. And in case you
don't already know what that is, it's that Jesus died for us all. He loves me,
he loves you and there's no judgement or condemnation.
It doesn't take long for me to throw my pound in
the bucket and grab an image of one of his poems, titled ‘Little Voice’. My
husband asks if I've seen something I like and I point that first poem out and
we agree that if you swap the word angel for Holy Spirit then it's
theologically sound and reflects our beliefs.
Then the poem ‘Be the truth’ catches my eye next
and my husbands throwing his money in the bucket too and I head over to ask Lee
(I'm not sure if that's his real name and to be frank it doesn't matter, as the
man going by the name #thehomelessbard is only interested in glorifying Gods
name, not his own) if he writes the same poems each day or if he is given new
material each day.
He's quick to tell me that his day starts in
prayer and that God normally gives him one word and from there the poem flows.
Some he copies out multiple days as they are the foundation of what he wishes
to share and others are fresh that day. On the day we chat there are two new
poems and I ask him if this is his ministry, I think at that point he realises
I'm a fellow believer and he starts to share a little of his personal story.
About being homeless, although nowadays rarely
having to actually sleep on the street as he gets offered places to stay and
about his heart for helping those people who are homeless. This is a man with a
God given passion, he wants to see an end to shelters and a rise to homes for
the homeless to share. Homes where the obligations put upon the people living
in them are not too scary. They don't have to sign on, they don't have to get a
job, they don't have to be clean. But they do have to respect the home, it's a
place of God, a safe haven where the only obligations placed upon them are that
they must build community together and that if they have an addiction like
drink or drugs, they must do it away from the house. It's a place where they
can heal from the inside out I comment and Lee nods enthusiastically and says
exactly.
He gets excited as he tells me about a dog
walker he sees early most mornings and how this man is helping him to get a
house to be able to start making his vision a reality and I'm touched, really
touched. In fact by this point I'm feeling very tearful and thinking I really
must return the call to the trustee of a local charity that I've offered to
give some admin help to. Not just any charity though, a local one in Hastings
that have just set up a home for homeless people to share. It amazes me every
time how God works; the clarity I get to my pondering of if this volunteering
opportunity was where I was supposed to be giving my time next.
Our conversation doesn't last long and I can see
Lee is keen to get back to his writing, so I thank him for his time and take details of the two self-published books he sells on Amazon. I might just have
to treat myself to those and in the process add a little money to his fund for
the homeless.
As my husband and I walk away, he talks about
how he feels a bit funny after our conversation with Lee. He's not generally an
emotional man but he's been impacted by the conversation and whilst Lee had
sounded a little like a conspiracy theorist towards the end of our
conversation, my husband compares him to John the Baptist, as people thought he
was off the wall too. And in comparing him to John the Baptist I think he
captures the essence of who Lee is, a simple man, who wants nothing for himself
but dignity for everyone else.
Thank you Lee for your amazing ministry and your
God focused heart. I'll be praying for you and the realisation of your passion.
If you happen to be walking through Trafalgar
Square, look out for Lee and whether you're a Christian or not, have a read of
some of his poems as he has a wonderful talent. You'll know it's him, as each
poem will be signed THB, for #thehomelessbard
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