Intakes at the Dream Center

The big success of the past month is that we’re now working out of the Dream Center in North Charleston. This gives us a physical location, credibility, and a place to meet employees face to face. So far I’ve conducted close to fifty interviews.

It has been encouraging and energizing to meet the people we want to employ—encouraging because I had my doubts that there actually existed good, honest day laborers who want better, and energizing because I’ve wondered whether or not this could help anybody. But both of these are lies. Just today I talked with a man who, for the past five years has biked more than five miles every morning to a temp agency looking for work. A few weeks back another man came to the Dream Center and explained how a local temp agency took money off the top of everybody’s checks. “What are we supposed to do?” he protested, “Not take it?”

Still, as success whispers the lies grow in both numbers and strength. They pound on the door and yell. It’s almost thrown me off track. The lies consist of: This isn’t working, I should be doing other things, this is taking too long, it’s just a temp agency, I am stupid and inadequate, and I won’t have enough time or money. I feel guilty because we’re conducting interviews but we aren’t even operating. The lies have made me bitter and depressed and inwardly focused, and some nights I go to bed at 9. I wake up not knowing what I should be doing and pass the day hoping I’ll figure it out tomorrow. Even at this very moment I believe some of these lies. They can be difficult to shake.

Still, I know there is nowhere else that I should be.

There have been a few key people who’ve stepped up and said, “This is going to happen, it’s just a matter of time.” And those people are right. We now have a place. We have interested businesses. We have potential employees. We even have an agency that will front our payroll. We need insurance, and a little help from God. And that’s it.

Christ tells us there will be lies and opposition, but that if we stick with it there will be a harvest. The good news is that the more opposition we face, the more lies we hear, the more people say no, the more we know something can really help some people.