“When I counted up my demons, saw there was one for every day, with the good ones on my shoulder, I drove the other ones away” lyrics from song, “Everything’s Not Lost” by Coldplay

Today, we had the privilege of serving 34 people.

• We started out with some joy and some sadness.  We were happy to hear that our friend (Jay) decided to give treatment another try.  Through the help of a dear friend, we were able to get him into a great facility.  We pray he stays.  Some of our friends’ wounds and scars, physical and emotional, run so deep that they try to bury them in their addiction until the one thing that gave them relief doesn’t work anymore.  At this point what follows is either recovery or death.  We pray it is recovery.  

• The sad note is that our friend (Robby) was found dead the other day.  During the summer he was living in a tent we gave him.  He always loved when we would show up on Saturday, especially with our packet of $10 bill/$10 Dunkin Donuts card/prayer card.  When he received our packet, he couldn’t wait to go to the Dunkin Donuts across the street -- he loved coffee.  He would disappear at times and when we would see him again and ask where he had been his reply would be, “I need to get out of this state”, which meant he got locked up again.  I would tell him it’s not the state, it’s your actions that’s the problem.

• In speaking to another friend about (Robby’s) death, I explained that living this lifestyle makes you numb to illness and death.  As I spoke to (Shane) who has a 10-year-old daughter being raised by a relative, I explained that either he or the mother of his daughter (Kathy) will die if they don’t make a drastic change in their lifestyle.  Then their daughter will never know who her mother or father really is.  It’s called collateral damage and it is so sad to witness.  This is especially hard when we had visited (Kathy) in the hospital and we talked about a plan and set the wheels in motion for a recovery facility.  But the plan died when (Kathy) left the hospital without a word about any recovery.  People who are in the trenches everyday experience this all the time.  When we took over this ministry, we were never naïve enough to think that everyone we spoke to about recover would give it a try.

• We had a friendly visit from women outside the L St Mission.  None of them spoke English so we would point to items, clothes, snacks, hygiene products, etc.  If they smiled it meant they wanted them.  After they were loaded up with items one by one they lined up and hugged us, saying Thank You, Papi and Mommy.  

Like Jim would say, Remember the Mission -- to spread the love of Christ to our friends and never give up hope”.  Our friend Joyce says hope stands for “Helping Other People Every Day”.

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‍“You will be sad, but your sadness will turn to joy” John 16:21

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Please Note:    We have changed our location for donations for On the Street Ministry from Holy Cross Retreat House to My Brother’s Keeper.    We currently have a box in the main stairway on the 1^st floor of MBK.  If you have recurring orders through Amazon or any other retail website, please change the delivery address to:

On the Street Ministry

c/o Shaun Teed

67 Turner Road

Scituate, MA 02066

Thanks to all the people who support our ministry by dropping off clothes, DD cards, at MBK. We are also grateful for the support of My Brother’s Keeper for allowing us to keep a donation box there.

God Bless,

Claire and Shaun Teed and Tito

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