Telling the story cont'd,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

A continuation of me trying to tell the story. I do not feel I am very good at telling the story. My talents are in helping people. But none the less, here you are. My goal in this is to try and raise desperately needed funds to continue our important work. Please donate if you can.

1) One of our “friends of STA” Kendal, is seen here sitting with my fiancé Patricia, Kendal will be on the left. One of our donors helped “STA” pay her rent back in 2008 for one month. At that precise time, I believe that donor, although they do not fully realize it, helped save her life. Literally. It gave her one more reason to keep going. Trust me. To this day I believe it was well spent. She just recently (Tuesday) received her Section 8 housing voucher. She was very happy. She is still at her job at a hotel in Knoxville where she is in house keeping. I am very proud of her for staying there. She has been there probably for close to one year now. She has troubles but deep down, she is a good lady with a huge heart. She is one of the people “STA” wants to include in an intense program once we obtain our 501c3 status. She needs a good deal of time and work still but she is very worth it, like many others and I believe she will be a great benefit to the community. But it will take time and money to provide ongoing support to her.

2) In another photo you will see Kendal sitting next to me and behind me is one of our other "STA friends", Dusty. She is an awesome story. Kendal referred us to her back when we first met Kendal. Dusty was living under the bridge on the Salvation Army side of Broadway in Knoxville TN where all the drug dealers are. “Croc” we will call him, a big drug dealer there, was "her man", or more like it, she was "his girl". Kendal asked us to please help Dusty. Dusty was a crack addict. Key word,,,,,was.

Dusty standing behind Kendal and I.

With Kendal cowering in our van scared to death, my fiancé Pat, Kendal and I went under the bridge in the late night of July 1st, 2008. There were drug dealers and users every where and “Croc” was right there next to Dusty. I pulled my van up onto the sidewalk and left it running locking Pat and Kendal inside. “Croc” has beaten, abused and been known in that world to kill others in the homeless world and he still roams the streets. Not for long if I have anything to do with it as my goal is to see him sit in prison or turn him around, one or the other. He can be selling drugs in daylight right there under the bridge, and a Sherriff sits 15 feet away in his car guarding the construction workers. It goes on all day long. I have sat in KARMS parking lot watching drug dealers make deals in the Salvation Army lot. With the support of Jesus standing beside me I got out of the van and in my normal fashion walked right into the den of wolves up to Dusty. I asked if it was her. “Croc” stepped into my face and asked what I wanted. I stated I was not there to speak to him or anyone else for that matter other then Dusty. They all dispersed. Everyone. Dusty and I were left alone to talk. She cried. She agreed to allow us to help her. It was her time. I listened and did "my thing" with Jesus by my side. It was what I talk about in my printed material and on my website. It was Jesus at work using me as a tool. Period. It doesn’t get any easier then that. Nor any more complicated.

After that night, we requested Pastor Mike to allow Dusty into the Volunteer program at KARM even though they were full and he agreed. Because of his assistance, “STA” and I will always do whatever we can for him and KARM.

To this day, we still stay involved with Dusty also. She now has her own apartment which she has had for almost one year now as we worked hard to get her in there, meeting with the landlord on her behalf so she could make room for someone else at KARM. Dusty worked extremely hard also to get in to her new apartment as she had to prove she had been clean for 6 weeks. I continue to encourage her to stay there rather then move into a bigger apartment in order for her to continue to grow and stay strong. Dusty has been clean now ever since that July 1st 2008 night. Over one year now! AWESOME DUSTY!! She works at Market Square Kitchen in Knoxville TN, owned by Mr. Hossein Ghodrat and has been there for over a year at least. Hossein and his wife are very good to her and other homeless. Hossein and his wife employ a number of homeless people and are a huge help to the homeless community. He and his wife have also contributed to Straight Ahead Outreach-Taking Back Your Life. Any patronage you and anyone you know can give to his restaurant would be well spent. The photos with Kendal and Dusty were taken there this January 2009. Dusty has told us numerous times, if we,"STA" would not have stopped to see her on that night in July she does not believe she would be alive today.

3)You will see a photo of Donna(on Walmart scooter) and my fiance Pat shopping at Walmart in Knoxville TN. She was sleeping on Market Square in Knoxville TN in her electric wheelchair. She is the one we took into our personal home for 4 months and finally found her housing in Oak Ridge, TN. My goal is 90 days. She was a very tough case and it took me an extra month. We provided round the clock support for Donna. “STA” provided transportation to and from Doctors, therapy, and shopping. STA did Donnas’ laundry, cooked her meals, and provided intensive round the clock one on one coaching on life, social, economic and employment areas of life. It was a very difficult situation, but I do not regret bringing her into our personal home. I would not do it again, but I do not regret it as we made such a huge difference in Donna and that is bottomline.

We would house Donna once our facility is built. She has a brain injury but is very bright and surprisingly mobile although confined to a wheelchair.

You will see a photo of a group of motorcycles, motorcycles of the Amvets Riders Road Warriors. Without one of the members of the Amvets Riders Wifes’ assistance, we would have never gotten Donna her new apartment. The photo is actually at that apartment where we placed Donna. The Amvets Riders wife is the community manager.

4) You will see a photo of James. A severely homeless Vet. He is an extremely tough case but a brilliant man. He will take a great deal of work, but again, he is worth it. I have been through a great deal with James. Even hired him at the carpet cleaning company I managed. Had to let him go from there but he still is on my radar. He needs our help badly. He sleeps in a tent I gave him under a semi trailer. James has reasons to take his life and I know he is capable. His story is just to long for here. I will share a little bit of it and maybe more another day. We continue to be in contact with James.

James- Just the profile.
James had a tent mate. Wayne. One morning in 2008, Wayne got into James meds which the VET Hospital mailed to him via the Weisgarber Post Office and another HAO on other occasions. It was alot of meds. The wrong kind to get into. It was enough to scare James. It was just fortunate James came back to the tent one morning to find Wayne writhing in the tent with the tent collapsed around him. Wayne went to the hospital, James and I spent many hours there. I was the only one Wayne could communicate with by grunts and nods. Wayne still is unable to talk to this day and he never came out of his vegetative state. Medications should not be prescribed, given, mailed or whatever to people such as this whom the prescribing Doctor or facility knows nothing about the patient other then they are ill in some way. The VETS Hospital did not "know" James. They did not know he was sleeping in a tent until I had a very direct talk with them advising them to re-evaluate how they treat James. If James was not there and did not know me and Straight Ahead Outreach, Wayne would have lay prostrate and died right there in that tent. It will be one of Straight Ahead Outreach’s' directives to seek out those who are lying prostrate and or being ignored or missed by the system. We will do it by both on the street monitoring and by referrals from other homeless individuals. Yes, it all will be a painstaking process. That is just the way it is. THAT is what we, “STA” does.

5) You will see a photo of John and I on the porch of our house in Knoxville. John is dear to my heart and still has a long road to go. His is a very very long sad story. Too long and private to share here. But, please know this. We have spent countless hours providing emotional, physical and financial help to John at any and all hours of the night.

John and I

6) And of course Miss Edna

This letter just would not be complete without Miss Edna.
We know her story. It is on the previous blog. I think about her daily.

7) You will see a photo of Dustin. Dustin hits very close to home. Kind of a long story. One that I have been involved with for almost 6 years now and I am in the very middle of a long distance intervention with him as I type this. I have finally gotten Dustin to agree to go to Delancey Street Foundation to be interviewed as a possible candidate to become a member. This is an organization I have picked. When you become a member of Delancey Street you live there, work there, do everything there in order to turn your life around. I need to get Dustin from Maryland to Florida and then Florida to Greensboro North Carolina to The Delancey Street Foundation. Delancey is what I am looking at fashioning Straight Ahead Outreach's program after to a point. Not everything, but the basic philosophy is great of "each-one-teach-one." http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/wwa.php in case you would like to read about them.

The problem is, we need your help desperately to get Dustin to North Carolina and possibly back if he does not get accepted. The problem is, I honestly think this is Dustin’s last hope. To go to Delancey and turn his life around from drugs, alcohol, and himself. He is an 11 year old in a 32 year olds body. He needs severe structure like Delancey has. He has been chronically homeless for the last 8 years. Because of specifics which took place in his life as a child he just cannot handle every day life skills. I am not stating this for effect, but rather just fact. If I do not get him to Delancey he loses. If they do not accept him, I lose. I have never lost someone in the work that I do in the last 23 years. But I honestly feel for the first time that I could lose on this one. If I "lose", more importantly that means the person loses; it means they take their life.

In order to escort Dustin to Florida then North Carolina, airfare, motel, taxi meals and me back to Fl etc, “STA” is in need of $950. We just have to get this done for his health, safety, and for him to be able to “Take Back His Life”.

Actually I need funds for all of them and more obviously. It is killing me, breaking me to my very core, as they are stuck in the homeless system which is not working for them and I cannot properly help them out of it. What they need takes a facility with a program in place where they can live and get back on track like the one I want to build. If I just keep throwing temporary funds at them to give them clothes or food or whatever it still keeps them where they are. I have done it that way for too long with the people listed here and longer for some of them and others. So, until we can move forward with a facility as a 501c, we will just continue to do what we can. BUT, we STILL need you HELP. PLEASE DONATE. Please donate from your heart and because you can. Please be aware it might not be able to be tax deductible as we are not 501c3 as of yet but we are working on it.

The above people are very tough cases. Some, suicidal, some not. That is why they are close to me in my heart and mind and I will continue to fight for them and many many more. We have many more then this obviously.

I continue to update the website, so check it out when you can and please provide any criticism or advice on it.

Take care and I hope to see you and maybe meet some of you soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Thank you,Lance GreeneStraight Ahead Outreach

(Taking Back Your Life)

Cell: 865-964-1461

Email: straightaheadlwg@gmail.com

Web: http://sites.google.com/site/straightaheadoutreach/Home
Blog: http://homelesscrisis.blogspot.com/
My hopes for you today: That you take time to laugh. That business or work has been good for you today. That someone has made your day enjoyable.

I look forward to seeing or talking to you again soon. :-))!