Hello, St. Vincent de Paul

Hi, my name is Ryan Want and I will be serving as the Homeless Court Coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul for the 2008-09 year. This is the fifth year that SVdP has hired a Jesuit Volunteer to run the program and with a little effort on my part it will also be the fifth year a JV has kept a blog.

I have a degree in journalism and English along with experience working at a newspaper, so this should be the easy part--at least compared to getting over the culture-shock of moving from Boulder, CO to downtown Oakland.

Another challenge my position presents for me is learning how to interact and gain acceptance with the guys that frequent the Champion Guidance Center for Men. I’ve spent quite a bit of time over there during my first week, the center has a place to do laundry, showers to clean up, computers to check e-mail, a phone to make local calls, tables to play games and a big-screen TV to watch movies in the afternoon, so all in all it’s a pretty nice place.

I was also pleased to see that there is a steady stream of coffee in the morning and judging from the elderly-woman who tried to force her way into the center on Wednesday while she yelled “Coffee! Coffee!”--it must be quite good. After one of the guys said, “Woman, what you think you’re doing? This is a men’s center!” and another guy gently bear-hugged her, they agreed to fix her a cup to go complete with cream and sugar.

Last year’s SVdP JV, Mike Tyler, was nice enough to stick around for my first week on the job and show me the ropes, which has been extremely helpful. Throughout the week as I talked with both staff and clients it was abundantly clear that I’ve got some clown-sized shoes to fill.

As for future posts, it’s my goal to keep the blog updated at least once a week with mostly personal reflections and musings about my job, community and experiences here in Oaktown.

I’ll end this first post with a prayer that seems appropriate for starting a new job in a city you’ve never been to before and has really inspired and comforted me over the past week:

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"