Expectations

There's the old story about the prisoner who planned his prison escape for 27 years.  And he finally made it!  Then when he was standing outside the wall, he just stood there, hearing the sirens, hearing the clamor, but making no move! 

For he was struck by one absurd fact - he had planned so many years into how to escape, that he'd not once ever given thought to what he'd do when he was out!

At the Liahona Mission, it was not that bad for us, but we get that prisoner's surprise, just a tiny bit, anyway!  You see, we had spent years on getting the first house up and running, getting all the paperwork done, registering, incorporating, learning and figuring out all the ins and all the outs!  Then getting the second house, and doing the move to there, to start to fix up that house, while finally being able to open up the first house!

Now, with it up and running, and with us having aided and still aiding many people, we are not wholly surprised, we've not run into anything that we cannot work with, but there is a kind of "now what?" feeling all the same!

For it has been at once what we expected, and much more than we expected.  Things we knew we'd deal with and things we did not expect, or perhaps not so soon.

Having to try to fill all the beds and keep things running smoothly and be there for each guest, that we knew would be a part of it.  And a large part.  We do not give rides as a set policy - that would be awful expensive! - but the goal is for each of them to succeed, so if there is an emergency ride to work or such needed, we do that. 

We also respond to each request for a chat, which usually just involves going over plans they have and to see if there's a way that this or that or the other can happen.  Usually pertaining to jobs or classes or something that will further them along on their road to recovery.


There's the AA/NA meetings each week.  Each guest goes to two meetings per week as part of the program, and our Program Supervisor attends with each of them for one of those weekly meetings.  Which is good for our Program Supervisor as he's a recovering alcoholic himself, so he gets in four meetings a week for himself that way!

All those things, and then some, were expected.  But other stuff, not so much.  It wasn't anticipated that there would be such resistance to the weekly "House" meeting, a fairly normal thing for Sober Living homes, but harder to do then we thought when each guest has a different work schedule.  It wasn't anticipated that there would be any difficulty in collecting $150 for an entire month of shelter, electricity, gas, internet, water, trash and washer/dryer on site.  After all, each person who called was in theory calling to pay for some program, and we know we're the lowest in town.

It wasn't anticipated that someone would spectacularly relapse by doing meth, then try to camp out in a wooded area behind our home threatening to kick in our door. 

And it wasn't anticipated that one of our guests who we thought was doing better than we could ever have expected, would take that "just one drink" one day, then walk out the door and never be heard from again - till he was found dead behind a building of alcohol and exposure.


This upcoming June, by the way, will be our first half year in constant operation.  We are learning now to adjust our expectations.

On the brighter side, and there has been that, too, the willingness of several of the guests to volunteer for various church projects or come to church has been higher than we'd have thought.  So there's that.  And the place has generally been kept cleaner than we'd have guessed four men would keep it.  So there's that!  And several of them seem to enjoy doing odd jobs like gardening or general improvements.  So there's that!

And that's where we stand now.  Still outside the "wall", so to speak, hearing the sirens and commotion, but having a bit more of a feel for where we'll be going from here!  We're still improving our second house, but we'll write more on that later!