Homeless Reflection Paper

This week in my ministry setting I had an encounter with a homeless person. This gentleman I will refer to as Bob had been homeless for some time. He has no living family and is of poor health. He was in the hospital for a leg infection and while having tests run on that found out his cancer from a previous time in his life was now back. His concerns were valid and I did my best to console him. I went into his hospital room during my normal rounds. As I walking in he questioned what I wanted. I proceeded to introduce myself as the Chaplain on the unit. Bob was an average sized man, maybe on the lean side. He did not have a beard, but was not clean shaven. He looked like any other patient to me. I had no idea when I walked into his room of his case or situation. …show more content…
I explained we are both on the Chaplain staff and that Jewish patients would be visited by someone of the Jewish community for their tradition. I further explained that I was not necessarily there for faith based conversation, but just to have a conversation of his choice. This was when he began telling me his story and asked questions that I did not have definite answers for. When the conversation started while getting to know me I felt sad for him because he told me through other admissions this was the first where anyone came to talk with him from the Chaplaincy department. I apologized for the oversight and wondered if that was because he was homeless and why would it matter now to the Jewish leader who came to see him. This then lead to him telling me about his situation. At first he did not go into detail; he thought I knew all about him and I informed him I only knew what he told me trying to give him the power of his own