One day at the church where I work part-time, a tourist handed me a wallet found on the front porch. I glanced inside at the driver’s license. I don’t remember the name on the card but I remember the owner’s image. Handsome with thick dark hair and bright blue eyes. I could see just enough of his shirt and tie to make me think he was a businessman of some sort. I closed the wallet and tucked it into a little cubby until I could take it to lost and found. Shortly thereafter, a man entered my area. I smelled him before I saw him. Not body odor, just stale alcohol. His clothes were wrinkled and too big for his scrawny frame. Thinning brown hair was slicked back. The blue eyes were the same, though, gently electric. In a slurred voice he thanked me and then left. I had the luxury of sitting inside for the rest of the afternoon wondering what had happened to transform that man. Was he homeless as I suspected? What was his story? Well, that story I may never know, and if I were to see him again I am not sure I would have the courage to ask. But I am glad there are people in this world not afraid to ask like Mark Horvath.
On the street I saw a small girl cold and shivering in a thin dress, with little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and said to God; “Why did you permit this? Why don’t you do something about it?” For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly:
“I certainly did something about it. I made you.”
That is the opening quote on the About page of Horvath’s InvisiblePeople.tv blog. The invisible people to which he refers are the homeless. And here are the links for the organization’s YouTube channel and his more personal blog, HardlyNormal. I hope you take time to watch some of the videos shot by Horvath as he interviews the homeless. Once homeless himself after making some bad decisions, he has a knack for drawing people out of their shells and encouraging them to tell their stories in their own words without fear of judgement. Please take a look and listen.
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