“…So instead of doing laundry, I spent the morning putting together hygiene bags and snack bags and then went out with Michele & Melissa, two of the incredible members of Streetwatch, and visited some of their homeless friends in a tent city. I was beyond bummed when I had to cut out early in order to pick the kids up from school.

And guess what happened while we were out? Something crazy amazing. I knew I wouldn’t be super-helpful today. Most of their focus is on the relationships they build with the homeless people in our community and since I’m brand-spanking-new, it was just my first chance to start those relationships. I guess God knew how much I wanted to be of service today. There was one man at one of the tent cities who only spoke Spanish. He’d only just moved to that particular location three days ago – the only place I was able to visit today. The Streetwatch folks have known about him for much longer and had been really wanting to talk to him. I had never told them I spoke Spanish when I volunteered. It only came up when I was standing right in front of him.

Turns out he’d been wanting to talk to the leader of Streetwatch for awhile. I was brought to tears as he went on and on thanking her, sending her blessings, telling her he prays for her family, how he can tell she has a strong and noble heart. We talked with him for awhile, listening to him. I can only imagine how often he actually gets to have a conversation, given that he’s homeless and we found him today in a tent city where no one else speaks Spanish. Streetwatch provides snacks & basic supplies but also asks people what they need specifically. Guess what he wanted? A Bible in Spanish. He only has an English one. A man living in a tent city when given the chance to ask for something, asked for a Bible in his own language. That’s all. Humbling…”

>> Read all of “Better Than Dirty Laundry” by Kirstin at Our Journey to Africa.

Melissa and I met a new friend at the Freeman Mill tent city on Friday while we were doing StreetWatch. Jeffrey told us that he’s not homeless, “just a vagabond”, and he played and sang music for us and let me film him. The first thing he played was, I think, Ben Harper (top video). But what captivated me and spoke to my soul, was his rendition of “How He Loves Us” (bottom video). He shared with us about his journey in life, and let’s just say, the words of “How He Loves Us” (lyrics below) fit his story… and mine. God is good. I am grateful.

“How He Loves Us” lyrics, by Kim Walker

He is jealous for me
Love’s like a hurricane,
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.

Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.
(x2)

Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves.
(x2)

We are His portion and
He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption
by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns
violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves
(x2)

Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us
He loves us
He loves us
He loves.

Yeah, He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves

He loves us,
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves

The harsh words and hard hearts reveal the truth — the concern is not for the poor and any negative effects government assistance programs may have on them, it’s for the pocketbooks of those who oppose them! If they were truly concerned about the poor, they would be spending their energy advocating for positive change and accountability for government assistance programs — not trying to dismantle them! (For those who argue that the government shouldn’t be involved in helping the poor, they would be spending their energy advocating for effective private programs to help the poor — not just trying to end them!)

God is not fooled by any of this. Those who ridicule, scorn and ignore the plight of the poor also mock and blaspheme God! And they dig their own graves. God’s Word is clear. He is the defender of the poor!

“Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.”
– Proverbs 17:5

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”
– Proverbs 19:17

“Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.”
– Proverbs 21:2

“He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.”
– Proverbs 28:27

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
– Matthew 6:19-21

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
– Matthew 25:41-46

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
– 1 Timothy 6:10

Hello:

My name is David. I am 69 years old ( I have a hip replacement) and I can’t do very much! I attend Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif. I hope you will read this e-mail. I thought it might be of some interest to you. It shows what the Lord can do if we listen to him and then follow what he has to say!

My wife and I belong to what we call the “Red Wagon.” The “Red Wagon” is just a name for our church group that feeds the homeless on Mondays and Thursdays. We feed aproximately 225 homeless people every week!

Over the years, I have prayed for something I could do for the church. I can’t carry a tune, can’t teach, etc. Well, finally the Lord spoke to me! As I was wrapping the forks and spoons into the napkins (Our health Dept. requires us to do this! ) the Lord told me that we are feeding the homeless food so why not give them a Bible Verse to take with them, more food!

Well, I finally found something I can do! I print out aprox. 225 Bible Verses each week, 25 Verses, then change to a new verse! I hand write them, using a colored marking pen. Only three colors. Red (Title I make up ) Blue ( The Verse ) Black ( Where found in the Bible ) I print them on my home printer ( Copier ). I get two on each sheet of 8.5×11 inch standard paper. I cut them in half and wrap one in each napkin with the fork and spoon.

I have been doing this for about six months and so far, no one has thrown them away! One lady found hers. She had accidently thrown it away with her napkin. She says she saves all of them! This is something simple that anyone can do. Maybe you know someone that wants to serve the Lord and doesn’t know what to do.

By taking the first step which was joing the ” Red Wagon,” the Lord showed me what I can do! I AM REALLY BLESSED!!!
Thanks for reading this e-mail. I hope you enjoyed it!

God bless You!

I love this idea! Thank you, David.

Some demographics about those who stayed in Greensboro’s  winter homeless shelters this year:

• 55 women
• 150 men

• 13% age 18-30 years (youngest 18)
• 72% age 31-55 years
• 15% 56 years or older (oldest 67)

• 75% black
• 21% white
• 5% other

• 25% chronically homeless (unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year)
• 11% veterans (23)

• 56% cited unemployment as the cause of their homelessness

The men’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• First Presbyterian Church (20)
• Pleasant Garden Baptist Church (20)
• West Market Street Methodist Church (15)
• Mt. Zion Baptist Church (15)
• FaithStep Ministries (11)

The women’s winter shelter locations (# of people sheltered):

• Grace Community Church (15)
• First Baptist Church (10)

» Read more about the operation of the shelters in “Press Release, Report on 2009-10 Greensboro Urban Ministry Winter Emergency (WE) Shelters”

My ministry partner, Audrie Keen, and I provide a street outreach to the homeless in Greensboro, and we’ve made a lot of friends along the way. We eat together, go to church together and have cookouts. Sometimes our homeless friends stay with us. We visit formerly homeless friends in their homes.

When we say “homeless friends,” we really mean friends.

Two Friday mornings ago, we visited “The Block” at Lee and South Eugene streets. It had been 11 days since my last visit, when we’d talked about the artistic bench installed, then removed, from along the new stretch of the Downtown Greenway in that area. Neighbors said the bench attracted drug addicts and prostitutes.

The guys on The Block dismissed that notion. One said: “The problem is not as serious as they say it is on the news. And the bench has nothing to do with it.”

We’d also talked about how the removal of the bench had turned attention to The Block, which a reporter described as “a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution” (News & Record, Oct. 10). But the guys said there were no drugs or prostitutes. A friend who catches a bus near The Block agreed, explaining, “The last place prostitutes want to be is around a bunch of broke people. Drug dealers, too.”

The guys had heard the talk about cleaning up The Block, and they found it to be hypocritical. Speaking of the city’s elite, whom they believed to be behind efforts to clear the block, one man said: “They sit outside on the sidewalks and drink wine. But they don’t want to see us out here on the corner drinking ours.”

Another said, “About 50 of us should save up our money and go drink downtown with them at the sidewalk cafes. They’ll be voting for us to go back to Eugene. Get us some tables and chairs out here, too.”

We had all gotten a laugh out of that, but the day after that visit, things changed.

Zero tolerance

In response to a meeting between residents and Guilford County commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston, police Chief Tim Bellamy instituted a zero-tolerance policy on loitering, and officers stepped up patrols.

So, when Audrie and I arrived for street outreach two Fridays ago, we were surprised to see guys on The Block. They weren’t laughing now.

The police hadn’t chased them off yet, they said.

“I don’t have a job, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs,” Mitchell Wall said. “This is the only spot I can come to get work. I understand them making you leave if you’re doing wrong, but why make you leave if you’re trying to better yourself?”

A gray-haired gentleman told Audrie and me that The Block has been a spot for day laborers seeking work since 1959, when it was called “Five Points.”

On this Friday morning, 19 men waited nervously, hoping to be picked up for jobs before the police came and moved them away. One man even had packed a lunch, hoping he’d be working and not at the nearby soup kitchen at lunchtime.

“I used to make a living from right here,” Milton Williams said. “I was homeless. But I was able to pay for my room. I don’t know how I’m gonna do that now. I haven’t caught a job since they put my picture in the paper. I had no idea they were doing that.

“They take your picture but they don’t talk to you. The paper never says anything good about us. None of us are drinking and drugging.”

Kindnesses from cops

As he finished speaking, a patrol car pulled up. The officer began loudly instructing everyone to leave. The guys started to argue, but the officer said, “I’m just doing my job.” They said they were just trying to find a job.

An employee at the Fastmart on the corner, who was visibly upset, came out to talk to the officer. She complained that the guys were scaring away customers.

They hadn’t scared us away, but seeing all those men yelling in anger, I got her point, even as I understood their frustration.

Audrie and I could see everyone’s perspective, but that wasn’t helping the guys on The Block. They had to leave.

The employee went back into the store. The officer got back into his car and pulled away.

We thought about all of the officers we know who balance enforcement and assistance: A sheriff’s deputy who had to evict a homeless man from a barn, but then, with shelters full, spent hours finding him a place to stay. Police officers who organized a collection box for blankets, hats and gloves, then gave them to the homeless in winter. An officer who took boots to men at a homeless camp. An officer who moved furniture into the apartment of a chronically homeless man who finally got a housing voucher. The officers who served alongside us when we fed the homeless. The officer who found a woman drinking in the park and helped her get into rehab.

Everyone knows that cops enforce the law, but Audrie and I know that the Greensboro Police Department also does a lot to “protect and serve” our homeless friends. Having to move people off The Block knowing they have no place else to go — that can’t be an easy job.

Day center will help

I talked to one of the officers who works the area. He’ll be glad when the new day center opens downtown. Me, too. One of our friends on The Block talked about the sense of community and camaraderie there. I believe that the day center will provide that as well.

And the day center can become the new place for employers to come looking for day laborers. It can also be a place where those who drank on The Block can come and find community, support and resources to begin the road to recovery.

After our visit to The Block, Audrie and I headed toward the Freeman Mill homeless camps, whose residents soon will be displaced by more greenway construction. One of our friends there is a homeless woman in a wheelchair. I thought about what one of the guys had said during my last trip to The Block: “Handicapped people living in the woods, and they’re worried about people drinking on The Block?”

Ironic, isn’t it? I guess the folks at Freeman Mill will be moved along soon, too.

Most people assume that there are enough shelters and housing programs to house the homeless, and that mental-health and substance-abuse treatment is available.

The truth? Demand greatly exceeds supply. That’s why people sleep in those camps downtown. And why some of those guys sat on The Block and drank all day.

As the greenway winds its way through areas of downtown that most folks don’t see, some harsh realities are being revealed.

And some friends of mine are asking themselves: Where do you go when there’s nowhere to go?

WHY CARE?

“Why do you do what you do?”

I follow Jesus, and He says to care for the poor, homeless and hungry.

It’s not a suggestion.

He says that when we care for “the least of these,” we’re caring for Him. I tell people, “You want to see Jesus? Go to the street. You’ll find Him there. I did.”

I have struggles in my own life — chronic, often debilitating depression, attention deficit disorder, a spinal injury and a digestive disorder — so I understand what it’s like to live with pain and limitations.

I’m a single mom, and without the support of family, I myself might have been homeless.

My own experiences give me a greater sense of urgency to reach out to those in need. My income says I’m poor, but my life says ‘m rich. I have a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, health coverage and supportive family and friends.

Not everybody has that. I want to pass on the blessings in any way I’m able.

I love to do street outreach, to visit people “flying” signs on corners, to go see friends living in homeless camps. I like to feed people, to pray with people, to listen and laugh and cry with people. I like to bring things that people need, like blankets, boots, socks, tents, etc. I like to help people find resources to get the long-term assistance they need to end their homelessness.

But I get the better end of the deal. I’ve met the strongest, smartest, wisest, most resourceful, creative, generous, faith-filled people living outside in Greensboro. They’ve taught me, encouraged me, prayed for me and blessed me beyond measure.

This is why I do what I do. And I’m thankful for every day that God keeps allowing me to do it.

Michele Forrest of Greensboro operates a homeless outreach and blogs about homelessness at Chosenfast.com

My ministry partner took this photo at the entrance to the Greenway, near the block. Image credit: Audrie Keen

Two days ago, I wrote about “the block” at Lee and Eugene Streets being empty. The block is a long-time gathering spot where folks, many of them homeless, are known to loiter and drink. A friend, who catches a bus just down the sidewalk, had contacted me to tell me that police had cleared everybody out.

Yesterday, I wrote a follow-up post after hearing from multiple sources that the block-clearing, among other things, was the result of a meeting between County Commissioner Chair Skip Alston, Chief Bellamy and neighborhood residents.

Today, the News & Record reports about the block being empty. Their story says that it took a week of 30-minute patrols to clear the block. Actually, the zero-tolerance enforcement began on Tuesday morning, and the block has been clear ever since. It didn’t take a week. The block cleared as soon as the police cracked down.

But let’s back up a minute. If Chief can impose a zero-tolerance policy on loitering on the block, and it’s automagically cleared, then why did it take 20 years to do that? Residents have been complaining for a long time. So have the merchants on the block, as business after business has failed there.  If there was such a quick and easy solution, why wasn’t it done before?

Well, for one thing, there wasn’t a Downtown Greenway 200 yards from the block before. Which brings me to another question: Now that the block is cleared,  how long will it be before those artistic benches are back?

“Endurance. Triumph. Faith. Strength. Hope.”

Prescient?

My minister partner Audrie reminded me that Jesus was born in a barn, because there was no room for him in the inn. And soon after, his family had to flee because a ruler wanted him gone, too.

Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the “least of these,” we are doing for Him. Indeed. Yesterday, Jesus got kicked out of a barn in Guilford County, and I have no idea where he slept last night.

Update: Good news! A persistent sheriff’s deputy found a place for this gentleman to stay last night. Still, his homelessness has not ended and the issues that led him to that barn have not been resolved, so there is  more work to do for him and so many other homeless people in our community.  Homelessness is a huge problem, but it’s also always a symptom of other problems. To end homelessness, we have to address the problems that leave people homeless.

The Myrtle Beach City Council has placed serious restrictions on group that feed the homeless in city (public) parks.  Church groups are currently feeding the homeless and hungry in obedience to their faith — weekly in one park and monthly in another.  A new ordinance will require them to obtain a permit and restrict feedings to four times per year.  The ordinance is a response to  neighbors’ complaints, such as perceived safety issues for children  in the park, and crimes alleged to have been committed by some of the homeless people in the parks.  But those who serve the homeless point out that children are among those being fed (children and families are homeless, too), and that homeless people will be in the parks whether meals are served or not.

Feedings in the parks apparently began because the homeless were already there.  The Swash Park Ministry of First Baptist Church serves meals to a group of homeless people that includes some who aren’t allowed at the community kitchen or shelter and don’t have anywhere else to eat.  Another church’s youth group serves bag lunches monthly at Chapin Park.

Bruce Crawford, pastor of Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church, asks:

“If Jesus came back and tried to feed 5,000, would he able to do it in Myrtle Beach?   We just need to think about our actions.”

Amen.

» More from Myrtle Beach area news outlets: here, here, here, here, here

UPDATE: Map links to parks where homeless are being fed — with images from Google street view:

• Chapin Park, 16th Ave. N. & & Hwy 17
• Withers Swash Park, off 3rd Ave. S. (Withers Swash Rd.)

Note:  I created the image used with this post, using a sign generator.  As far as I know, there is not a sign at Myrtle Beach that says “Don’t feed the homeless.”  (Yet, anyway.)  The image is intended to graphically depict the absurdity of the city’s position and to provoke a reaction in the viewer.

photo credit: irrezolut

From an instant message conversation with my best friend and ministry partner, Audrie Keen, thinking about yesterday when we were at the Salvation Army store, loading the truck for NightWatch, street outreach to the homeless:

Here’s a good moment: Yesterday when I left the Army, my hands were filthy. Like black. I couldn’t wash my hands because a guy was in the bathroom. I didn’t have time to wash them. So I went home with them nasty. Then I looked down at my hands while I was driving home. And my first thought was, “These are the hands of Jesus. His hands were dirty.”

I love you, Audrie.

LORD, give us clean hands and a pure heart, but keep us always ready to get those hands dirty as we serve others as the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.  Thank you for that privilege, Father God. Amen.