Then my friend came and sat on the couch beside me, and a group of us talked about the emergency winter shelter situation.  A currently homeless friend — who has been feeding other homeless people with take-home food from his catering job — sat on the other side of me, and they talked about helping homeless people. She told him about buying and cooking food and taking it to homeless people who sleep under bridges. This Thanksgiving, she’s planning to cook a turkey and invite anyone who doesn’t have a place to go — homeless or homed — to come and eat.  I have a place to go, but I think I’d rather be there.

I was with another homeless friend last night who is constantly gathering things for other homeless or hungry people — clothes, furniture, resources.  She cooks and serves with FNB.  She volunteers with DayWatch.  She is consistent, reliable and tireless.  She puts others first and herself last.  Always.  I am in awe of her.  I love her.

I’ve spent a big part of my day with another close friend, who is formerly homeless.  He devotes most of his time to feeding homeless and hungry people, through FNB.  Every time we have a crisis and need to mobilize and feed or serve people, he’s there.  Whenever we do DayWatch, he’s there.  When I need someone to move furniture, clean and organize spaces, shop for bulk stuff and load it on my truck, or just talk through the moving parts of street outreach ministry, he is there — consistent and faithful.  He’s my friend.  And he’s a friend to homeless and hungry people in Greensboro.

I like to help people, to serve people, to do things for people. But I also have the gift of a family who makes sure that I always have everything that I need. (Not want, but definitely need.) So I am operating and giving out of an abundance. My currently and formerly homeless friends, who are the experts on homelessness because they are or have been homeless (I am not an expert, just a  grateful friend of the experts), are giving and serving out of all that they have.  Every day, they teach me what sacrifice means.  I cannot express to you how thankful, how honored, how overwhelmed I am to have these friends in my life.  I hope that you have friends like mine.  If not, I’d love to introduce you to mine sometime.  I’m so not worthy of them, and yet so thankful that they keep letting me hang around.

Urban Ministry serves homeless breakfast

Your article, “Discovering a need, blogger takes action” (A1, Aug. 14), contained incorrect information. It stated, “Hospitality House is the only place in the city that serves breakfast to the homeless.”

I have the opportunity to serve breakfast every Thursday morning at Greensboro Urban Ministry, where between 70 and 150 homeless people are served each morning. These breakfasts are prepared and served by members of First Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church of Our Father, the Episcopal Churches of Greensboro and others.

Each church/organization is responsible for one morning a week. Volunteers arrive at 6 a.m., cook, serve, clean and provide an uplifting message for the guests.

The opportunities in Greensboro to help those in need are endless. Let’s all do our part to show we care.

Susan Wilson
Greensboro

My response:

A follow-up article the next day stated:

“The nonprofit [Hospitality House] is the only place in the city that provides breakfast to people who are hungry every weekday except Wednesday, when the Greensboro Urban Ministry has a community breakfast. Urban Ministry otherwise serves breakfast only to those who stay overnight at the Weaver House.”

The letter writer, Ms. Wilson, serves breakfast for Weaver House residents. The Hospitality House serves unsheltered homeless people and other hungry people. Both are needed and appreciated.

We have also learned that St. Paul Baptist Church serves breakfast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. That location is a little over a mile southeast of the downtown area. (Glenwood Presbyterian and Nu Life Church serve breakfast on Saturdays. As far as we know, no one is currently serving breakfast on Sundays.)

The letter writer is correct that the opportunities are endless, because the need here is great. There are many homeless and hungry people in Greensboro. We have more homeless people than we have space in homeless shelters.

We are blessed to have people like Miss Terry at the Hospitality House who daily feed and serve those who would otherwise go without. Those of us who volunteered last week got a glimpse of how much work Miss Terry does, and we are even more appreciative now of her efforts to love and serve our friends.

Cara Michele

We served at least 100 for breakfast on Thursday and 150 for breakfast on Friday, and 150+ at Friday’s dinner. We served a different group of homeless folks than Greensboro Urban Ministry. There are a lot of homeless people in Greensboro. Many more than most people realize. And we still didn’t serve them all.

“A homeless man was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight Monday afternoon along West Florida Street, police said. At 5:22 p.m., Greensboro police responded to the intersection of West Florida and Luray Drive. Lt. Brian James said a man walking down the street was robbed and struck in the head with ‘some type of blunt object.’” » continue reading on News-Record.com

West Florida Street is a heavily traveled road, and it intersects with Luray Drive at Smith Homes, a large public housing community where there are typically a number of people (including children) outside, on patios and sidewalks. And 5:22 p.m. is a peak traffic time for commuters. To attack and rob a man in the street at that time of day strikes me as a fairly bold act.

FYI: Smith Homes is just across Freeman Mill Road from the Glenwood neighborhood, where attacks on homeless people are all too frequent.

I checked the incident report and the man’s name, age and race match that of a man I know, but haven’t seen in a long while, who has lived in Glenwood previously and has been homeless off and on — with the exception that the last name of the man I know begins with a different letter than that on the incident report and that reported by Fox8. Because everything else is the same, I’m assuming it’s the same guy, and they just spelled his name wrong on the incident report. I hope that he’s OK. The incident report lists “Minor Injuries, Apparent.” But he wasn’t interviewed for the news story, so there’s no way to know how this has affected him.

Fox8 interviewed Mike Aiken, director of Greensboro Urban Ministry, for the story, and that segment of the news story focuses on homeless people being attacked as part of gang initiations, although GPD has not identified this attack as being gang-related. Wonder why that came up? I’ll try to find out.

Just another reminder that it’s dangerous to be homeless.

P.S. Just talked to another friend, formerly homeless, who now lives in Glenwood and was also recently violently attacked and robbed in this same area. Better watch out if you’re walking at night in Glenwood.

SUNDAYS

• 8am – 9am BREAKFAST:  Awaken City Church; serving at Center City Park, downtown
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 12pm – 1pm LUNCH: Bagged lunches from Center City Church; various locations in downtown Greensboro
• 5pm – 6pm DINNER: New Creation Community Presbyterian Church; 617 N. Elm St., Greensboro, NC

MONDAYS

• 7:30am – 9am BREAKFAST: St. Paul Baptist Church; 1309 Larkin St., Greensboro, NC
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 5:30pm – 6:30pm DINNER: Food Not Bombs; serving at the IRC; 407 E. Washington St, Greensboro, NC

TUESDAYS

• 8am – 9am BREAKFAST: Grace United Methodist Church; 438 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 6pm – 7pm DINNER: First Presbyterian Church; 700 block of N. Greene Street, Greensboro, NC

WEDNESDAYS

• 7am – 8am BREAKFAST: Greensboro Urban Ministry; 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC, Greensboro, NC
• 7:30am – 9am BREAKFAST: St. Paul Baptist Church; 1309 Larkin St., Greensboro, NC
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 6pm – 7pm DINNER: Grace Community Church; 643 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC

THURSDAYS

• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 6pm – 7pm DINNER: First Presbyterian Church; 700 block of N. Greene Street, Greensboro, NC

FRIDAYS

• 7:30am – 9am BREAKFAST: St. Paul Baptist Church; 1309 Larkin St., Greensboro, NC
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC
• 5:30pm DINNER: New Birth Sounds of Thunder Christian Center; 2300 S. Elm/Eugene St., Greensboro, NC

SATURDAYS

• 8am – 9am BREAKFAST: Burrito Bikers; serving at Center City Park, downtown
• 8am – 10am BREAKFAST: Glenwood United Methodist Church; 1417 Glenwood Ave., Greensboro, NC
• 8:30am – 8:30am BREAKFAST: Nu Life Church; 209 W. Florida St., Greensboro, NC
• 10:30am – 12:30pm LUNCH: Potter’s House, Greensboro Urban Ministry, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC

Find out why my friends Marshall, Diane, Dayna, Denine, Melissa, Randy and others moved to Glenwood in this News & Record feature story.

Read their blogs:

Marshall, “Joy In The Margins”
Dayna, “The Word Became Flesh… And Moved Into The Hood”
Marshall, Dayna, Denine, Suzanne, “Life In The G“

I now have a copy of the DVD of Pete and Ricky under the bridge and in their new home, but the file is too big to upload to YouTube. I don’t have video editing software to make it smaller or break it up into sections. Can anybody help? Email me, please.

>> See the Pete & Ricky video.