Jimmy is 69 years old. He’s worked all his life, and is a military veteran, but now, at retirement age, he is living in a tent in the woods.

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Jimmy says that he’s eligible for Social Security, but doesn’t have the identification he needs, including his DD214, to get Social Security retirement benefits. Since this video was made in July 2009, my friend Deb, a NightWatch team leader, has been helping Jimmy get some of the help he needs.

Mark Horvath filmed Jimmy at one of the camps on the Mitchell property off Spring Garden Street. All of the people living in homeless camps on that property will be displaced during the next phase of construction on the Greenway. We welcome your prayers for them, and any thoughts you might have on relocating them. It is our understanding that most of the local housing programs that might be able to assist them are currently full. If you know of housing options, or if you can help Jimmy or any of our other friends at the Mitchell camps, please respond in the comments.

This video was made by Mark Horvath during the Greensboro stop of the InvisiblePeople.tv Road Trip USA, sponsored locally by Quaintance-Weaver, and donors Ed Cone, Salvage America, and RecycleBills.com. Thank you, all!

image credit: Joseph Rodriguez, News & Record

No injuries were reported when a fire broke out in a trailer today.

The fire was reported about 12:20 p.m. Monday in an empty mobile home at 1727 W. Lee St., about a block east of the Greensboro Coliseum.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

NightWatch has visited that trailer many times over the past few years, and we’ve taken food, blankets and hygiene bags to the homeless people who’ve stayed there. As far as I know, there was no water/sewer or power, but it’s a decent-sized trailer, and a secure roof over your head for whoever was there at the time.  The last time I went by there was last summer. I don’t know if anyone had been staying there recently, but with the big increase in homeless people on the street in the past year, I’d really be surprised if no one was sleeping there.  And if someone was, they’ve lost their spot.  And probably all their stuff, too.

» Previously:  On 04/08/2009, there was another fire in a building where homeless people slept.

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.