I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Note: This post was written after I read this post and this one, and particularly the comments. A friend pointed them out to me and asked my thoughts. Since I wrote this after reading those two posts, perhaps the post would make more sense after you read them as well. Go ahead and read them, I will wait here until you are done.

If you spend any amount of time talking to the homeless and more than three people know about it, inevitably someone will tell you that you are enabling them instead of helping them. I have been told I was being taken advantage of, been told that if I did not help them they would have to face reality and had people who claim the name of Jesus as their Lord tell me the poor or homeless should just get jobs.

Here are, as promised, in no particular order, some misc. (I have no idea how to spell that word) thoughts on the homeless and following Jesus.

• When Jesus does return to judge the living and the dead he will not send anyone to Hell because they were too generous. If someone takes advantage of me, that is between them and their God. In the interim, I will err on the side of generosity.
• Matthew 25 tells us when we feed the hungry, are hospitable and visit the sick or the prisoner (no mention is made of of what crime they committed), we do it to Jesus himself. Then he tells us that those who do not do those things will “go away to eternal punishment”. Maybe your theology can explain this away as a metaphor – mine cannot.
• There are approx. (another one I cannot spell) 2000 verses in the Bible that talk about how God expects mercy to be shown to the poor. Perhaps that too is all metaphor…
• If you give someone $5 and they buy a beer with it… so what? You would not like it very much if I gave you a fiver but told you since you are getting a bit chunky, you cannot buy any Oreos with it. A gift is a gift. If your giving is conditional, keep the money – you need it more than they do.
• I never recommend giving money and driving away. Instead, build relationships.
• This means taking them to McDonalds with you (yes, you will get some stares, but then again, so did Jesus). It means having dinner with them, not handing them a happy meal on the way home. It means learning their name, it means finding out their story, it means listening. It does NOT mean telling them that apart from God’s grace they will roast forever and it does not mean trying to fix them.
• If you cannot think of anything other than the above examples, maybe you do not have any friends.
• Loving your neighbor means wanting them to have the same chances and opportunities you do.
• Do not try to ‘help homeless people”. Try to make friends with people, try to show real love and then do what your heart tells you to do.
• Much talk about ‘homeless people’ assumes they are second class citizens. Take the same sentence, use any adjective instead of homeless (black, rich, stupid, smart) and you see what I mean… or maybe you do not.
• A lot of poor people do not change very much. A lot of rich people do not either. Loving people is often not about getting things done, but about accompanying them on a long, difficult journey.
• Do not feed someone to ‘share the gospel’ with them. Feed them because that is the gospel (or a big hunk of it, anyway).

Yes, I sit in court with people; yes, I help people get into housing; yes I help people with HIV get treatment. But, before I do any of that, I eat in the soup kitchen next to them, I learn their children’s names, I sit next to them on the sidewalk and honor them as people… not homeless people, not as poor people, not as a project or a good deed… people.

When I look into their eyes, I see Jesus. Loving people is an act of prayer.

Note number two: If you have huge problems with me and my theology, feel free to leave a comment, but I would much rather eat a meal with you at the soup kitchen and us work it out like brothers or sisters. I will even let you have my cookie.

I have no idea what happened yesterday, but out website traffic took a huge jump upwards. We had about 800 visitors that clicked through to our site from their email inbox, so all we know was there was a link to the site in an email. I have no idea who was talking about or, or what they had to say. I hope it was nice.

Anyway, as a result, we had a huge number of new folks subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Some of them are asking for back issues and, to tell the truth, I had been planning on creating a newsletter archive one day anyway. Sooooo…

As of now, you can go here to get back issues of our newsletters.

(No, it is not your imagination. There was no March newsletter).

Speaking of which, if you are not a subscriber, now might be a really good time to subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Note: This is a guest post by Chad Miller.

It all started as my wife Suzanne and I began to think about what it meant to live a more “missional” or Christ-like life. We saw the shortcomings of our lives when it came to reaching out to those needing some sort of financial need. Sure, we realize there are all types of poverty, but as we came from the middle class, we were drawn to working with the financially poor.

We decided to begin helping our local church feed the homeless one Saturday a month. We struggled with standing behind the table and not entering the world beyond the feeding line. Quickly we began going out and talking to the people who gathered to eat the food. We had no idea what to say. Honestly, I was scared as hell, so I found a couple of people I thought would be able to teach me about how to talk to these people.

I met Wilbur, who had previously homeless for 7 years. He is a great Christian, who has now found a residence locally. He told me about a lot of the people having a disability, addictions, and in need of a Savior. Wilbur used to sit down in Moore Square every day, and hope to get to speak to someone about Christ. Wilbur now speaks for churches about the issue of being homeless in Raleigh area churches. He understands addictions and feels the pain of abusing his family. He taught me a lot over the next 6-7 months. He is a friend and someone I count on for help understanding the needs of the homeless or poor.

After we visited for about 6 months with our church, we decided to begin attending weekly with another local ministry that fed every Sunday at noon. This was a different group of volunteers, some who have served 14 years for almost every week. It was a different approach. As we entered, we realized how much people in our downtown just wanted to be listened to and be treated as a human being.

As Suzanne and I progressed through the week by week we realized that their needs were often much larger than what we could provide for on Sunday. We were really glad to see Hugh come along as more of an everyday contact person for these people.

Whenever I leave on a given Sunday, I feel a little more connected to the Jesus I sat in Sunday school and listened to. Every Sunday I hear their stories of pain, happiness, and I journey with them. We provide tangible items as well, but I think the most important thing to them is that we are their friends and we listen. Regardless of our income or housing status, we all long to have true friends.

*******

Chad lives in Apex, NC with his incredible wife, Suzanne. Chad and Suzanne have been involved with the homeless of Raleigh since January of 2007. They currently are working as schoolteachers in the community, trying to bring awareness of people less fortunate to other people. Suzanne is also an aspiring writer. Chad is on staff at Connections Church in Raleigh, NC as a Children’s Pastor. They both work in unison to bring dignity and grace to all types of people they meet with.

Several people have asked how they could make donations of money via PayPal or through their Major Credit Card. Before we could not do it, but now we can.

If you will go to this page, you will have the option to either make a one time gift or a regular automatic contribution.

While either one is appreciated, right now, our biggest need is for reliable, predictable income. If you are able to commit even as little as $5 or $10 a month, this would go a long way in helping us to write a budget and take on bigger projects.

Well, it is if you subscribe to it.

If for some reason you haven’t yet (I know you have been meaning to…), you can go subscribe to our newsletter on this page. We will not sell your info, send you spam or otherwise flood your inbox.

In the beginning, I was convinced that if I were to shout loud enough, they would change. Now I know they won’t change. But if I shout even louder, it’s because I don’t want them to change me.  Elie Wiesel – holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize  Winner,  world changer

When I first read that quote several years ago, I just did not get it. Now I do.

Dear Friends,

When I write these letters, my gut instinct is to tell you a feel-good success story about mission work here in the inner-city. This is largely from a desire to protect you from the gritty realities I see. As a result, you may have a somewhat skewed view; a sort of Lake Wobegon version of the inner city, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, all the children are above average and the love of Jesus is on everyone’s lips. Is that Kumbaya I hear in the background?

Well, the reality is quite different. Where I am most days is very dark and very oppressive. I am surrounded by people with no hope, with little vision and few dreams. I have seen the ravage of crack, the sure knowledge of certain death by full blown AIDS, the face of hunger on a child and the desperation in a mother’s face as she tries to convince the workers at the Plasma Bank that she should be allowed to sell her blood for the third time this week so she can buy medicine for her sick child.

A typical day (if there is such a thing) may find me sitting on the steps of a church with a crack addict as we wait for the soup kitchen to open, being run off the steps of a church by the cops, or sitting in the dark with someone whose utilities just got cut off, with the certain knowledge the temperature will not get above 50 degrees for the next week. Some days I try to convince women who are 6 months pregnant that they should at least consider quitting smoking, other days I sit with a women as she grieves the loss of her son the State took immediately after she gave birth last week. I listen to stories of betrayal, of sexual assault, of brokenness, of longing for love.

However, in the darkest of days, I see a glimmer of the love that shines through the darkness. Sometimes it is something big, like someone getting a job that can get them off the streets. Sometimes it is the alcoholic who tells me she is four days sober. And some days, it is just the guy in the soup kitchen sitting next to me sharing his excess food with the obviously hungry guy across the table. In the depths of darkness I see the promise of resurrection, the hope of love, the promises of the God of the second chance.

It is in my nature to want to fix things, and sometimes, that happens. Sometimes I am able to use my education, my relationships, my skills and your money to solve problems, remove obstacles and help change to happen. Much more often, however, as a friend of mine recently reminded me, working with the poor is often not about fixing them or getting things done. No, most of what I do is share the rough journey with them, sitting there with them in the dark after the lights have been shut off.

Recently I have met and worked with some awesome people who want to help us love people. A few of them have provided some financial support, some have donated practical items such as socks and toothbrushes and others are praying for us and the work. Please never forget that while I may be the “point man” and the one who writes these letters, the work is made possible by a team of folks, both on the front lines with me and in the rear, providing support.

Right now, our biggest need is for reliable, predictable income. If you are able to commit even as little as $5 or $10 a month, this would go a long way in helping us to write a budget and take on bigger projects. If this is something you are able to do, shoot me an email and we will work out the details.

Thank you for your love and support; I thank God for you all.

Love Wins. Always.

Hugh Hollowell

The Jews have a saying; We plan and God laughs. Boy, have I been feeling that lately.

What started as just me hanging out with some homeless people has become a near full-time ministry. Over the last seven months or so, God has continually stretched me in new directions, revealing His plan in short bursts rather than all at once.

One thing I have learned is that I cannot do it all by myself. Whether you are one of those who sends money toward my support, or you come Downtown and help feed or you stay at home and pray for me, I appreciate you all. Urban mission work is hard and lonely and I could not make it without you.

That being said, several of you have asked for ways you can help. Here are a few:

• You can pray for me and for the homeless of Raleigh. We both need the prayer and you probably need the practice. Prayer, rather than being the “least you can do”, is actually the most important thing any of us can do. It helps us make sure not that God is on our side, but that we are on His.

• You can help with my ongoing financial support. The ongoing cost of my living expenses and ministry expenses is approx $2,000 a month. Whether you can make a one time gift or pledge regular support, it is all needed and appreciated. The money you donate frees my time to spend with the homeless and urban poor I work with. Talk to me and we can work out a way you can donate and get a receipt for your taxes.

• I need a list of people who can be called to help get people places, who can help with moving furniture on occasion and who can help with emergency groceries or other needs. The easiest way to get on this list is to sign up for our newsletter, and if you are local, check that box on the sign-up page.

• Finally, while I am not a fan of charity at the macro-level, (because charity is de-humanizing, but love is personal) there are times that supplying immediate needs opens doors to what eventually become deep friendships. Here is a list of things that I can always use as tools in ministry.

As a child of the eighties, I find it hard to say without thinking of Bartles and James, but I really do thank you for your support.