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Do you like rain? Imagine being homeless in the rain…

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homeless manThe cold rain streams down my window as I sit in my warm and dry home, yet hot, wet tears stream down my cheeks as I watch the rain.

I love the rain, especially since we need it so much in Southern California. But I am not crying for the rain.

I am crying for the people I love who must sit in the rain, soaking wet, with nowhere to go and nothing to cover themselves.

Recently my wife and I distributed a car trunk full of tarps, sweatshirts, sweaters, pants, blankets, food and other supplies to the homeless living in San Diego. But our meager supplies fell far short of meeting what they need.

This morning the temperature is fifty degrees. Fifty isn’t all that cold unless you’re soaked to the skin sitting on a wet sidewalk in the rain. Sitting under a tarp helps, but not everyone has a tarp. Some are sitting in the rain, shivering.

Blood on the Sidewalk

Many of our Christian friends are afraid to go with us to buy and distribute clothes, food, and tarps to the homeless. They’re afraid to go to the inner city and mingle with the poor, the bikers, the gangs. They blanch when we tell them of the times we have stood on still-wet blood stains on the sidewalk where someone was murdered during the previous night. (I think this has happened five or six times.)

Sometimes we’re afraid before we go. For some reason we’re never afraid when we’re there. We see beautiful people, who are in the middle of life’s messes.

To Show The Love of Jesus

My friend who does not follow Jesus, who loves the homeless, the poor, and our gay friends wants to go with me today. She is trying to take off work for a couple of hours to join me. We’ll buy tarps and then hand them out.

When the homeless ask who we are and why we’re doing it I’ll say “I follow Jesus and we’re here to show the love of Jesus.” Then I’ll ask their name, and ask what they need. My friend will write it down in my little notebook.

Sometimes I pray with them there on the sidewalk, in the rain. Sometimes they ask about Jesus. Sometimes they bless me, at God’s bidding. I bless them in return.

We’re safe, warm, and dry. But are they?

There is so much need in the world!

And YOU can help.

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You might be surprised who you will meet among the homeless

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helping the homelessJesus said that we would always have the poor with us (Matt 26:11).

As a result, we find it easy to conclude that the problem of the poor is too big for us to solve, so we drop a few dollars in the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas and write a check for missions and give it to our local church.

We almost become blind to the poor where we live.

When the recent census revealed that there are over ten thousand homeless people in San Diego, everyone I know thought those numbers must be incorrect. “Occasionally I see a homeless person at an intersection begging for money but surely there can’t be more than a few hundred homeless people in the entire city!”

One church group of which we were a part decided that the homeless were on the streets because of “bad decisions” they had made. The group felt that helping them would only encourage them to stay homeless. The solution they proposed was that “Homeless people should get off their butts and get jobs!”

Their perspective might have changed if they had gotten their butts out of the pews and gone down to get to know some of the homeless in the streets.

Going to the Homeless

Last Saturday our small group ventured to downtown San Diego to an area where several hundred homeless people live on the sidewalk, in the shadow of the ballpark.

As we walked in the shadow of this great structure, I was reminded of Jesus being born in Bethlehem, literally in the shadow of the Herodian, one of Herod’s palaces and a symbol of the wealth and might of the Roman Empire.

Friday had brought a soaking rain. On Saturday the homeless were trying to dry their clothes, blankets and sleeping bags. As several told us, “We’re trying to get dry before it rains tomorrow.” We shared chips and some other prepackaged food we had taken with us and talked to them. Some had been living on the streets for months or years. One man said he had lost his job, had run out of money, and had just joined the ranks of the homeless that day.

We went home thankful for our warm bed and dry clothes.

About lunch time on Sunday the second storm arrived. The rain continued until the middle of the night. The heavy rain woke me up several times that night, and I prayed for the people sitting in the rain on the sidewalk downtown, some without even a garbage bag to cover their heads.

As the rain fell, the temperature dipped into the upper forties and low fifties. As many homeless have explained to us, even though the temperature might be above freezing, being soaked to the skin on a chilly night can lower body temperature and is especially dangerous for those with health problems. If a person remains cold and wet on the streets, hypothermia can set in and the homeless person may die.

Are the Homeless My Problem?

As I prayed for the homeless while it rained, I began to wonder if I had done enough.

We had taken food to the homeless, but I was lying in a warm dry bed and they were sitting on a cold, wet sidewalk getting soaked. We had given them dry clothes, but those clothes were now soaking wet while I had a whole closet full of warm and dry clothes a few feet away.

The problem of the homeless seemed too big for me or our small group to solve.

Was there something more we could do, or should we just give up?

As I lay there, I realized the truth of what Jesus said about the poor.

It is true that the poor will always be with us (Matt 26:11), but this is not an excuse to not help the poor, but an opportunity! Since the poor will always be with us, every person in every generation has the opportunity to be blessed through helping the poor.

More than that, since Jesus Himself said that if we give a cup of cold water to one of the least of these in His name, it is as if we are giving the cup of cold water to Jesus Himself (Matt 10:42), the opportunity to feed and clothe the poor is an opportunity to hang out with Jesus!

With this in mind, it would be unfair for only one generation or one group of people to have this opportunity! Therefore, it is a blessing that the poor will always be with us, because now all of us can go meet with Jesus on the streets.

So if you have ever wanted to meet Jesus, now is your chance! Go out and love the homeless.

There is so much need in the world!

And YOU can help.

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How to Make friends by Hosting a New Year’s Eve Party

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Every year we host a New Year’s Eve party to help us get to the neighbors. It is a fun and enjoyable way to get to know your neighbors so that you can show them the love of Jesus. Though I know it is a little early, if you begin planning now, you can get a head start on planning a New Year’s Eve party that will help you get to know your neighbors.

new years eve

Since the evening party needed to be held indoors due to the time of year, we were unable to invite all of our neighbors (our table seats only twenty four), so we focused on our nearest neighbors. When we invited people, most said that they “usually don’t attend New Year’s Eve parties” because they try to stay off the road on New Year’s Eve, then laughed when they realized they all live no more than a block from our house.

Lemon Meringue Pie and Wasabi Peanuts

Last year’s New Years Eve party was literally a last-minute effort thrown together that day and the day before. One of our neighbors was dying. She was very discouraged. We knew she wouldn’t be here for another New Year’s Eve. When she agreed to drop by for a few minutes, we quickly invited other neighbors to join us. But what to cook? We settled on take-and-bake pizzas from Costco, complemented by other prepared foods. Our guests loved it!

This year’s menu was somewhat expanded, but take-and-bake pizza was still the centerpiece. Almost everyone, on their own, brought along pie, cookies, wine, breads, cheeses and so on. The big hit: lemon meringue pie. The big dud: my personal stash of Wasabi peanuts. Although clearly labeled, some people ignored the label (they thought they were getting green Jordan almonds maybe?) and took some anyway. Consequently, all but one person (a true Wasabi fan) happily put their Wasabi peanuts on my plate when they figured out what Wasabi peanuts are.

Eating and Talking

We have no agenda for our neighborhood parties. We set them up and let them happen. Once neighbors get together, they love to eat and talk. Unless the food is bad or there is not enough food, they don’t remember a few weeks later what they ate. However, they do remember who they talked to and what they talked about. We hear people comparing previous places they have lived and worked, what wars they fought in, what’s happening in the neighborhood and various other topics. For the most part, they’re just getting to know each other better.

Moving to Hawaii?

Here are some of the comments people give us in between parties:

”When you have another one of those neighborhood parties, we’d like to be invited.”

“We missed the block party, but plan to come next year.”

“We got to know some of our neighbors better. Even though we’ve lived on the same street for over thirty years, we really didn’t know each other very well.”

“Great party, just a great party!” “Don’t move away! Who’d organize our parties? We love them!”

Most people love getting to know their neighbors. We do! Though we had planned to move to a warmer climate when we retired, we recently decided to stay right where we are. Why? We have lots of really great neighbors!

We care about our neighbors and they care about us and each other. We’re choosing that instead of Hawaii or Florida. If you’re wondering about the spiritual significance of all of this, I will close out this series with a post on that very topic.

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There's more to it than inviting them to church...

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How to Host a Halloween Party

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Every year on Halloween, rather than go down to a local church for a “Hallelujah Party” or hide out in our house with our lights turned off, we host a big Halloween party for our entire neighborhood. This is another practical way we have shared the love of Jesus with our neighbors. (To get more outreach ideas by email, enter your email address at the bottom of the post.)

The day before Halloween we hand out quarter sheets of orange paper in the neighborhood, inviting neighbors to join us at dusk.

Here are some of the things we do:

Build A Fire In The Driveway

On Halloween night, we take our iron chiminea and put it on the driveway. Then we build a fire, put a circle of chairs around it, and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters on the driveway.

We have also started to invite the neighbors to join us.

Last year, we put out a big pot of chili. And of course, chili needs cornbread to go with it. And since the night can be chilly, we put out hot cider and hot chocolate. While we’re at it, we make a few batches of our Secret Recipe Cookies.

Pumpkins, Cats, and Candy

halloweenWe fill a large bowl with candy bars. Sometimes there is a neighbor who will not get home from work until later in the evening, and she gives us a package of candy to hand out for her. In addition to the circle of chairs, we set up tables to hold the food and carved pumpkins, fiber-optic pumpkin heads, and cats.

People start showing up just after dusk. We light the fire and people gravitate to the food tables and the chairs around the fire. Several neighbors bring their bowls of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters on our driveway instead of at their houses. A few also bring food and drinks to share.

Some people stay all evening. Some only stay for a short while, eating a bowl of chili, and chatting with friends and neighbors. Others came by with their children, greet a neighbor or two, grab a cookie or cup of hot cider, and continue accompanying their children on their trick-or-treating rounds.

Tricking Our Neighbors?

Did we do this so we could invite people to a Bible study, church service, or give them Christian literature? – Never! People can smell this sort of fake evangelism a mile off. Don’t befriend people just to invite them to church.

We do this so we can get to know our neighbors better, and so they can get to know each other better. We’re learning to love our neighbors like Jesus, and before we can do that, we have to get to know them.

halloweenAnd we do! Simply by spending time with, eating with them, and sharing life with them, we get to know them. Inevitably, we have conversations about life – including the meaning of life and its problems and where God is in all of that, hopes, needs and a variety of other issues. These all take place before, during, and after these events.

What A Great Neighborhood!

Do people want community? In our experience most people definitely do.

After last year’s Halloween party, several people at the Halloween party commented that their friends and relatives have said they wish they lived in our neighborhood, a neighborhood where people know each other and have neighborhood parties. One of our friends who does not live in the neighborhood commented this week “What a great neighborhood!”

People often say, “You need to go to church to be in community.” I say, “We are the church, in our community!”

We are the church as we get to know our neighbors, live in community with them, and show them the love of Jesus.

We’re learning to love our neighbors and help them in places where they need help, in places where we are able to help. We’re helping build community, a community where people know each other and care about each other, a community where people talk about inconsequential things as well as about really important things, including Jesus.

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

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Get to Know your Neighbors Through Their Plumbing

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If you want to love your neighbors like Jesus, it often doesn’t take great acts of kindness or huge sacrifices on your part, but simply being open to seeing what their needs are, and willing to help out when and where you can.

Loving People

I ran across a great statement in Kathy Escobar’s blog post “Dreamers, lovers, and status-quo rockers”:

I’d say that the most defining part of my faith–the center of what I believe–is the love of people & redemptive community. The way I connect with God is through relationship with people.

Even though Kathy’s statement does not describe our “agenda,” it describes our experience. We love people because we are followers of Jesus, but have discovered that in the loving we are connecting with God!

How does this happen? Perhaps some current real-life examples with some of our neighbors will help explain.

Plumber Needed

plumbers neededOn the 4th of July, the morning after the block party, our phone rang not long after we got up. Our neighbor, a single woman, told us that her kitchen drains had backed up and her plumber wasn’t available on the holiday. She asked if I could look at the problem.

Half an hour later, I had determined that there was a blockage inside the wall. I needed a plumber’s snake and a plumbing fitting to fix the problem. One neighbor loaned me a snake, and another neighbor found the necessary fitting in his box of plumbing supplies. Three neighbors cooperated to provide tools, supplies, and labor to help a fourth neighbor!

Later that afternoon the woman whose drains now worked phoned us once again to thank us and to tell us about her conversation with her mother, an elderly lady who lives alone, about forty minutes from us. Our neighbor had told her mother about the block party, her neighbors and the cooperation of her neighbors in getting her drains unstopped that morning. Her mother told her that she (the mother) would like to have neighbors like that who she could call if she got in trouble (She has concerns about living alone).

Remodeler Extraordinaire

The following day, another neighbor, with whom we had become better acquainted while talking with him about the block party, saw us walking and invited us to see what he had done with his house. I owned one contracting business and managed another and am not easily impressed with remodels, but I was very impressed with his. He has made an extraordinary number of improvements to his home, many one-of-a-kind modifications. Without a doubt he is a borderline genius.

As we walked through his house, he told us his story, his achievements and some of the difficulties he has faced. He told us his dreams, dreams for his future, including business dreams. When we hear someone’s story we see the hand of God, where God has been working in their life and glimpses of His plan for their future.

Real Life with Real People

These stories may not be the dramatic stuff of famous books or sermons, but are the simple, yet beautiful stories of real life with people we know: our neighbors. They are stories of where we see God, in people we know, in our neighbors, in our neighborhood.

We have discovered that we connect with God when we connect with the people who cross our paths in the course of everyday life.

Do you have stories of experiencing connecting with God when you connected and formed relationships with other people? Share any that you might have in the comment section below!

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

There's more to it than inviting them to church...

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to get to know your neighbors and love them like Jesus.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

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