Arms Flailing, Head Wagging

We saw him from two city blocks away.  The tall, gangly, slender man sat on a retaining wall that bordered a small plaza along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.  His head wobbled.  He flailed his arms about so wildly they didn’t even appear to have bones in them.  His face was contorted, and his tongue darted in and out of his mouth like a snake. His eyes looked everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

 The youth who were with me bringing food to homeless people in the area were spellbound by him and were confused about what to do.  Should they approach him?  What would they say?  They talked nervously among themselves as we drew closer to him.

 Finally one of them asked me what they should do.

 “Give him a sandwich,” I said. “But show it to him first.”

 The man continued his gyrations, but his eyes showed a glimmer of lucidity as we crossed the side street and began walking in his direction.  Three brave teens broke from the group and approached him tentatively as they held out a sandwich.

 “Would… would you like a sandwich?” one of them asked.

 The man’s eyes locked on the sandwich.  With startling speed he dropped his arms, pulled his tongue back in his mouth, smiled and said, “Thank you.”

He looked at the group of youth, making eye contact with most of them.  They looked at him and drew closer.  I stood back as he ate his sandwich and spoke with the teens for 5 or 10 minutes.  I didn’t hear what they said and didn’t need to.  This was their moment of discovery.  Things aren’t always as they seem.

 They gave him another sandwich, said goodbye, and we headed down the street to serve other people.  On the way back we looked over at the retaining wall and there he was, arms flailing, head wagging, tongue jumping.

 Did he have a mental illness, or had he been hurt so often that he figured out how to keep people away from him?  I guess we’ll never know the answer to that. 

 But we do know this.  He responded to love. 

 He dropped his façade when somebody cared enough to break into his world, offering him something and asking nothing in return.  For at least that moment in his life he stepped out of the safe place he had created in his mind and took a chance on connecting with other people. 

That’s what the love of Jesus does.  It breaks down walls.  It pulls people outside of themselves and into a moment of discovery that maybe – just maybe – there is something better.  May God grant us the power to share that love with our world.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings

If He Can Be Thankful We Can Be Thankful

His “roof” is the sky.  His “walls” are his blankets and tarp.   His “heater” is a metal grate that belches out foul-smelling, pneumonia-inducing steam.  Three days ago his backpack (with all of his worldly possessions) was stolen, and he is left with the clothes he is wearing.

 A few months ago he was laid off from the job where he had been working for over a year.  The pay wasn’t great, but the work was pleasant and it kept a roof over his head.  He remembers that time especially on the cold nights.  Unfortunately, the search for a new job has come up empty.

 He has no family to turn to, no network to hold him up.  His friends are on the street with problems of their own: addiction, mental illness, despair, broken families and relationships.  He eats once a day when the Salvation Army food wagon stops near his “house”.  Sometimes he gets up and walks the 20 blocks to the place where they serve breakfast.

 With his mouth full of the hot dog we had just given him, he smiles at us and says, “thank you.”   Then he begins to list the things he is thankful for:  people who care enough to bring him food and clothes, his friends, warm places to go during the day, shoes with no holes in them, medical care when he gets sick, hope for the future, a friendly smile, a kind word, a country where he can make his own way, and Jesus who never abandons him.

 The man I just told you about is one I have seen many times.  He wears many faces.  The color of his skin is often different.  Sometimes he speaks fluent English.  Sometimes he’s difficult to understand.  Yet I have learned a valuable lesson from him – always be thankful.  No matter how bad things get, there is always something we can find in our lives to stir up gratitude in our hearts.

 Gratitude is the enemy of despair.  Thankfulness gives us the power to press on.

 May every day be your Thanksgiving Day.

 God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings

The Power of Friendship

The one aspect of TOP’s ministry that has the greatest impact on the poor and on our volunteers can’t be measured or quantified, but it truly changes lives. It’s friendship.

Homeless and poor people spend much of their lives dodging the boulders that the world throws at them. When this happens day after day, they feel tired and beaten.  Often they are ignored or herded like cattle in order to receive the goods and services that keep them alive. It’s dehumanizing to say the least. Just having somebody who will look them in the eye, smile, or give an affirming touch is enough to change their week or their lives.  This encouragement can happen at a first meeting.  But when young people and the poor develop deeper friendships, incredible things can happen.

The benefits of friendship with the poor and homeless go beyond being a bright spot and having warm, fuzzy feelings. For some homeless people, friendships with teens have created a positive accountability. They don’t want to let their young friends down. That sense of obligation has helped several men I know kick a drug or alcohol habit and stay clean.

Another benefit to homeless and poor people is having someone outside their peer group to cheer them on and encourage them when they are down. Here is where teens really shine in their ministry. They don’t judge. They don’t condemn. They listen, try to understand and offer hope. When a homeless man gives up after being knocked down for the fourth or fifth time in a year, that word of encouragement from a teen can be enough to get him to try again.

Through our friendships we earn the right to share the good news of Jesus.  Many nonbelieving homeless and poor people have heard the gospel or read a tract, but they haven’t seen Jesus at work in the people who serve them.  Once they see perfect agape love in action, many are more receptive to hearing about the source of that powerful love.

Never underestimate the power of friendship. It’s the key that opens the door to transformation and hope. 

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings, Executive Director

 Teens Opposing Poverty

Be a Bright Spot

            Robert Massey stood in front of nearly 500 teens and adults from Virginia Methodist Churches.  He stopped in the middle of detailing homeless life and blurted out, “Homelessness sucks!”  The crowd erupted into applause.  He had their attention.

             Robert is still homeless and has been for 17 years.  He made a lot of mistakes and experienced a lot of emotional pain that, through the grace of a renewed relationship with Jesus Christ, is fading.  He shares his experience with churches and other groups through Teens Opposing Poverty’s Homelessness in the First Person program.

             After sharing the mind-numbing monotony and dehumanizing experiences of homeless life, Robert looked out over the crowd of young faces and told them they could be a bright spot for someone who is struggling in life.  He told them how much it meant for somebody to smile at him, listen to him, talk with him and just treat him like a human being.

             Be a bright spot.  It doesn’t have to be a big thing.  It can be as simple as looking somebody in the eye and saying hello, or buying a homeless person something to eat besides peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  It can be listening to a lonely elderly person share how things used to be or tossing a football around with homeless people who have taken up residence in a park.  It can be getting to know someone who is very different from you well enough to call them your friend.

             These seemingly small things are huge to someone who struggles to hold onto the shreds of human dignity that are constantly being stripped away by a cold system.  Everything that is designed to help people defeat the monsters that hold them in poverty works better when love is added to it.

             Be a bright spot for somebody today.  Do small things with large love and make a big difference.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings, Executive Director

Lessons from the Street

Some “how-to’s” of homeless ministry.

Based on 20+ years of working with homeless people, here are some things I have learned. Your mileage may vary.

1. Freely give at first. Don’t worry about whether the person you are helping is “using the system”. Err on the side of grace, and use your giving to establish a relationship with that person.

2. Pray for discernment as you continue to work with a person. If it appears that they don’t want to take action to improve their lives, you must first determine two things:

a) Do they have a clue as to what they need to do for their part?
b) Do they have the capacity to do what is necessary?

In other words, do they have physical, mental or emotional challenges that make it difficult or humanly impossible to make the changes in their own lives?

3. If a person is able but unwilling to take action, don’t enable them to continue in their current lifestyle. They need to feel pain from their situation in order to move out of it. On the other hand, don’t abandon them. Be there. Be a friend. Be an encourager. Share the love of Christ with them. Help them to bring Jesus into their hearts so that the power of the Holy Spirit can strengthen them to overcome the forces that hold them down.

People trapped in poverty face a ton of obstacles to success: emotional, physical, mental, situational and spiritual. We MUST minister to the whole person. We MUST get involved in their lives and make ourselves vulnerable to the disappointment that often comes when they fall. When we do that, God can use us in incredible, life-changing ways.

Steve Jennings
Executive Director, Teens Opposing Poverty

Jesus Really Is Enough

The day started with a small miracle. I counted nine cars, trucks and vans in our little convoy to Franklin Square in Washington, DC. It was the destination for our trip to serve homeless people on an amazingly warm Saturday after Christmas.

“Please, Lord,” I prayed, “provide enough parking spaces for all of us.” Over the years, I had learned to pray for parking. As we approached the park, I was shocked and delighted to find enough spaces for all nine vehicles to park together. In over 20 years of ministry, that was a first for so many cars. Little miracles always lead to good ministry trips.

I had intended to just lead the group down, make sure they got set up and head home early, but God had other plans. As I was watching the teens and adults putting out food and clothes, I got into a conversation with Mac. He was a portly man, average height, with a kind expression on his face.

The conversation started with “How was your Christmas?” Mac at first said his wasn’t good. He didn’t have the money to get his kids anything, and that really bummed him out. But after a brief pause to search for the right words, he began telling me about how he was blessed. He started a new job the week before Christmas, and had been drug-free for two years.

Mac’s life had been vandalized by one mistake after another until he invited Jesus into his heart. Through that relationship and the encouragement of other believers, he was able to break the chains of addiction that had dragged him down to his homeless existence. He shared how it hadn’t been an easy road for him even after coming to Christ, but he had a new strength to deal with the set backs. Most importantly he had a hope that endured through his toughest struggles.

Less than a minute after I said good-bye and embraced my new found brother in Christ, I met Chuck and heard a very similar testimony. Chuck didn’t have a regular job yet, but the Lord had delivered him from his addiction. He had been drug free for a year and a half, and spent nearly a half hour sharing with me all the blessings and miracles the Lord had worked in his life.

Sometimes we start thinking that everything relies on us. When our plans don’t work out, we feel like failures. When we meet struggles and challenges, our first response is to fix it ourselves. I was reminded that day how wrong that approach can be. Instead I learned the path to victory from two homeless men:

1. Give yourself completely to Jesus. Make Him the Lord of every aspect of your life.
2. Cast your cares, obstacles & worries on Him. Things may still be tough, but you won’t be alone.
3. When God opens a door, walk through it.

Jesus really is enough.

Step Off the Curb Please

I stood in the middle of Franklin Square in Washington, DC and watched three church groups in succession pull their vans up to the curb, dish out some food, say “God bless you” to the people they were serving, get back in their vans and leave for the next park.  I also watched the same guys we had given hot-stuffed baked potatoes to less than 20 minutes earlier go to each of those vans and get another loaded plate.

 

Now before you get your dander up over this, you need to understand an important point.  During the weekdays, most homeless people get by on one meal a day (68% according to a 2007 survey we conducted).  Some days they even have to miss that one meal. Weekends are the only time they get to eat until they actually feel full.

 

The problem with the “feed and leave” approach is that we are so intent on reaching the maximum number of people, we fail miserably in inspiring real change.  How many of those folks who came by knew that Marcell was 52 years old, had been out of work for three months, and for the first time in his life, was homeless?  How many of them knew that Kevin was having a hard time finding a job because of his criminal record?

 

I have to tell you, it’s a wonderful feeling to find a pair of shoes to fit a homeless man who had to cut the toes out of the shoes he was wearing because they were too small or to hand a plate of food to someone who hasn’t eaten in a day or two.  But it’s even more rewarding to see Reggie, who had given up on life after a series of major catastrophes, work up the moxie to try again because a group of teenagers believed in him, encouraged him and prayed with him.  By the way, he was off the street in less than three months.

 

Most poor people are not going to escape their plight through programs alone.  They need somebody in their corner.  Each of us, can impact the life of a poor person simply by being a friend.

 

To my dear sisters and brothers in Christ with the “van by the curb” ministry, please know that I applaud and rejoice in your work.  Don’t stop.  I ask of you only one thing.  Try making time in your busy feeding schedule to connect with the people you serve.  You’ll never regret it.

 

Steve Jennings

Executive Director, Teens Opposing Poverty