Tag: Serving

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When It’s All You Have Left

I never cease to be amazed.

Last Sunday a group of brave people ranging in age from 9 to, well, almost as old as I am, spent an afternoon in the cold to conduct Teens Opposing Poverty’s first homeless outreach in Lynchburg, Virginia. We wanted to be a blessing to people who could carry their life’s possessions on their backs and had no family to visit on Christmas day.

We took a little Christmas tree, some Christmas music, cookies, hot soup (it was delicious), hot drinks, water, gift bags with toiletries in them, clothes and wool blankets. Throughout the afternoon a steady stream of people came by. Some lived in tents. Others lived at the Salvation Army Shelter across the street. Still others rented a room or apartment, but the rent ate up almost all of their income. They were all grateful for the gifts we shared.

A lot of the people we served stayed out in the cold with us. We had great conversations and made new friends. It was a successful “TOP Trip”.

In two different conversations that day I heard something that I have heard on many TOP Trips over these last 23 years, and each time I hear it, I am moved and amazed. We were talking to people who had experienced tragedy. The obstacles they had to overcome to get off the street were daunting. They had lost almost everything.

But their faith was strong.

It was elemental.
It was powerful.
It was simple and pure.
God drew close to them.

Their relationship with Jesus had reached a depth that far too few of us experience in this life. When they were dealt the blows that put them on the street, they could have walked away from God. But they didn’t. They ran to Him. They were stripped of everything except Jesus and found out He was all they really needed. That was their message to me.

As I heard them proclaim their faith, I thought about Christmas. Not the Christmas of cathedrals, or silver bells or shopping malls. I thought about the Christmas in Bethlehem. I thought about God in the flesh lying in a manger.

It was elemental.
It was powerful.
It was simple and pure.
God drew close to us.

This Christmas I pray that each of us may experience the closeness to Christ that these precious souls have shown to me. May we all live our lives knowing in our hearts that Jesus is all we need. For that is the greatest gift of all.

Merry Christmas.

Steve Jennings

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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

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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

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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