A look on the floor of my tiny apartment and I ask myself, “What have I done this week?” Piles of books, papers, notebooks, bibles…hard to decipher letters…”I agree to waive testimony in this case.” (No.) And a line from a vintage Talking Heads song, “this is not my life”, mocks me in my despair. … Continue reading Shelter seeking
I love the tag-line for Wrecked.org, “when life as you know it doesn’t work anymore.” Aren’t we all a little wrecked? Disillusioned? A wee bit uncomfortable in the way this divine mystery unfolds? The winds howl, the assault continues on an unfortified people, folks are lost and lonely…and sometimes the truth of a loving God … Continue reading Along the broken road
I am homeless right now. No adventure-driven leap into the arms of a God I cannot see to seek and save the lost. I am the bird without a nest. Sitting here, in an emptyish Tulsa apartment listening to the Sunday morning traffic motor towards church or coffee or points unknown, tears fall for … Continue reading Bird without a nest
By Laura Jacobs From Kenya: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income, this also is vanity.” –Ecclesiastes 5:10 As we have walked around Kibera, sharing the Gospel and encouraging the believers, we’ve run into one central problem – money. No one has enough; everyone … Continue reading The Problem of Wealth: Reflections on Poverty in Kibera
By Ginger Larson The way they grab for food with their grubby hands, dirt under their fingernails, it aggravates me. I was squeezing a package of black refried beans into the pan – kind of like how one rolls up the tube of toothpaste to ensure every ounce is used. Pleased with my thorough squeezing … Continue reading Hunger and God: Lessons Learned While Digging Through the Trash
By Kevin Hendricks Th following is an excerpt from the book Open Our Eyes by Kevin Hendricks, which is an effort to support Mark Horvath and the work that he does at InvisiblePeople.tv, where he tells real stories of American homelessness. All proceeds from the book go directly to Mark and Invisible People. *** All … Continue reading Open Our Eyes: Seeing the Invisible People of Homelessness
By Jeff Goins, Editor “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus has a hidden blessing for those who come to grips with their own spiritual bankruptcy and desperation. I’ve learned not to superimpose my expectations of myself onto other people, to not give in to the temptation of … Continue reading Blessed are the Poor (and Blind)
By Karen Swank I remembered Tina* this morning (*not her real name) and I cried. Reading an article by someone who ministers in a marginalized neighborhood, I was swept by a single phrase back to the day I looked into her eyes and watched her disappear. Tina was a resident at the domestic violence shelter … Continue reading On Brokenness and Mental Illness
By Laura McLester We live in a nice suburb of Washington DC amongst unnamed buildings related to national security and tall engineering/computer organizations that many would easily recognize (Boeing sound familiar?), all in the shadow of the five sided headquarters. However, if you look carefully, you’ll also see a few one-man organizations hidden away in … Continue reading Are the Homeless Really Home-less?
By Hannah Neumann I recently read a very thought-provoking article titled “Slumdog Tourism“. Basically, it’s the thoughts of an African man (who grew up in a Nairobi slum) on the phenomenon of “slum tourism”. He explains that there has been a recent increase in the numbers of American and European “tourists” (I think that this … Continue reading Poverty as Entertainment?
