pat loughery

We’ve been able to make connection with more homeless people in our area, and we’re learning about the remarkable community that connects these people together.

Lately I’ve spent more and more of my time (and the church’s money) helping people in practical ways – giving somebody a night’s stay in a motel so they can be warm and have a shower; connecting them with the local food bank; giving out gift cards for the local grocery store; listening to stories and praying.

Some of the stories are nearly impossible to believe. One guy lives in his car, is ~5 years away from gaining social security benefits, and currently gets a $178/month check that he survives on.

One lady lives in a small motor home (none of the appliances, or the heater, work). A couple of weeks ago she was sleeping in it while parked downtown in a parking lot. Apparently a group of teenagers broke one of the windows out of the vehicle and started pouring gas inside, and were preparing to set it (and her) on fire.

These folks are generally natives to our valley, and most of them have stories of declining health or family trauma that put them out on the street. The motor home lady’s story is that her son married a woman who forged her signature and sold her home out from underneath her. One guy has some (apprently mild) mental illness, but is recognized around town as one of the best athletes to ever come out of the high school.

What is surprising to me as I interact more with these people-made-in-Gods-image is that there is a thriving community among them. They find supplies and share them. Whoever has money shares it if possible. They share phone numbers for community services (frequently now I get phone calls that begin with, ‘You don’t know me, but my friend said your church tries to help…’). The local police know the network, and try to keep an eye out for them even when they have to urge them to move along to another place to park.

Some express faith in Christ (many of these certainly appear to legitimately have it), others unabashedly do not. I try to explain that we help not just to be nice, but because our Christian community believes that each of us is uniquely, overwhelmingly loved by God, and we want to express that love in practical ways. I pray for people when the opportunity presents itself.

Not one of them has plugged into our church. The closest they have come is the one guy who, on his monthly trip out here from Seattle, sleeps outside our building on a Saturday night and then talks with us on Sunday mornings – we have trust for each other (God, I love John!). But my prayer is that the Lord reveals himself as healer and redeemer to this community, and that God uses us to serve them as well.