Saturday morning, 5:00 am early morning, i was down on skid row. Setting up for Biola's Steps from Hope event. We had close to 2500 pairs of shoes, and food for 5000 people... and all the inflatable, sugary, entertaining, excitement a kid could hope for. The event was quite the production. We closed down San Pedro between 5th and 6th for an entire afternoon and opened it to the people of LA, offering them food, shoes, and most importantly the hope of Christ. I was blessed to be able to walk about and talk to people during the event. It was then that i met two women, who challenged me. The first was Tracy. As i was sitting talking to a women about her children and the struggle to get a bed in the mission, i noticed Tracy who was wearing a Union Rescue Mission jacket. I stopped her to ask her how one would go about getting a bed. I soon was engaged in a conversation that was beautifully challenging. As the conversation went on... i was describing to her my tension. A tension between desiring to end homeless, but feeling that all the efforts i'm apart of only fulfill a temporary need. Proving a lunch, and pair of shoes may bless someone for a day, or a week, or even a month, but what is that doing to help them in the long run? A warm bed in a shelter may comfort them from the chills of the night, or the dangers of the street, but how is that helping them in the long run? I asked her... what needs to be done to get people off the streets for good? She told me discipleship. What? Yes, she said... the families of the church need to be willing to take in the homeless, provide them a place to live, the opportunity for job placement, and the training up in the Lord necessary found strongly in the fellowship of believers. Just like the church should act. If i am going to disciple the younger generation to grow up to to be Godly men and women, i should be willing to do the same for the homeless people who would have no other chance otherwise. What a thought! If the church acted as it was intended to... to love and serve and commit to people the way Christ did... it would help heal many of our world's problems. 

The second lady i talked to was Wanda. Wanda was sweet. A beautiful women who desperately loved her children. He daughters were taken away from her because of her  drug addiction. Wanda needed someone to talk to . Someone to listen and show concern for her. Can you imagine living a life fending for yourself... all the time. I cannot imagine the loneliness she must feel. She begged me to pray for her, and for her daughters... that  she would get to see them, and that Satan would be far from her in her battle to remain clean. She needed more than lunch, or new shoes... she needed to know someone cared... something eternal. 

So now im stuck. Though my time on skid row was beautiful... as like  every time I'm down there. I know that the greatest thing the people down there need is the good grace of Jesus Christ and the hope of salvation that he offers... but i also know that they desperately need food, and clothes, and shoes, and homes, jobs, medical attention,  counseling, school, protection, ohh... and so much more. How does the church tackle such a task? How do we heal the wounds of these people, not simply provide temporary relief?

It sickens me that i live in the greatest, wealthiest city in the nation, with the greatest and most destitute homeless population in the nation. It sickens me that children are being born and raised in back allies where they are forced to grow up in world that most adults wouldn't even dare to venture. Something horribly wrong is going on... but how do i go about being the change i desire? It seems to big. At least for me that is. Nothing is too big for my LORD. You know the same one who raised men from the dead. Calmed the sea with his words. You know... the Creator and Sustainer of the universe?

 I want a movement... what if the local church committed to ending homelessness. What if Skid Row was abolished? It's a huge task... but i fully believe that God blesses our meager attempts to do something big... because it's when we fail to make ends meet, or fail all together that he gets to intervene and show up powerfully... for it's then that his glory is manifested. 

Alright Lord... whatever you want... count me in. I'm willing. It's huge... but is any generation has the means to make this happen... we do. I can't be settle knowing that as i go to sleep in my bed tonight... families are settling into their weathered boxes...