Saying Yes to the One

I just finished the two books pictured above. Excellent books which provide an insight into the unhoused. In addition, I’ve served a few weeks at our local church’s homeless outreach. As you might guess this does not make me an expert, far from it. However, it has given me some things to prayerfully consider.

For example, are the unhoused in America, today’s least of these? In my opinion they are. Consider the following facts. Many Christians today are either afraid of or repulsed by the unhoused. How many of us today have a relationship with an unhoused person, a friendship? It seems we’ve tried to leave the unhoused as a problem for the government, which has been totally unsuccessful in solving the current circumstances. Could it be because this issue is not one for the US government, but the citizens of God’s kingdom.

Life transformation is the work of Jesus, and in my experience it happens one person at a time as we are conduits of Jesus’ love and building relationships with those who do not know Jesus. Asking the government to take care of the unhoused leads to hopelessness, in the God’s kingdom there is eternal faith, hope and love.

Our church does a weekly out reach to the unhoused. Which has allowed me to begin a relationship with a few of the unhoused on the North Shore of Oahu. I think you’ll be surprised what you learn in these relationships. Following are the stories of a couple of my unhoused friends.

Herb is in his late fifties or early sixties. He’s big, filthy and scary to many. After weeks of seeing him without shoes I offered to give him a pair, he refused because wearing shoes causes him significant pain in his feet. I invited him to church. He came and sat by himself. After the service I hung out and talked with him. This made him very happy. I asked if I could pray for him. He politely declined, said he had everything he needed, he was super blessed. Then he asked to pray for me and did.

Steve is in his early sixties. As we were having lunch one day he asked me to help him find a room to rent, he could afford $400 a month. Sadly, here in Hawai’i $400 won’t even get you a small room. It seems this should be easy to fix, but it hasn’t been yet.

Of course I don’t know how to significantly reduce the number of unhoused, but please pray along with me for God to reveal what He wants us to do. What He wants His church to do to help the least of theses.

#DontLookAway #SayYesToTheOne

I just finished the two books pictured above. Excellent books which provide an insight into the unhoused. In addition, I’ve served a few weeks at our local church’s homeless outreach. As you might guess this does not make me an expert, far from it. However, it has given me some things to prayerfully consider.

For example, are the unhoused in America, today’s least of these? In my opinion they are. Consider the following facts. Many Christians today are either afraid of or repulsed by the unhoused. How many of us today have a relationship with an unhoused person, a friendship? It seems we’ve tried to leave the unhoused as a problem for the government, which has been totally unsuccessful in solving the current circumstances. Could it be because this issue is not one for the US government, but the citizens of God’s kingdom.

Life transformation is the work of Jesus, and in my experience it happens one person at a time as we are conduits of Jesus’ love and building relationships with those who do not know Jesus. Asking the government to take care of the unhoused leads to hopelessness, in the God’s kingdom there is eternal faith, hope and love.

Our church does a weekly out reach to the unhoused. Which has allowed me to begin a relationship with a few of the unhoused on the North Shore of Oahu. I think you’ll be surprised what you learn in these relationships. Following are the stories of a couple of my unhoused friends.

Herb is in his late fifties or early sixties. He’s big, filthy and scary to many. After weeks of seeing him without shoes I offered to give him a pair, he refused because wearing shoes causes him significant pain in his feet. I invited him to church. He came and sat by himself. After the service I hung out and talked with him. This made him very happy. I asked if I could pray for him. He politely declined, said he had everything he needed, he was super blessed. Then he asked to pray for me and did.

Steve is in his early sixties. As we were having lunch one day he asked me to help him find a room to rent, he could afford $400 a month. Sadly, here in Hawai’i $400 won’t even get you a small room. It seems this should be easy to fix, but it hasn’t been yet.

Of course I don’t know how to significantly reduce the number of unhoused, but please pray along with me for God to reveal what He wants us to do. What He wants His church to do to help the least of theses.

#DontLookAway #SayYesToTheOne