IT COULD EASILY BE ME

Nine years ago, my friend, Justin, and I were feeling an extreme passion to serve God. Justin felt the need to bring awareness to the homelessness issue in our small town in North Carolina. While we prayed and dreamed, we pulled more people together to figure out how to serve the homeless in our area and beyond. One time, we gathered at the local soup kitchen and asked for folks to drop off supplies while we pulled an all-nighter out in the cold to bring awareness to the growing problem. We didn’t really have a plan for what we would do with what was donated because we were just trying to obey God one step at a time. The next day, my friend went into the city and spoke with some police officers to learn more, and they told him where the best place would be to share the supplies. Ever since that day more than eight years ago, we’ve been setting up every two weeks where the highest concentration of homeless people are to share donated supplies, bring awareness, and build relationships. We have seen so many people in the Body come together from all different backgrounds and churches to share the love of Christ. Sometimes, people ask me why we keep doing this year after year. For me, it’s all about the great commission. We’re called to go out into the world and love others. Yes, I could share about my own homelessness, about how many times I’ve been close to homelessness in my life, or how I live paycheck to paycheck and at any moment could lose it all, just like some of these men have that I meet on the streets. But ultimately it all just goes back to Christ. He asked us to love one another and to take care of one another, and that’s what I’m trying to do.