How can I describe the insignificant, unlikely little field trip we took last night? There are so many other, more appealing things to do on a Thursday night – and just about every other night. Even the ordinary would be preferred. To not take a trip like this is the default. For the few that are inclined, there are so many other, more notable places to go.
We visited a place that is as invisible as the people it is reaching. They don’t exist. With no substance or weight, the current of culture flows past them, unimpeded, pressing them to the furthest edge of its margins. Their qualities are culture's antithesis. They are insects. Their insignificance has no place and they are so easily brushed aside.
The man who set up the place is an unlikely character, a kind of modern day Gandhi or Mother Teresa, only completely off the radar screen of church and culture. In the short time we spent with him, he incarnated some fundamental biblical teaching - the hard ones that we read about but can’t do. The ones we walk away from in the same manner as the rich young ruler. We wonder what it would be like. He showed us. Ironically, he would not fit in most churches. They wouldn’t have him. There are so many other things to do in church, and there are so many other, more notable people to put in front as examples.
Enough of being abstruse; just trying to set the mood for you. Let me be more direct.
Thursday night we visited a group that has a homeless shelter for men and is in the process of setting up one for women. They are targeting the homeless that are living in camps around little rock. These tend to be the hard core homeless. These do not stay at the big four shelters (Salvation Army, Union Rescue Mission, Compassion Center, Our House) for a variety of reasons. These are the ones that get their stuff stolen regularly and suffer more violence. Every year, a few of them freeze to death.
Wanting to help end homelessness, this group decided to target those living in the camps. What to do to help is not really known, so they decided to invite the homeless to come live with them and teach them how they can help. They have been learning this way from the homeless for the past year. They had about 8 men living in the house and another 5 living in tents behind the house. The men are in the process of moving to a new location and the house will be undergoing improvements this week, thanks to a group of young Vista volunteers (AmeriCorps), and will be used to shelter homeless women.
They have only one rule: No violence. They are taking a “housing first” approach. Most shelters have a fairly restrictive set of rules, which is why some of the homeless prefer to live on the streets. Basically, clean up your act, then you can belong. With Family Called Us, you can belong as you work through your issues. Don’t churches struggle with a similar question of approach? Is it behave-belong or belong-behave?
They gave us a tour of the house. It looked like a house in poverty. Each room had salvaged mattresses on the floor with blankets, but no linen, and bags of the guys’ belongings. Most rooms had ash trays filled with old butts. My thoughts as I went from room to room were that this place was completely unlike any shelter I had been to, and certainly not the model that any church I knew would develop, but I liked it. Why? Because they are doing something and it just might work.
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