Got up early on Monday morning, Jan 28, to help the Gwinnett Coalition to count the homeless in Gwinnett County. This was part of a larger effort across the state and nation to get a better handle on how to use federal funding. Some groups also hope to use these statistics to motivate a homeless shelter or other homeless ministries.
Seven guys associated with our house churches were there, out of the 75 total volunteers … is it wrong to be proud of that? Probably.
There were eight of us, total, who knew each other, and we split up into two groups. I took one. My group went down the street to a couple places off of Indian Trail and looked back in the woods with flashlights since it was still dark.
The first place we looked was behind a Korean Church. The dumpsters made me think of Korea … they smelled of old kimchee! We found a clearing in the woods where a reclining lawn chair had been set up and obviously used at some point recently. We found no one, of course, but that isn’t surprising, as one of our group pointed out that if someone had been there, they would have bolted at seeing four men with flashlights rolling up on them, wearing reflective gear, especially if you were homeless.
The next spot we went looking and found another clearing where people obviously had been squatting. Trash from beer bottles and convenience store food were everywhere. Then we found a makeshift tent — blue tarps over branches between two trees. It was all closed up. We couldn’t see inside and my flashlight couldn’t get in there. We called out, “We’re not with the police. We’re not going to hurt you or anything. We have food. We want to ask you a couple questions,” things like that. We heard nothing in response. I eventually called out, “I’m opening the tent now, to see if someone’s in here.”
We heard a quick, “Okay, I’m coming out.” Once he did, we asked him if he would take a survey to get more info on the homeless here in Gwinnett County. He was very nice and agreed. We talked with him for a few minutes, hearing his story. His name is Tee. We gave him food and prayed with him, encouraging him.
As we left, we ran into another group searching the same area, which was weird to me because I thought they only gave out the one location to each group … anyway, we let them know what we had found, and they went back to their car.
(The AJC interviewed Tee, as well. Poor guy! We told him to keep warm and go back to sleep, and then the newspaper wakes him up. I hope we only counted him once. The picture in the Gwinnett section of the AJC was of his abode.)
Tee told us that there are no homeless shelters in Gwinnett County, which doesn’t surprise me more than it just saddens me. He affirmed that there were a lot of homeless in the county, and they have nowhere to go. We asked him if he knew of any places, and he led us to a nearby Chevron.
We ran into our next homeless guy, who didn’t look so homeless. We actually approached another man we thought was homeless, but he was adamant he lived in the apartments nearby. We saw him talking to this other man, David, who didn’t look that bad off. But one of our group felt like giving them both some food, since we still had a lot left over. We were called over to talk to David. He was homeless after all.
As we began to talk to him, I said, “Don’t be offended, but are you from Australia or New Zealand?”
He laughed and said, “I’m from Australia. The only way you would have offended me was to ask if I were Irish!”
I said, “Hey, I’m Irish …”
Anyway, David was very nice, and we prayed with him as well. He told us of a place about a half a block away, behind a Texaco, where he knew of some homeless staying there. We made it over there and found another homeless man. David was his name, too. We gave him food, asked him questions, and prayed with him, too.
Australian David had also told us that there were no homeless shelters in Gwinnett County. When we got back in the car, the driver of our group turned to me and asked, “What does it take to start a homeless shelter?” I was thinking the exact same words!
After checking on the Korean Church location one last time, we returned to the Norcross Co-op, where we started. We were interviewed by the AJC and turned in our stuff.
Most of the people we talked to saw few homeless, so I don’t know how successful the count really was. We should know next week, and I’ll probably blog about it again then.
My favorite quote is included in the AJC article, though, about how Gwinnett has just spent millions on a new animal shelter, but we have no homeless shelter. I’m all for puppies and kitties, but I’m conservative enough to believe that humans are a little more important.
Gwinnett County is changing, as any community is always in some sort of flux or transition, and the homeless are here. But there is still this perception of Gwinnett as this bastion of suburbia, so therefore we can’t have things like Marta and homeless shelters. But the homeless are a problem in Gwinnett and will continue to be a problem. Will a homeless shelter encourage more homeless to move into Gwinnett County? Well, it depends on how you do it, but it might. Isn’t that an acceptable risk to helping feed and clothe those who need it? What is the alternative? We let people freeze to death in the woods, hungry and cold, so we don’t have more of a homeless problem?
I’m not advocating the government take care of this. The government will spend twice as much with legal red tape what the Church can do with compassion. Part of the problem is that the individual assemblies in Gwinnett don’t see their responsiblity to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Many of them started assemblies in Gwinnett to get away from that kind of stuff. To give it over to the government isn’t good for people. We would cease to see it as OUR job and continue in our suburban Christian blindness, griping about the taxes they use for “those people.”
Instead, we should be teaching the Christians in Gwinnett County how the needy in Gwinnett County are their responsibility to reach out to out of compassion, to get over their worship of the suburban lifestyle and actually love someone.
At least 75 people had some vision of that Monday morning, and I’m sure that’s only a percentage of what God is doing in hearts. And we weren’t the only ones talking in their cars on the ride home about how they could help and how they could get involved or how they could start some sort of homeless shelter. I can guarantee that. I don’t know if you can really believe in God, and see need like that, and not want to see compassion win out over comfort.
Which is why, despite some evidence to the contrary, I’m more confident in the compassion of the Church than the obligation of the government.
More later, I’m sure …
Peace.
Wow, great post. Thanks for sharing!
I really have to wonder some times. How is praying going to help a homeless person? Food yes, a chance at a job is even better. But praying? I hope you didn’t force the to pray before giving them food because that’s just wrong.