homeless for a day

it's one thing to learn from reading a book, it's another thing to learn from first hand experience. My friend Robin and I decided to be homeless for 24 hours. Ideally we wanted it to be longer. I thought a day would be too easy. i was wrong. it was hard. it was a great learning experience. and i think it was time well spent. i got a glimpse of the suffering that homeless people go through. honestly, one day of trying to be homeless was enough for me.

i can't believe how homeless endure their hardships everyday for years. in a sense, having nothing makes it easier to rely on God. Often the rich will place their trust in other things and may not acknowledge their need for God. The poor understand their need for help, and are more open to receiving love from others.

Ive been wanting to try and be homeless for awhile to observe and experience the hardships that homeless people face daily. I was inspired by a book called, "Under the Overpass" where a guy purposely becomes homeless for 5 months.

I think i grew up kind of spoiled, getting anything i needed or wanted. i was jus handed everything. We live in a selfish self-centered first world culture where we don't take much initiative to help the needs of others. Many of us don't know how rich and wealthy we really are because we've never experienced poverty. Doing this short homeless outreach helped my faith feel more alive. What's the point of believing in theological doctrines when we don't boldly go out to practice love in action. Faith without works is dead. I felt challenged to be more intentional and relational. Sometimes i get so caught up with just Christian theology and knowledge that we forget practical theology. What good is faith if we don't live it out? (I'm not saying u hafta go to huge extremes, I'm jus saying the church needs to love outside it's four walls.) yes we're saved by grace, but we're also called to do good works. it's easy to sit back and do nothing. step out of your comfort zone and take the initiative.

Last retreat I met a friend Robin who was in my small group. He's 20? and goes to cal state fullerton. seriously looks like nathan, if u know him. I would not have been able to do it without him. he considers himself a shy introvert, but i see a lot of boldness and courage in him. He's able to put himself last, and die to himself in order to serve others. i admire his approach to living simply and using money wisely. Robin made it a point to fast and not eat anything. I figured i'd do the same. sometimes the hunger really got the best of me.

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first we prayed together. we wanted our time to be intentional. We decided to spend the first few hours reaching out to homeless, spend the night hours experiencing what it might be like being homeless ourselves, and then the next day trying to spend more time with the homeless. part of the plan was not knowing what was ahead.

First we went to Target to make small care packages to hand out. We made 20 sandwiches and put them in zip lock bags, we bought 20 tooth brush/tooth paste bags, water, oranges and bananas. We also threw in some Christian gospel tracts to read. as we were leaving in the parking lot a homeless man approached us asking if we could help him by chance. He only spoke italian, his sign said he had 5 kids. We smiled and we're like, "Yeah, this is actually for you!" and we we're shocked that a homeless man happened to approach us so soon. he was happy and started eating the sandwich. i played charades with him trying to understand where he sleeps at night. We both trusted him with some change. Then as we we're driving out we saw a homeless man collecting bottles, and Robin jumped out and handed him a bag. Then driving down the road, we randomly stopped whenever we saw someone homeless.

i didn't really try to strike up a small conversation with everyone. but when possible i thought it was a good idea to try and listen to their story and what they've been through. I'd ask questions like, "how long have you been on the streets? Do you have family? where do you sleep at night? have you checked out a church or shelter?" only a few times i prayed with them. everyone welcomed free stuff and seemed to appreciate the thought. I think if i were to do it again, i'd try to be more patient and try to engage in more conversation.

Eventually we got to a park in la palma. There were at least 30+ homeless people spread out at the park. We didn't have enough bags for everyone. In fact we handed out all our bags in less than 3 minutes. We we're surprised how fast it was. I specifically spoke to a guy named Craig, and it was his first week being homeless. He introduced me to a few new friends he made. He said some people have pretty bad medical problems. he and woman both had short term memory loss. He introduced me to a guy named Phil. Apparently a guy named Randy went to go buy Phil a jacket. I quickly ran to my car and told Phil I got just the thing. I pulled out an extra large jacket that i never used. it fit him perfectly. He was very grateful. Craig shared how there was a shuttle bus that comes to take them to the armory shelter where they get a free meal and shelter for the night. Randy also picks craig and phil up for church. So i was glad that they had people helping them out already.

Robin and I decided to go look for another park. We drove to many different cities. We ended up in Cerritos. But we couldn't find a single homeless person. We then realized that the government outlaws homeless people in cerritos. We did some devotions and watched people play tennis at the park. I'm glad i had Robin with me because we filled our time with so many spiritual conversations. we really did talk about everything. We talked about God, family, friends, school, church, growing up, our fears, our future, marriage/dating philosophies, and how God brought us to where we are. i was grateful that he was there with me, otherwise i don't think i would of had the courage to do it alone. also.. when ur homeless.. i learned that u have a butt load of time, usually to yourself. there's a sense of emptiness just sitting down all day.

We stayed in a taco bell, and then went to a hawaiian gardens mcdonalds. We couldn't find any homeless. it was hard being in mcdonalds knowing i had money to buy food. Resisting our hunger needs was becoming difficult. Wasting time with really nothing to do or nowhere to go seemed quite dull for awhile. We began talking more about God and different things in the bible. again, without robin this experiment outreach would be 10x harder. ill fight the hunger and the cold. but the loneliness is probably the hardest part. what if no one cared you exist? what if u had love from no one?

Around 11pm we decided to go find a place to camp for the night. We wanted to make it a point to sleep outside. We found two benches outside a church, but didn't feel like sleeping. We decided to walk over to a small center with food places.

We both agreed we weren't gonna ask people for help or buy anything to eat. It was hard not to complain about how hungry we were. I told Robin, "hey, if we were really homeless, digging out of the trash for food is fair game right?" He agreed. So we went through 8-9 trash cans and started collecting food that was still well contained and near the top. I was upset that everyone ate all their food and didn't spare us much. finding empty boxes was a tease. We found two plates of this salad thing, two bowls of miso tofu soup, a bowl with a little bit of fried rice, and then we lastly found half a sandwich and a pickle. We were so happy. so happy. so happy. scoring an untouched half sandwich seriously made my day. it was bomb. We walked back to the church, we praised God and feasted on what we scavenged.

we then brushed our teeth with a water bottle in our hands. As i spit out toothpaste onto the grass near a tree i said, "This is definitely a first."I wore four layers of clothes, and a beanie. I only had 2 towels and a fleece. a fleece is a horrible thin blanket. Robin had a warm blanket he used. I gave my warm blanket away earlier, but i really missed it. Because robin didn't use a sleeping bag i decided to go without one since most homeless don't have one too. Robin had more endurance and tolerance to pain and cold.. either that or he had a really good big blanket. He barely complained about anything, he jus sucked it up and dealt with it. It encouraged me to persevere when i wanted to jus give up.

We both were able to lightly fall asleep in periods for about 2 hours. But then the temperature really dropped. It went from low 50s, to low 40s. i was miserable. I tried to cover my face and body, but i kept shaking and shivering. Robin was asleep, but i was beginning to lose it. He woke up and saw me pacing back and fourth. I said, "dude, I don't think i can do this." I was beginning to fold. i didn't wanna wimp out. Around 3am I said, "I get it ok! I get it. It's friggen COLD out here! i get it." So we decided to go sleep in my car instead of enduring the entire night outside and risk getting sick. The car was 10 degrees warmer but we were still cold. I  didn't realize how cold our feet would get during the night, it was painful. i coulda survived the night, but there's no way i'd get any sleep.

In the morning we decided to go to mcdonalds, pick up some sausage mcmuffins for people at the first park we went in la palma. We ordered 30 breakfast sandwiches. i was really tempted to eat one. As we were waiting I noticed a lady sitting on the ground outside with a dog. I then noticed she had a homeless sign. I sat down next to her and she began sharing how she's been robbed 6 times, lost her van and how she pretty much lost everything. Valerie explained that she's trying to raise enough money to help other homeless get back on their feet, and to have shelter. She seemed determined to do something about homeless violence on each other. She was a Christian and i could tell she genuinely wanted to help others like herself. Then her friend she jus met came, her name was Ada. It was actually Ada's dog. The dog's name was Oreo. He was really fun to play with. Robin and I decided we would walk down harbor blvd with these two homeless ladies. We really got to know their background story and we listened to them share about their kids and family. Valerie walked really slow, so we all had to be patient with her because she was very wobbly.

I thought about Valerie's situation. and i thought to myself. how can u really help homeless get off the street if you're struggling urself living on the street. but she mentioned how she had a son who sometimes pays for a motel for her.

I think with certain homeless people you can tell if they really don't turn to substance abuse. many of them acknowledge that drugs jus makes their situation worst. I saw how many homeless spent their money on cigarettes. i usually don't give out change to homeless because you don't know what they use it for. However, i'm beginning to try and discern if I think they'll really use it for food or not. Sometimes we make too many excuses so we don't hafta do anything to help.

 Anyways, as we were walking we randomly met homeless people at street corners. One guy shared how he makes about $30 a day jus standing at this one intersection. as we were in the middle of crossing a street, valerie stopped to pray for a dead cat on the road. i was like, that's nice but lets not get hit by a car ok? valerie was really nice, but she shared that she's bipolar, has ptsd, and robin thought she was kinda delusional. We stopped briefly because Valerie got hungry. I watched as Robin ran inside to get napkins and then he said to Ada, "Let me clean the mud off your shoes." I felt like i just witnessed love expressed in action. I was proud of him. Ada eventually got tired of waiting for Valerie to catch up and decided to go off on her own.

we finally got to la palma park. We ran into Craig again at a mini mart. He was buying alcohol. he was one of the people i gave change to, and i told him he can only use it for food. i realized that there we're quite a bit of drug addicts at the park. I saw people selling drugs. We still approached everyone and passed out a bunch of burgers and waters. I got to pray for a few people. some people didn't speak english. Some were knocked out sleeping. some didn't even care we were offering them food. most were eager and thankful to receive food. I realized that handing out 50 sandwiches can be nice for their immediate temporal needs, but really they need someone to help them get off the street, have safe shelter, and maybe a job. many of them aren't in any condition to work. but i think many use their disadvantages as an excuse, because many of them are capable of working.

We ran out of stuff quickly and decided to walk back. In total we walked about 5-6 miles. we we're tired and sore. we ended our homeless journey and got lunch. chicken burgers never tasted so good. when i got home. I praised God for a warm shower, hugged my pillows and took a long nap. Don't take food, shelter, a bed, health and people for granted. we're extremely blessed, we need to be more thankful.

I learned and experienced what it's like to suffer and to have a little. Getting a small experience of knowing hunger and the cold for a day helped me understand how hard it is to be homeless. Knowing the pain and suffering of others should increase our compassion for those who are hurting. $1 really does increase in value when you don't have much. We need to be generous stewards, and use what we have for God's purposes. Christ died for us, we should also lay down our lives for others. God loves us and calls us to love others.

Perhaps even more than meeting other's physical needs. People respect when you offer your time to listen. Having a day just dedicated to hanging out and making friends with the homeless was time well spent. It forced us to die to ourselves and not be afraid to engage with others. I learned to approach everyone in love, regardless of their looks, social status, or where they're from.

I think God taught me to not underestimate what we can do when we're willing to trust him. There's a story of a boy who goes to the beach and is throwing washed up starfish back into the ocean so they don't die. An older man approaches him and says, "You can't possibly save them all, you can't possibly make a difference!" And the boy responds as he throws a starfish back into the ocean, "I just made a difference for that one." God calls us to be good stewards with our time, money and how we spend our life. In what ways can you make a difference and make someone's day?