Street Retreat Follow Up

Mobile Loaves and Fishes Street Retreat 2009 was certainly amazing if not life changing for me. A group of 20 or so of us literally were homeless for a weekend. We were dropped off in downtown Austin at 5 pm on Friday and had to live and survive until Sunday; with no food, no money, no credit cards, no phone...nothing but our clothes on our back or backpack. I ate in the shelters and slept on the blacktop of a bare parking lot. But most of all, I met some incredible new friends! (both the homeless as well as the fellow participants)

I have had several emails on wanting to know how the Street Retreat went last weekend and what take away was from the experience. I apologize for the delay but it took me a couple days to de-compress and gather my thoughts. So here they are:

• Little things make a huge difference so just take small actions...a simple bottle of water changes the entire day for a homeless person. Because the homeless issue is so big and so complex, I know many people that don't know what to do... so they don't do anything. But I want you to know that the small things really matter!
• Giving Time is Huge! Many of the homeless friends I met, simply wanted to talk. Look... every single one of us want to matter in the is world. We all want to contribute in some fashion. The homeless are the same. They want to matter. But, due to many factors like absence of any family or addiction, nobody has listened to the homeless. I think mountains can be moved if we simply just listen and give some time to the homeless.
• Everyone has a story...we just need to take some time and care about "their" story.
• Sleep deprivation is a huge issue. I have been asked so many times: Why don't they just go get a job? Well, it's not that simple. One of the big issues is that the homeless are tired. They experience massive sleep deprivation. With 2 nights....only 2 nights, I was exhausted! I got about 4 total hours of sleep. Imagine never having a good nights sleep...well that is reality for a homeless person. Try this: For 1 night, just sleep outside in your backyard and tell me how you slept. And that's only about 5% of a homeless persons night.
• Love em Up! Love is the strongest four letter word ever created. We simply need to intentionally love em up!
• Hope! We need to provide hope to the homeless. Hope in life getting better. Hope in brighter days are ahead. Hope in a job. Hope in a having their own place. Hope in providing for themselves. Hope in their Faith!
• God is present! One of my biggest take aways is the strong presence of God in the homeless. These people, despite incredibly bad living circumstances, have strong faith and a powerful belief in Jesus! Incredible. If you live in Austin and you want to see mountain moving faith, go to Church Under the Bridge (at 7th and I-35)
• Action Action we need Action! You can make a huge difference today. But it takes action. Since this is a complex issue, I suggest teaming up with experts like Mobile Loaves and Fishes. They flat out GET IT! Give money, give time, and give your resources to MLF...I promise it will be put to great use to solve this problem.