The 'To the Streets' Mission
What is To the Streets?
Every month we hold a distribution for the homeless right here in Ballard at 15th & Market. At this distribution we hand out much needed basic resources for homeless men and women. These resources include: coats, jeans, socks, hygiene products and more! Over the course of a year we hand out resources to over 500 men and women. It is a significant outreach to the poor right here in our neighborhood.
I want to take the liberty of sharing with you the mission of To the Streets-- aside from meeting the basic needs of so many in our community we seek to be salt & light to these brothers and sisters in our community. We have four basic focuses of ministry: 1) Salt & Light, 2) Presence, 3) To Go and 4) To Give.
Although it is important for us to give in an effort to meet the physical needs of those we are serving I want to stress the importance and significance of the deeper heart calling of this ministry. To be Salt & Light is a significant aspect of the foundation of this ministry. We must be people called to exhort, encourage and care in word and in deed. The sacrifice to be amidst the homeless in their communities, their space and their home-- namely the streets establishes a sense that we are not staying in the comfort of our church space but willing to go and offer Christ's call to be light in very dark places. This is a tangible way that we can provide hope-- the willingness to go and to be amongst men and women where they live, sleep, eat and play-- the streets. It is a humbling movement both for the volunteers and the recipients. We learn much from being committed to light and salt, as we often experience the circular nature of God's love through giving and receiving.
To be a presence is probably the most important part of the foundation of this ministry. It requires us to sit in the valley of pain and struggle with people as opposed to feeling the freedom to just swoop through in our arrogance-- only offering pity and charity rather then grace that requires us to acknowledge and see people right where they are at. Often times in our assessment of how to help the homeless we make assumptions about what they need, what they need to do and how to solve the problem of homelessness without recognizing the need to listen and to see. In this assessment we often lose sight of the face of the individual-- we lose heart in understanding the extreme difficulty and hopelessness that comes in living in homelessness. We forget or do not acknowledge that to be homeless in our society means to be faceless, nameless and story-less-- it is to be expendable. The homeless live with a mountain of emotions that are founded in a lack of self-worth and self-value. This lack of self-worth or self-value is only perpetuated in a culture that puts little to no value on the homeless person's existence-- this feeling has been confirmed in story after story shared with the To the Streets Ministry team by men and women we serve. Folks continue to share the loss of community, family and friendships-- to be on an island in isolation. It is not what we were created for-- this island leads to the break down of dignity and self-value. To be present means we have to 'stop and be'. We must intentionally move out of our comfort and ease of assumptions and presuppositions into a place where we hear the voice of each man and woman to reflect back the very nature of God's heart and the truth that we are created in His image. It is in that truth, where new self-value and trust can be cultivated and elevated. We must remember that that truth can only be shared in the authentic space of relationship which means we have to be committed to presence. It is the strongest, boldest form of homeless advocacy we can engage in, because it exposes the need to sacrifice our own personal comfort-- true love and grace requires sacrifice, as we have experienced through the Gospel.
We must be people committed 'To Go'. Jesus exemplified the necessity to go and be amongst the need all throughout His ministry. Jesus consistently modeled this idea of leaving to go and be with the people he served. To the Streets follows this example in the most basic sense of recognizing and acknowledging that it is not enough for us to stay in the comfort of our homes and churches waiting for the needs of our community to reach us, but we respond to the need by going to where the need resides. It seems simplistic but in the early days of our ministry we revolved much of the outreach around our church building. Once we were able to stop, listen and see where the need was and to realize that enough was not being done to minister to those in need by us staying behind church doors we moved and shifted our location and that is a pivotal part of the life of this ministry. The men and women that we serve through To the Streets are a population of the homeless who are not in the system-- meaning they are not working with other non-profits, social workers or case managers for various reasons. These men and women are unreached in many ways and on many different levels.
There is a misconception about this idea 'to go'-- the misconception is this-- we think that 'to go' means we have to leave our present communities in order to fully live out that call presented to us by the ministry of Jesus. We often equate this idea of going & serving with overseas missions. When we look at it from only this perspective we miss seeing the need that is right in our backyards. 'To go' is to leave comfort to serve in any area whether local, national or global. The call to serve and to extend care is inextricably linked to going-- to leaving our comfort. To the Streets exists to advocate for the homeless in our neighborhoods and to remind the church that the homeless reside in the streets of our city and community. We must be people committed to the local, national and global community of our world.
In our capitalistic, consumeristic climate and culture we have been encouraged and given the freedom to think of ourselves first and foremost, as well as the justification to think of ourselves above all else. It is not just Western culture that encourages this movement, but the fact that it is easily accepted and assimilated to is due to the fact that the idea to think of ourselves first is human nature. It is human nature to be concerned for our own well-being and our status before thinking of the other-- our neighbor. It is a fundamental part of our nature that we will consistently contend with over the course of our existence. When it comes to the homeless we feel justified in thinking of them last because in reality we do not see them as valuable contributors to society. We feel justified in not extending grace, care and compassion to this population because we believe in the myth that the homeless choose to be homeless. We choose this belief to the detriment of the gospel. The reality is this: we cannot claim we know any one reason for why someone becomes homeless. The homeless story is a diverse one-- it is a complicated one-- it is multi-faceted and complex. When we talk about the need to give we do not relegate that to just one aspect but we look at it holistically. We are to give of our resources, our time and our talent. It is a sacrifice. To the Streets gives resources to meet the basic needs of homeless individuals. We give blankets, coats, jeans, hygiene supplies and food.
Although the previous entry might just seem like theoretical words and rhetoric would you consider the story of Christine? Christine is a woman in her forties. She is a frail woman who has been homeless on and off for several years. We initially began our relationship with her through Q Café when she came to us in search for food and clothing. Over the course of our time working with her, Christine would disappear for weeks and then show up unexpectedly. One day on a regular business flow at the café Christine showed up—her face black and blue—her body beaten and in pain. She began to share the painful story that just seven days prior she had been raped, beaten and left for dead in an alley in downtown Seattle. Christine shared her fears and the reality that she did not have any safe place to go. She feared going back out on the streets where she would be vulnerable to another attack. She feared that she would be found. She feared that no one would believe her stories. That evening the To the Streets ministry team was able to get Christine to a hospital where she could be examined and begin the process of reporting the crime that had been committed against her and work with staff to find shelter where she would be safe. To the Streets exists and forges forward in mission for the many Christines who are vulnerable to the conditions of the streets right here in Ballard. We hold hope that with consistency and presence we can be a place of refuge for those in serious, compromising situations. We can do our part by engaging the homeless even in the small platform of providing socks or a toothbrush. We believe that Christ is manifested each time we extend a jacket or a blanket and it is that tangible grace that speaks volumes of God’s amazing love, provision and care.
Every month we hold a distribution for the homeless right here in Ballard at 15th & Market. At this distribution we hand out much needed basic resources for homeless men and women. These resources include: coats, jeans, socks, hygiene products and more! Over the course of a year we hand out resources to over 500 men and women. It is a significant outreach to the poor right here in our neighborhood.
I want to take the liberty of sharing with you the mission of To the Streets-- aside from meeting the basic needs of so many in our community we seek to be salt & light to these brothers and sisters in our community. We have four basic focuses of ministry: 1) Salt & Light, 2) Presence, 3) To Go and 4) To Give.
Although it is important for us to give in an effort to meet the physical needs of those we are serving I want to stress the importance and significance of the deeper heart calling of this ministry. To be Salt & Light is a significant aspect of the foundation of this ministry. We must be people called to exhort, encourage and care in word and in deed. The sacrifice to be amidst the homeless in their communities, their space and their home-- namely the streets establishes a sense that we are not staying in the comfort of our church space but willing to go and offer Christ's call to be light in very dark places. This is a tangible way that we can provide hope-- the willingness to go and to be amongst men and women where they live, sleep, eat and play-- the streets. It is a humbling movement both for the volunteers and the recipients. We learn much from being committed to light and salt, as we often experience the circular nature of God's love through giving and receiving.
To be a presence is probably the most important part of the foundation of this ministry. It requires us to sit in the valley of pain and struggle with people as opposed to feeling the freedom to just swoop through in our arrogance-- only offering pity and charity rather then grace that requires us to acknowledge and see people right where they are at. Often times in our assessment of how to help the homeless we make assumptions about what they need, what they need to do and how to solve the problem of homelessness without recognizing the need to listen and to see. In this assessment we often lose sight of the face of the individual-- we lose heart in understanding the extreme difficulty and hopelessness that comes in living in homelessness. We forget or do not acknowledge that to be homeless in our society means to be faceless, nameless and story-less-- it is to be expendable. The homeless live with a mountain of emotions that are founded in a lack of self-worth and self-value. This lack of self-worth or self-value is only perpetuated in a culture that puts little to no value on the homeless person's existence-- this feeling has been confirmed in story after story shared with the To the Streets Ministry team by men and women we serve. Folks continue to share the loss of community, family and friendships-- to be on an island in isolation. It is not what we were created for-- this island leads to the break down of dignity and self-value. To be present means we have to 'stop and be'. We must intentionally move out of our comfort and ease of assumptions and presuppositions into a place where we hear the voice of each man and woman to reflect back the very nature of God's heart and the truth that we are created in His image. It is in that truth, where new self-value and trust can be cultivated and elevated. We must remember that that truth can only be shared in the authentic space of relationship which means we have to be committed to presence. It is the strongest, boldest form of homeless advocacy we can engage in, because it exposes the need to sacrifice our own personal comfort-- true love and grace requires sacrifice, as we have experienced through the Gospel.
We must be people committed 'To Go'. Jesus exemplified the necessity to go and be amongst the need all throughout His ministry. Jesus consistently modeled this idea of leaving to go and be with the people he served. To the Streets follows this example in the most basic sense of recognizing and acknowledging that it is not enough for us to stay in the comfort of our homes and churches waiting for the needs of our community to reach us, but we respond to the need by going to where the need resides. It seems simplistic but in the early days of our ministry we revolved much of the outreach around our church building. Once we were able to stop, listen and see where the need was and to realize that enough was not being done to minister to those in need by us staying behind church doors we moved and shifted our location and that is a pivotal part of the life of this ministry. The men and women that we serve through To the Streets are a population of the homeless who are not in the system-- meaning they are not working with other non-profits, social workers or case managers for various reasons. These men and women are unreached in many ways and on many different levels.
There is a misconception about this idea 'to go'-- the misconception is this-- we think that 'to go' means we have to leave our present communities in order to fully live out that call presented to us by the ministry of Jesus. We often equate this idea of going & serving with overseas missions. When we look at it from only this perspective we miss seeing the need that is right in our backyards. 'To go' is to leave comfort to serve in any area whether local, national or global. The call to serve and to extend care is inextricably linked to going-- to leaving our comfort. To the Streets exists to advocate for the homeless in our neighborhoods and to remind the church that the homeless reside in the streets of our city and community. We must be people committed to the local, national and global community of our world.
In our capitalistic, consumeristic climate and culture we have been encouraged and given the freedom to think of ourselves first and foremost, as well as the justification to think of ourselves above all else. It is not just Western culture that encourages this movement, but the fact that it is easily accepted and assimilated to is due to the fact that the idea to think of ourselves first is human nature. It is human nature to be concerned for our own well-being and our status before thinking of the other-- our neighbor. It is a fundamental part of our nature that we will consistently contend with over the course of our existence. When it comes to the homeless we feel justified in thinking of them last because in reality we do not see them as valuable contributors to society. We feel justified in not extending grace, care and compassion to this population because we believe in the myth that the homeless choose to be homeless. We choose this belief to the detriment of the gospel. The reality is this: we cannot claim we know any one reason for why someone becomes homeless. The homeless story is a diverse one-- it is a complicated one-- it is multi-faceted and complex. When we talk about the need to give we do not relegate that to just one aspect but we look at it holistically. We are to give of our resources, our time and our talent. It is a sacrifice. To the Streets gives resources to meet the basic needs of homeless individuals. We give blankets, coats, jeans, hygiene supplies and food.
Although the previous entry might just seem like theoretical words and rhetoric would you consider the story of Christine? Christine is a woman in her forties. She is a frail woman who has been homeless on and off for several years. We initially began our relationship with her through Q Café when she came to us in search for food and clothing. Over the course of our time working with her, Christine would disappear for weeks and then show up unexpectedly. One day on a regular business flow at the café Christine showed up—her face black and blue—her body beaten and in pain. She began to share the painful story that just seven days prior she had been raped, beaten and left for dead in an alley in downtown Seattle. Christine shared her fears and the reality that she did not have any safe place to go. She feared going back out on the streets where she would be vulnerable to another attack. She feared that she would be found. She feared that no one would believe her stories. That evening the To the Streets ministry team was able to get Christine to a hospital where she could be examined and begin the process of reporting the crime that had been committed against her and work with staff to find shelter where she would be safe. To the Streets exists and forges forward in mission for the many Christines who are vulnerable to the conditions of the streets right here in Ballard. We hold hope that with consistency and presence we can be a place of refuge for those in serious, compromising situations. We can do our part by engaging the homeless even in the small platform of providing socks or a toothbrush. We believe that Christ is manifested each time we extend a jacket or a blanket and it is that tangible grace that speaks volumes of God’s amazing love, provision and care.