Related Scripture: Isaiah 58:6, 7 NIV
Introduction
The other day I was driving home with our 4-year-old daughter who asked me, “what do builders use to build houses?” I simply answered hammers, nails, and wood; the simple answered satisfied her curiosity. However, it made me wonder what actually builds a home? The answer is love. For me home means family. I love home design shows and I try to make my house look like them with my decorating eye. But my décor is determined by my 4-year-olds ever expanding toy collection. While our home may not win any awards, I am thankful for the home we live in, and it makes me think of those in our country without a home. Statistics state that in January of 2020 there were about 580,466 people experiencing homelessness in the United States. As followers of Jesus, this information should disturb us. There are many ways in which we can serve, love, and support our community.
Service Project Ideas:
- Prayer Walk: One of the best ways to help is to pray. Organize a prayer walk for your area. Have a time and a meeting place to walk around different areas to pray for the homeless population, families, schools, and local leaders.
- Blessing Bags: Fill XL Ziplock bags (found at Dollar Tree) or small baskets with hygiene items, socks, pop-top food items, water bottles, flashlight, and batteries. Also including a list of services in the area: food pantries, clothing closets, rehousing information. You can also include notes of encouragement: handwritten cards with information regarding worship service times. These bags can be kept in cars to give out. Or contact your local police department so that they can distribute them to the homeless.
- Shelter Feeding: Provide a meal at a local shelter. Set-up a time that the group could provide the meal, either once or on an ongoing basis. The group can either serve the meals or simply provide it, whichever is most helpful for the shelter.
- For Youth: Check to see if there is a children’s home in your area. Check with them to find out their biggest needs. Example of items to include in a basket: small/new toys (stuffed animals), towels/wash cloth, bedding, clothes, shoes, hygiene items, diapers, baby items. If they provide service for teen girls, fill small purses with menstrual items.
- Shelters: Women’s/Men’s: Locate the local shelters and inquire regarding their top needs. Examples of items: socks, underwear, hygiene items, totes to store and protect personal items.
- Family Transitional Housing: This type of sheltering may need other items such as canned foods, clothing, shoes, suitcases, totes.
- Animal Shelters: Locate a local animal shelter or rescue and provide items such as small blankets or towels, dog/ cat food. Often, they need volunteers to walk dogs or to bottle feed baby animals.
Right at Home
What do you think of when you hear the word home? Home is defined as “the place where one lives.” Houses come in many different styles: Craftsmen, Victorian, Ranch, Farmhouse, Condo. But the word home is different. Home is what you make a house into. For me, home was my mom and my sister. It was my uncle crashing on our couch or having my aunt and cousins live with us for a while. Home was family.
In Matthew, Jesus speaks of separating the sheep and the goats. He says those who have fed the hungry and thirsty, clothed the naked, and visited the imprisoned would be invited into the kingdom of Heaven for those are His sheep. While the goats, those who chose to ignore the needs of others, would be sent away from Him. This passage found in Matthew 25 speaks volumes to the followers of Jesus. If we say that we are followers of Him, then we are His sheep who look to the needs of others. 1 John 4:7-12 says it best, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His loves is made complete.”
Growing up we did not always live in the best of houses, but if we had family member or friends in need, my mom always opened our home to them. My mom did not attend a church, but I believe she lived out the scripture of looking after others in the name of Jesus by making them feel at home. That is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus. Not to have the nicest of things, but to share what we have with others in the name of Jesus. When we share the love of Christ through meeting basic needs, the love of Christ is made complete.
Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
Resources: For information regarding homelessness in America
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
