A Weekend to End Homelessness
Dear Friends,
“A Weekend to End Homelessness” is a catchy title, right? But as we consider the 260 people who were willing to brave the incredible heat last Saturday to get whatever we could offer, we often feel like the situation is going from bad to worse and that there isn’t anything we can do about it. However, our church, La Mesa First UMC, is a participating congregation for the upcoming weekend (October 11 and 12) to end homelessness along with other faith communities across the country. This effort is sponsored by a new organization, the National Faith Coalition to End Homelessness (nfceh.org), and I encourage you to look at their website, especially in the section titled “A Moral Question, Not Just a Social Problem.”
You are all invited to attend our special service on Sunday, October 12th at 9:30 am when we will honor and celebrate both you and some of our regular Fresh Start guests. The service will be short on sermons but long on sharing Fresh Start stories, and we will end the service with a call to some actions we can take to make real impact on homelessness in our community. I will send you more information as the date gets closer, but please consider joining us—lanyards and name badges on—to show the community what an incredible caring force we are. Let the change begin with us!
But back to last Saturday, 65 of you also braved the heat to serve our 260 neighbors. In addition to the regular astounding bounty of food, clothing, underwear, personal hygiene products, and transit passes, we had the La Mesa HOME program continuing their astounding record of actually finding housing for our neighbors, the San Diego County Office of Homeless Solutions making sure that our folks are signed up for all of the benefits for which they are eligible, and a new partner, Melissa Perez, from CSA San Diego, providing information and help about fair housing and housing discrimination.
Another new service also started last Saturday—a rolling book cart with free books and writing supplies. Volunteer Patty B started the process of planning this, and the Sunrise Rotary Club of La Mesa took the ball and ran with it. Norm O—rolling the cart around in the sun! —says he gave away about 30 books and all of the writing supplies. (See the picture below.) We hope to have more books and supplies donated so this can become a regular feature of Fresh Start.
Finally, I have to share two other pictures and quotes from Saturday. First, Dainis and Alan were among dozens of folks who were really appreciative of the ice pops we distributed as a special “beat the heat” treat. And then Jorge told me that he got a job—and that having a transit pass enabled him to get to the site where he applied for it, and that it will enable him to keep going to work. We love success stories!
Looking forward to a cooler September!
Lynn
