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9 You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. – 2 Cor 8:9 (NLT)

Wah Gwan Mon? That’s Jamaican for “what’s happening, man?” Before I tell you what’s been happening let me first apologize for not doing a very good job lately of updating everyone. The month of January, and so far February as well, have just been a whirlwind. I feel like a guy in a circus with multiple plates spinning and you run from one to another to keep from dropping them. I am in a very busy time at work right now, then you throw in family stuff, Jesus Was Homeless and life and you’re just worn out. I’m not complaining though as I am blessed just to be working, it’s good to have family and JWH recharges me for life. It’s just a season right now. Amy and I are still staying focused on downsizing and reducing our stuff. We know there will come a time when we won’t be as dependent on “manna” and we will be able to live out the “fruits of the spirit” full-time.

JAMAICA
We had an incredible time in Jamaica. It goes to show you that when you serve you are truly blessed in return. Because of Jesus Was Homeless we were able to meet some incredible people from Jamaica that were living at the motels during the summer months here in Branson. After building relationships with them, hearing about their families and the sacrifice they make, we decided that we would vacation there in the off-season and visit them. What a wonderful honor and experience. We had fantastic tour guides, home cooked Jamaican meals, hung out with their family and friends and were still able to throw in some down time to re-charge our batteries. We got to experience the Jamaica outside of the tourist areas. While they are a very poor country, in many aspects they are so rich. I was just blown away at how resourceful they are in contrast to how wasteful we are. Their island has blessed them with all kinds of fruits and they don’t waste a thing. They experience “community” like none other. They have more churches per square mile than any other place I’m aware of.

ARTICLES
These are a couple of great articles that I came across. They are a good read and can give you another perspective about things. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s non-Christian to have money and wealth. Money helped us to be able to provide for Jesus Was Homeless, but like anything when it’s out-of-balance it can be a bad thing. It’s out-of-balance when you want to buy more stuff when your neighbor has less, when it’s more important to acquire money than to give it away, when you care more about the clothes you wear than someone not having clothes, and when you buy something new & shiny just to experience joy. I know I’ve lived out-of-balance for years but through serving each week with Jesus Was Homeless it has helped me towards my journey of getting back to center.

Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable

Downward Mobility in an Upscale World by Shane Claiborne

BROKEN PEOPLE – Amy’s Blog
I’m amazed and saddened by how many broken people there are in our community. It makes you wonder if there are this many broken people in the Branson area, how many are there in the world? Read Amy’s blog about what she experienced this past week.

I really don’t know where to begin – Thursday was another amazing experience! Patrick, the manager of one of the hotels that we serve, called to ask us if there was any way that we could help financially with 2 of his tenants that did not have enough money to pay for the week. He went on to explain that he had already taken up a collection (which included himself also) amongst all of the residents there and was still coming up short. I told him that I would ask our morning and evening volunteers if they could pitch in and, like always, they did. We actually came up with the needed amount through the generosity of our morning meal makers so I didn’t even have to ask the evening meal delivery volunteers – How awesome was that! I love to see everyone pitching in what they can – it makes such a difference in the lives of others.

We had probably around fifty volunteers show up to help with the food deliveries. It is so incredibly rewarding to watch the volunteers jump in and share compassion with the ones we serve. I stood back a bit to allow others the chance to experience what I get to experience every Thursday until we arrived at the last hotel on our route for the night. Bryan and I decided to go say hello to a friend whom we had met there months prior – but “accidentally” knocked on the wrong door. A woman answered (she was new) and looked as if we had just woke her up. We explained who we were, why we were there and apologized for waking her up. Well, about 2 minutes later I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around it was her. She seemed disoriented and asked me if I could come and talk with her for a minute. I agreed (all the while praying that God would give me wisdom) and we went into her motel room. She started to share some of the hardships she had recently experienced (they were heartbreaking) and while talking she started having trouble breathing and kept passing out. When I asked her what she had taken and how many, she could not give me an answer. After calling a close friend who is a recovered addict and now works for Church Army helping others, she advised me to call 911 and get her medical attention. One of our volunteers came to the door at that time (another Church Army miracle) and talked with her as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. The medics checked her out and felt as if she would be o.k. (she also refused to go to the hospital) so they left. Not knowing how she was going to react after they left (she never wanted us to call them in the first place) I was able to put my hand on her shoulder, look her in the eyes and share with her my concerns for her. She started to cry and thanked us for caring. She is now in a Church Army recovery home seeking help. WOW! It’s so amazing to watch God work through a crazy little food outreach! We never anticipated how God would and could change lives (definitely mine) by simply being willing.

Thank you to everyone who helps this to continue through your time, your donations, your prayers and your encouragement. Love, Amy

2000 MEALS
We’ve already hit the 2000 meals distributed mark and it’s not even March yet. We were supposed to be doing less meals since Loaves & Fishes was going on yet we still find many in need. It has been fun though, to find all the unique items waiting for us at Church Army. Through generous donations, so far this year we have passed out bags of toiletry items, potatoes, soup, Heater Meals, hats, gloves, blankets, candy and some things I know I’ve forgotten. A big THANK YOU to COUNTRY MART as they have cut pricing on, or even donated, several items for our meals. Also, keep us in mind if you have a project or service for the community, our food distribution is a great way to get the word out. We can put your flyer in our food bags, but you must provide the flyers, currently over 330 each week, and it must be something that will benefit the ones we serve.

ON OUR HEART
If you know John Baltes then I’m sure you’ve heard him say “if it’s of God it will flourish.” I really love that statement. It really helps me keep things in perspective that I don’t have to be the one to make something successful and that God is in control. Here are some things that we haven’t forgotten about that are still on our “To Do” list, we’re just waiting to see if God wants them to flourish.

Motel Cookbook – it’s about ½ way done.
Bicycles – bicycles that could be used at the weekly motels for transportation
Bible Study/Small Group Classes at the motels
Aunt Mollies Garden – We will be having a spring planting day soon!
Food Voucher Program – Would love to see some restaurants, especially ones with buffets, offer free food vouchers to those in need. Maybe after a certain time, a person could come in and get a hot meal if they had a voucher. There could be a couple of agencies in town help clarify the need and distribute the vouchers.

COMMENTS
We really need your comments, suggestions, and/or criticisms. What would you like to see from Jesus Was Homeless in 2010? What would you like to see us not do? What would you like to hear more of? And of course, praise lets us know to keep doing what we are doing. If you are not comfortable criticizing without being anonymous then go to the contact page on our web site and leave your comments there. We would just love to have your feedback on a regular basis. Remember, you are always invite to “Come & See” each week.

God bless,

23 One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure,24 the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.25 Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life.26 But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots. – Job 21:23-26 (NLT)

What an impactful 2 weeks it’s been. We were blessed with something called “Heater Meals” thanks to our great FRIEND Larry Johnson. If you don’t know Larry I would encourage you to meet him. This guy has connections for everything and a HUGE heart for people. These “Heater Meals” are the coolest thing since sliced bread. It not only provided something different than our ordinary sandwich meal but a hot dinner as well. Everything is in the box and it “self” heats. We were also able to pass out bags of toiletry items that same week as well. We’ve had lots of volunteers go with us each week and it’s a good thing as the need has still been steady with 330 meals delivered each week. When you consider that’s on top of Loaves and Fishes it’s quite amazing.

We picked up a new motel recently and in one of the rooms there is a gentleman dying of cancer. He is being treated, I believe as best as he can, but it is a sad situation, at least it is for me. The reality of the situation is that this man will probably die in this small one room motel room. It has impacted me enough that I really want to build a relationship with him and understand how he ended up in this situation. I just hate the fact he’ll die in that motel room. I know he’s not the first as we had another gentleman who died at a different motel several weeks back and he certainly won’t be the last but it just stinks. Just pray that we will get to know him and that he’s open to us and that he is already saved by Christ.

We really have had a lot of fun the last couple of weeks as we’ve had close to 30-40 volunteers battle the cold to deliver food with us. Again we continue to see all walks of life, from college kids, church youth groups, bankers, disabled adults, business professionals, etc. It is truly a group of community for community.

As we continue to add toiletry bags to our regular food delivery we could use deodorant, razors and shaving cream. These small bags of toiletry items can really make a big difference right now. It seems as though people are more desperate right now than ever before. When we talk with them you can hear the despair in their voice about where their next meal will come from, how to pay their rent, etc. It really makes us appreciate how much we have. They are so desperate at times that we even had our vehicles broke into at our home, even with a Jesus Was Homeless van in the drive. Unfortunately they didn’t steal any bibles. I use the term broke into loosely as we had left them unlocked. The sad truth is that while they did steal my Garmin GPS and Amy’s prescription sunglasses we would have gladly welcomed them into our home and given them far more than they could ever hope to get from those items.

I was hoping to share a photo with you of a pig that we came across at one of the motels. Yes that’s right I said a pig. I have learned not to be surprised by what we will come across when we are delivering food. At one of the motels a gentleman had a pot-bellied pig as a pet. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and the next week when we went back he was not there. Neither was the pig.

We are on our way to Jamaica this week to visit the friends we met this summer at the motels. I hope to update you on them, their families and their country when we get back. In the meantime, if you want a chance to see a pig-in-a-motel not a poke, then I invite you to “Come and See” with us each week.

God bless,

4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. – Romans 12:4-5 (NLT)

Another amazing Thursday from start to finish! We started out the day with approximately 30 volunteers showing up to help assemble the “happy meals”. It warms my heart to see so many people that give of their time to put meals together for those less fortunate. Most of our morning volunteers are not able to deliver the meals and never get to see the people who receive the meals but they love to put them together nevertheless.

We were able to use our second van that evening, smiley faces and all. What a blessing that was! Arriving Thursday night I was greeted with many new faces, all curious and eager to make a difference. We were blessed with the youth group from Woodland Hills Church, a group of men from one of the Church Army recovery homes, a small group from First Baptist Forsyth, a couple of managers from Golden Corral, our trusted and faithful weekly volunteers and others that God led to help. In total we had about 60 volunteers and delivered 330 meals. It’s crazy to think that only 1 year ago we had only 3 of us and delivered 48 meals – God is so good! If God keeps this up we might have to break off into a third route. It was heartwarming to watch others get to experience the joy of giving.

We met a man at one of the hotels who has been playing guitar at one of our local restaurants for the past 7 years. He feels as if God has led him to hand out bibles to those who stop and listen to him play. He was sharing with one of the new volunteers about his need for a guitar and the volunteer offered to give him his own guitar that he no longer played. What a true example of how Jesus wants us to live our lives. I have lived most of my adult life knowing that God works miracles but now I get to witness them every week! If you want to witness some yourself I invite you to “Come and See”. – Amy

VOLUNTEER AND FELLOWSHIP NIGHT
All volunteers, donors, givers and anyone that wants to learn more about Jesus Was Homeless, we will be having a “Connect with Us” night at Golden Corral on January 29th at 5:30 pm until whenever you leave. Golden Corral has given us a special rate of only $9.00 per person including buffet, drink and tip. Just let them know you are with us. Come hang out, get to know your fellow volunteers, fellowship, and learn more about our dreams for 2010!

UPDATED OUR WEBSITE
We now have the Faith Community Health Clinic information and the locations for Loaves and Fishes as well as the bus route on our website under “Resources”. All the information is downloadable and printable.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Abby Lewis received the “To Love” award for her sense of personal worth, her dedication to God, the love of God and to serve his people by the Branson Believers. Abby was characterized as having a loving spirit. If you know Abby you know this was an accurate and well deserved award. Abby also helps us with our Facebook page. Another great friend of ours, Christopher Welch received the “To Live” award for contributing the most to others, for his tremendous qualities and his infectious enthusiasm to help others in any way that he can. Christopher currently heads up the 2010 Census for Stone and Taney county and holds seats on numerous not-for-profit boards.

Have a blessed week!!

9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. – Romans 12:9-13 (NLT)

It was cold Thursday night but we still had close to 15 dedicated warm hearted people show up to help deliver food to the motels. We all met at Krispy Kreme for a hot chocolate/coffee afterwards and to share what we experienced. We all came to the same conclusion, that the need is far GREATER so far this year than ever before. What’s so exciting to see though is when individuals or organizations take a person or family on and provide for them. Our friend Elton made sure Gordon got some boots for the winter. Our friends Curt and Gordon were put into motels during the severe cold weather by individuals that just had a HUGE love and concern for our fellow man. Individuals have taken food, clothing, blankets and toys to people that God has laid on their heart. That my friends, is what doing community is and it’s so exciting to see!! To be able to hear the stories from our volunteers of the “God moments” they have with people when they deliver the food always confirms for me that he is real, alive and working. I overheard a conversation by a couple of volunteer’s before we headed out that night. One gentleman said he didn’t know if we were going to be delivering tonight due to the extreme cold weather and the other volunteer replied “If we don’t who will?” That comment has really stuck with me all week. Especially when I find myself getting into “self”. The bible tells us that we are the hands and feet of Jesus so how can we really expect someone else to do the things we don’t want to do when we get inconvenienced? I’m sure Paul, Stephen, John the Baptist, and many more were inconvenienced a few times. Especially if they were hanging out with Jesus, don’t you think?

Here’s why we do what we do:

Branson, Missouri is a tourist destination with almost 8 million visitors per year. However, hidden in the background behind the glitz and glamour of all the music shows and attractions is a “forgotten” community of working poor. These people are living in weekly and extended stay motels, and by Hearth Act definition, are homeless or severely at risk of being homeless. In Branson alone, we have identified as many as 40 weekly and extended stay motels. We estimate that the number of people living in these motels are between 800-1200 with 200-300 being children. Many are trapped in low-paying seasonal jobs unable to earn enough money to put back for apartment rental and utility deposits. Most do not have their own transportation and with no city transit system, they need to live within walking distance of their work. Because they live in a motel, they do not qualify for any rental assistance through government funded programs. They are considered to be in a non-permanent residence yet, many of these people have lived in the motels for a year or more. It is not unusual to find complete families with as many as 3-4 children living in a single, double bed motel room. Weekly and extended stay motels typically do not even provide the basics found in a nightly stay motel such as toilet paper, soap and shampoo. Many of these “working poor” are stretched so tightly they barely have enough money for food and the basic necessities of life once their motel rent is paid. If they can obtain food they are greatly limited on how much they can prepare, with only a small microwave to cook with. Food storage is a problem as well. With only a small dorm room sized refrigerator they are not able to purchase many groceries at one time. Some motels have residents that are in drug or alcohol addiction. Often the elderly that live in these motels are isolated, afraid to come outside. Some motels have single moms with multiple children hiding from abusive relationships. Whatever the reason the need for hope, love and compassion is great.

Jesus Was Homeless service ministry is open to anyone that has a heart for people. Our goal or mission, if you will, of Jesus Was Homeless is to end hunger and homelessness in our community while sharing hope, love, and compassion. It is to build “community” with the ones serving and with the ones being served. It is to provide an ear to listen, a smile to flash or a hug to give. It is amazing to see how people will lift themselves up when they know someone cares. We try to fill the food insecurity need at least once a week as well as provide resources and contacts for additional assistance. Sometimes that’s additional food, housing resources, addiction recovery, clothing, whatever we can be a conduit for. We even offer the same downloadable resources on our website at www.jesuswashomeless.org We had a young lady tell us the resource information sheet that we put in each bag had saved her life. When desperation set in, with nowhere to turn, she remembered the resource sheet and contacted the help she needed from it. The uniqueness of our outreach is that we are literally “feet on the street’. We have no office door where we are waiting for people to walk thru. By going to them, where they live, it’s impossible to not become involved in their lives. We have no salaries to pay, as we are made up of volunteers from all walks of life. We are not a church, yet encourage all denominations to participate and often transport the ones we are serving, in our 15-passenger van, to a “come as you are” Saturday night church service. Because these are the forgotten, as most have jobs and are not seen by the public sleeping on park benches, we try to create awareness within the community by hosting “Love Your Neighbors” BBQ’s at various weekly and extended stay motels. We invite the community to come and hang out, fellowship and eat with the residents. If they will do this they often find out the walls and barriers that tend to separate us as a community come down. Since many do not have transportation we have started collecting single speed adult bikes that we give to those that need them. We have even built a garden, with the help of volunteers, at a weekly and extended stay motel. We hope it will not only provide fresh fruits and vegetables, but also provide hope and pride by taking ownership in it. It’s always exciting to watch a garden grow.

We currently visit 18 weekly or extended stay motels each week and have delivered over 11,000 well-rounded nutritious meals all by donation or out-of-pocket funding. We have a dedicated group of volunteers, 10-15, that meet each and every Thursday morning from 9:00-11:00 am to assemble the more than 300 meals each week. Church Army Branson has allowed us to use not only their facilities but many of their staff as well. We then have another group of volunteers, anywhere from 10-40, load the van with the meals and distribute them every Thursday night from 5:30 – 9:00 pm. Sometimes we are blessed with additional donated items such as loaves of bread, toys, clothing and we even had potatoes donated by Branson United Methodist Church to distribute. The volunteers will load into the van as well. This is a great way for everyone to experience a sense of community, get to know each other on a deeper level, share stories and ideas. Currently, resources and transportation are the only things limiting the number served. At a cost of $1.50 per meal, $450 per week, or $23,400 annually, we have been very cautious not to expand to motels that we can’t sustain. We don’t want to share, hope, love and compassion to only have to stop due to lack of resources. So as not to drain our volunteers we only deliver food one night a week. We have collection boxes for toys, clothing, and bibles at various businesses throughout our Branson community. We distribute these items each week as well. In November we will be having our 3rd annual “Love Your Neighbors” Thanksgiving Dinner for the weekly and extended stay motel people. Transportation will be provided by our van and The River church bus. We will also distribute additional food, coats, blankets, hats, bibles, toiletry items at the dinner. We hope to someday provide life skills training and bible study classes at the motels and partner with organizations or even retirees to help facilitate these. Our biggest dream is to purchase a weekly or extended stay motel and convert it into a HUD approved affordable housing complex using community partners. Through your help we can make a difference in our community. To fully understand what we do we invite you to “Come and See”.

TRAIN WHISTLE

Speaking of sharing experiences that night. We had a first happen to us. We delivered some food to a friend of ours and he had a guest with him by the name of Rhinestone McKinney (sp?). She was quite the character and played a song for us. Now this wasn’t just any song it was a song with a train whistle and she did the train whistle herself! It was amazing, she actually sounded like a train whistle. It was so much fun. Amy and I were talking about it later and said we would have never gotten to experience a lot of things that we have if it wasn’t for delivering food on Thursday nights.

TOILETRY ITEMS
We still need toiletry items such as deodorant, shampoo, and toilet paper. We will be putting together sacks of these to pass out with our meals as well. There is always a need for these items as they are not provided in a weekly or extended stay motel.

T-SHIRTS
Help provide meals in our community by purchasing your own “Jesus Was Homeless” T-shirt. We have 6 designs to choose from. These are fantastic conversation starters and an opportunity to talk about what’s God is doing in your life. We would love to have gift shops, outlets, etc. to display our shirts. We would put them in on consignment so there’s no cost to become a vendor. Check them out at http://www.jesuswashomeless.org/store.html

LOAVES & FISHES
The third annual Loaves & Fishes program will run from Saturday, January 2nd through Monday, March 15th at the following locations: Mondays – First Baptist Branson; Tuesdays – Church Army Branson; Wednesday – Our Lady of the Lake; Thursdays – Branson United Methodist; Fridays – First Presbyterian Church; Saturdays – Faith Lutheran Church; Sundays – Salvation Army. Each night doors open at 5:30 p.m.

POINT IN TIME COUNT
Did you know that in the July 2009 Point-in-Time Count of unsheltered and sheltered homeless individuals and families in Taney County revealed that there were 261 sheltered and 43 unsheltered homeless individuals and families in the county? In addition to the 304 homeless individuals and families counted, there were 269 individuals and families counted in weekly rentals who were homeless, but do not meet the HUD definition of homeless. Once again, the community of Taney County is called to action as we begin to plan for the next Point in Time Homeless Count that will take place on January 27th, 2010. WE NEED YOUR HELP! We need the partnership of your organization! More importantly, our friends, local families and children, that are in the most need during this current economic crisis desperately require your help! For more information contact Christopher Welch, 417-231-2108, christopherwelch@att.blackberry.net

HOPE ON THE ROAD BUS
Amazing stories of God’s love from Abby Lewis with her HOPE ON THE ROAD BUS. If you are not on Abby’s email list and want to hear these stories her contact info is healingnaturally@suddenlink.net. Get on this list and hear what God’s doing through this wonderful ministry.

Have a blessed week and try to stay warm!