The Best Way to Help?

How many stories like Ronald's are there in this country?  In our city?  The numbers are high.

When Dealing With Those in Need

Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center briefly discusses how, when dealing with the poor, "the church is to create a foreshadowing of the Kingdom.....and give a sneak preview of the coming attractions."

How can the church (you and I) "demonstrate the reality and the authenticity of God" to those in need?

Collect Items Together

Do you lead a community group looking for a way to serve on your regular group night? Does your group have young kids? If so (and even if not), consider collecting items together for those in need. You can put care packages together for Supports on the Streets and Streets for Christ (email our rep. Dave for details via info@northridgeserves.com). Open Door Mission collects many items from food to linen to health supplies. You can even help stock Mission:Share's pantry or fill Youth for Christ's baby boutique. So get collecting for a greater purpose!

A Vision for the Homeless in Rochester

Who do you imagine when you think of a homeless person?

What do they look like? What do you assume they've done?

The reality is that the homeless come from every background, education level, race, and ethnicity.

It includes...

• People with advanced degrees who have hit a rough patch in life
• Families struggling to make ends meet
• Young adults recovering from trauma
• Women who have been hurt by abusive family or boyfriends

But the one thing they all have in common is their need for Christ.

The goal of Streets for Christ, a partner of Northridge Serves, is to love the homeless into the Kingdom of God. Every Friday night, the Streets for Christ team serves meals to those living on the street at several locations in Rochester, connecting with individuals to talk and pray with them.

And the goal is two-fold. The ultimate goal is to see the homeless come to love their savior, Jesus Christ. But along with that is the desire to see our impoverished neighbors loved so intentionally, with their physical needs met alongside their spiritual needs, that homelessness is eradicated in Rochester.

A Life Changed at Open Door Mission

After two years of homelessness, Kenny was moments from taking his own life 

when God intervened, and the Open Door Mission responded with its 

Christian Life Recovery Program.

Kenny became a program graduate and he now serves as Assistant Supervisor of ODM's 

Samaritan House Rescue and Shelter Center. “I’m there, telling people the great things 

the Lord has done for me,” he says. “The word of God says, ‘He will give you 

more than you can ever imagine.’ I am extremely blessed.

Groups Take the Initiative

One Northridge community group recently decided they would do something to help support the homeless in our community. With the leadership of a group member who regularly serves the homeless, they made serving together a two-night event:

On the first night our entire group built care packages to hand out to the homeless. On the second night seven of us walked/drove around the city and handed out the care packages.

Several members of the group were surprised to how "real" or "normal" the people we encountered were. Many commented that they were never have known they were homeless just by talking to them. Others were made aware of the severe poverty many in our city live in.

Group leaders... this is exactly the kind of growing experience that you long for in the lives of your members. Check out northridgeserves.com for ideas, and feel free to contact us for help. But if there's something you or your group members are passionate about, don't wait for Northridge Serves! Take the initiative.

Every Number is a Human Story

Every year the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires communities to conduct counts of people living in emergency shelters or transitional housing. Every other year, HUD requires communities to also conduct counts of "unsheltered" people living in places unfit for human habitation (such as abandoned buildings, parks, "tent cities," etc).  In 2014, over 578,000 people were homeless on a given night, nationwide.

The statistics are important, and are used in a variety of ways to attempt to deal with the homelessness problem.  But it can be very easy to overlook the fact that every one of those numbers represents a story, a life, a person.

Jessica, one such person living on the streets of Boston, shared some of her story.