Wichita Falls Faith Mission is celebrating 60 years of serving the homeless through our three locations ― Faith Refuge, Faith Mission, and Faith Resale and Donation Center. The process of helping the homeless get back on their feet is sometimes long and daunting, but God is faithful, and we’ve seen countless stories of homelessness rewritten.
Because we are celebrating 60 years of ministering to the homeless, I’ve written a blog series about ten ways to address homelessness with 60 different reasons or action steps for each way. My hope in this series is that you understand homelessness more and you are encouraged in your walk with Christ.
I want to take time to recap my blog series “Ten Ways to Address Homelessness” with 60 tips or action steps of practical ways to make it happen! 1) Don’t Give Up on Hope, 2) Meet Their Physical Needs, 3) Listen to Their Stories, 4) Share the Gospel, 5) Pray for the Homeless, and 6) Pray for the Homeless Shelters, 7) Donate food, clothing, household items, hygiene kits and other things to a homeless shelter or a resale store that supports a homelesss shelter, 8) Donate financially to a homeless shelter, and 9) Volunteer at a homeless shelter,
The last way to help the homeless with six action steps is “Give a hand up, not a hand out.” Sometime it takes years for someone to hit rock bottom, and then, like one of my case manager’s who is also a former homeless man says, “they must wallow in it before they get help.” The staff at our two homeless shelters, Faith Refuge and Faith Mission, want to be there when they are ready to make that change. This means that along the way we must keep showing them the grace and mercy of God so they will know they will always be welcomed with open arms when they want to get help. Here are a ways you can give them a hand up and a hand out.
- Give them the information to local homeless shelters and social aid agencies?
- Check on them on extremely cold nights or extremely hot days.
- Give them hygeine kits and remind them they are still love by people and God.
- Smile and acknowledge them
- Encourage them to get help and be responsible.
- Share the Gospel with them.
