Don't Walk By 2010

Over the weekends of January, the people of Apostles Church joined with volunteers from all over NYC for Don't Walk By, an outreach with the goal of walking every block of Manhattan to offer homeless neighbors a hot meal, a warm bed, and even entrance into programs to help them get back on their feet. Here are a few shots from while we were getting ready for the January 30th outreach in the Upper East Side; over 200 homeless were engaged that night.



This was my team for the night (minus Karen, who disappeared when the camera came out. I'm sure she didn't mean that intentionally . . . )as we battled temps around 20 degrees while covering our 12 blocks for 3 hours. We came across 6 homeless; one of them accepted our invitation back to the church for a meal (yay!) and expressed interest in being enrolled in a recovery program. Once we were back, we spent the better part of an hour talking with him as he ate, but we couldn't convince him to join a recovery program as he wouldn't trust the program to have authority over certain parts of his life. He did promise to reconsider at another point, though, so hopefully he's changed his mind.

Before I get too high and mighty on analyzing his decision, though, I think we need to realize we all have this problem as God tries to reform us - unfortunately, we're just the same as our friend. We won't give Him authority over our whole lives, and it keeps us from getting the healing, growth, and maturity He wants to bless us with. The difference is that this isn't a program run by people that we're afraid to trust; this is God, and He is most certainly worthy of having authority over all areas of our lives.

Plenty of people, but we can still fit a few more.

Important strategizing taking place . . . Or is that just twitter???

If you're in the NYC area (or wind up there this time next year), I strongly encourage you to volunteer. More people are always needed, and it's a great example of how to shine the light of Christ for people who need it desperately.