November in the park

We had a great morning last Saturday with the CrossRoads Church/Live Out Love group! We started with 3 assembly lines for lunches and snacks.

We then headed downtown to Rice Park, set up some tables with coffee and hot chocolate, lunches and snacks, and hygiene kits.

We had several benches with men's items (socks, underwear, shaving kits and coats), and benches with women's items (socks, underwear and feminine hygiene packs).

Groups of three or four headed through the other parks, the bus shelters and Dorothy Day Center, taking water and food, letting people know we were in the park.

We met a lot of people, and many of our group got to sit down and talk our friends. It was a great day, and our friends really appreciated the chance to talk (and get new socks, underwear and hygiene items).

Thanks so much to the CrossRoads Women's Ministry for enough donations to make 500 feminine hygiene packs! Our friends really appreciated that!!! Thanks to the Children's Ministry for the donations of socks and underwear! Thanks to the ladies who have been faithfully making mitts, scarves and hats!

If you would like to contribute to either our monthly events, or our weekly smaller walks through downtown, please use the donation bin at CrossRoads Church (near the Children's Ministry check-in desk), or find me at Gallery Church. Our friends are very appreciative for all the items you donate!

Peace,

Matt

It's time to break out the mitts!

This past weekend, we had a couple of people ask us if we had mitts and gloves with us. It was 50F that morning. Now that the cold front has moved in, and there is a frost warning for tonight, we're now gearing up for the cold weather. If you have hats, scarves and mitts/gloves (for adults and children), let me know, or drop the items in the bins at CrossRoads (or hand them to me at CrossRoads Sunday morning, or The Gallery Sunday evening).

The photo is from last winter; I'm showing it to remind us (me), that now is the time for the cold-weather gear...

Tomorrow night, some of the ladies of CrossRoads are getting together to make some mitts and hats. Thank you ladies! (The men on the street prefer dark, solid colors, while the ladies prefer colorful items.)

Peace,

Matt

Autumn Updates...

Long time, no typing...
We've been going downtown most weekends through the spring and summer. Usually it's been our group of 4-5, but four times we've host a group from Live Out Love from CrossRoads Church. On those days we've set up a station in Rice Park, then sent out groups of 4-5 to the parks and bus stops. It's been great to see the participants' enthusiasm, and better to hear them say their eyes have been opened to the people they'd normally walk by.
Thanks to CrossRoads for promoting the events, and supplying the water and the bananas (and vacuum pots of coffee!).

One thing we've seen is that the number of people on the street and in the parks have been increasing (numbers were down last year before and after the RNC: the Excel Center is next to Rice Park and across the road from Dorothy Day, Listening House and Mary Hall). I'm expecting that we are going to be seeing more people through the winter as well.

If you'd like to help out, come to one of the Live Out Love events, or send me a note... We have a group of ladies that knit mitts, hats and scarves for the winter (thank you so much!). Our friends also need new socks (athletic socks are best...), and underwear (mens and ladies, S,M,L,XL), as well as hygiene items. Drop me a note if you'd like to help, or you can drop items for the homeless in the donation bins at CrossRoads and The Gallery churches (CrossRoads in Woodbury: bins are near the entrance to CrossWalk, The Gallery @ Stepping Stone Theater: bins are in the lobby).

And, please pray! If you think it is cold and miserable out (and you know it's coming!), please stop and pray for the people finding shelter.

Thanks and blessings,
Matt

A cold day in February...

On Valentine's Day this year we put on a little event in Rice Park. We set up a table with a cooler of orange drink (thanks, McDonalds in Cottage Grove), bagged lunches and hygiene packs. We put out bins of mens and womens clothes, hats, socks, scarves and mitts, and spread coats (thanks Stone Soup) and blankets across the benches. A couple of us manned the food table, and the other four helped people find the clothes they needed. A special "thanks!" to the ladies at CrossRoads who have been knitting scarves and sewing the mitts! People really appreciated that these were hand made.

We had a great day! The sun shine helped counter the cold wind (yes, it was cold!). We got to talk to a lot of people, and share some laughs and some hugs.

We will be looking at repeating this maybe every six or eight weeks; in the meantime we will be doing our regular walks through downtown.