Homemade sleeping bags...

Elspeth forwarded this to me, about how to make sleeping bags for the homeless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPxT_lNx60c

Here is the group's page, with the instructions...

http://www.reese.org/sharon/uglyinst.htm

Is anyone interested in getting together and giving this a try?  Let me know...

Christmas Presence, December 11th.

We are gearing up for the next Christmas Presence event (see previous events in Rice Park listed below). Socks, underwear, mitts and hats are particularly needed.  The event is on Saturday December 11th. Let me know if you are interested in helping out, and meeting some great people!

Getting ready for cold weather

Friends,
We've been blessed with wonderful weather this autumn, but we know what's coming!

(some Praxis folks from 3 winters ago...)

Simple things like new socks (either full-length athletic, or workman/thermal), knit hats and mitts make a huge difference to our friends on the street...
Also, new underwear is always appreciated (mens and womens, all sizes...).

If you remember, can you drop off items at either CrossRoads (Praxis bins across from the children's ministry check-in area), or at The Gallery...

Shalom,
Matt

Changes...

Changes have a funny nature of happening in clusters... 

• One of our leaders over that last couple of years (Kim) is moving away to be with her sons. Thanks so much Kim for your energy and enthusiasm!
• Terry and Matt are looking to move to a ministry that works more towards getting people off of the street. This is grea, and I hope you plug in with one of the great ministries in the Twin Cities.
• For a year we've been part of the CrossRoads Church Live-out-Love Saturdays, and in this time we've had the opportunity to take many people downtown and let them meet our friends. My desire has been that people come to see our friends as people made in the image of God, and to start to feel God's love for them (as well as for all of us). Thank you Lisa and Cyndi for facilitating our involvement in Live-out-Love!
• Bill, one of the originals, is now a leader in BSF, and so his Saturday mornings are spoken for. I've appreciated your companionship through the many cold winter mornings when we've searched the streets and skyways for people needing gloves, hats and prayers!

One the plus side, the young folks (ok, to me mid-20s is young!) at the Gallery Church are getting involved in homeless and urban issues in a way that inspires me!  Tony and friends have worship services and just hang out and talk, play music and pray with people Sunday nights (rotating through each of the parks).
I enjoyed hanging out with Tony and others a few Saturdays ago (chatting with people, singing, even painting!). 

So, the faces of Praxis (except mine...) have changed, but the mission is the same (Dignity and Respect for all the Image-Bearers of God), and the approach is the same (learning by doing...)

Shalom,
Matt

Dignity and Respect for all the image-bearers of God

We were was sitting with some ladies in the green space across the road from Dorothy Day. We'd been talking for a while, and had offered them some water, snacks and hygiene kits. I asked what other sorts of things they'd appreciate receiving. One answer surprised me, and I've passed it on several times since. The lady said, "Dignity, underwear, respect, socks, moisturizer, and, did I mention dignity?" She went on to list the local churches that treated people well, and then other churches that made her feel degraded even while they served her.

I tell this to every group that we take downtown with us: "Dignity and respect." It doesn't matter what a person's housing and employment status is; everyone needs love, and to know that they are not forgotten, by God or by us.

We don't just hand out items (although that's part of it); we try to connect with people, we ask their names and we offer to pray with them, and we catch-up with them in subsequent weeks. We offer them a safe place to unburden themselves, and perhaps talk through some things.

Some people accept this readily, others reject us. When we first met one gentlemen he tried to punch us. Over the next year and a half, we kept gently serving his friends, and eventually we got to know him and pray with him. A few months later we learned that he had died. When I think that I'm too tired to go downtown, or it's too cold out, I think of him, and how time is short, and we head out again.

Thank you for your donations to Praxis (at CrossRoads, Gallery, and my workplace), and thank you for your prayers. If you would like to join us sometime, please let me know.

Shalom,
Matt

In the park with Gallery Church

We got together with The Gallery Church (St. Paul) in December (just a couple of days after a huge snow storm...fortunately part of the park was cleared...).

As usual, we set up with some tables (with with food, coffee and hot chocolate) and bins of clothes in the park, and then sent out groups (with bags of hygiene kits and mitts and gloves) to the shelters and bus stops. After an hour, people started coming by.  It was a really cold day, but the team from Gallery were really energetic and enthused!

We had a lot of conversations with the people that came by. (One funny time: when we were setting up, a couple came by and asked, in a pointed tone, if we were setting up to "sell our wares to the tourists". When I explained what we were doing, they kept saying, "Oh, that's so nice...".)

We got some donations through an event at The Peach art gallery, and the excess clothes then went to one of the East Side schools that a couple of the Gallery people teach at.  It worked really well, and I look forward to the next time we take part in a Love: St. Paul event with The Gallery.