From Rachel:
Through this experience we have had together, I am learning that God is calling us to acknowledge the problem of people who are homeless and don’t have a place to live or much to call their own.
Our group helped out with a lot of soup kitchens and supplying care packages, and we also learned a lot of the stereotypes that come with being homeless, like how we might think that all homeless people are all crazy, addicts, how they all smell funny, or how they’re mean. Most of those stereotypes aren’t true, like being crazy and addicted to drugs or alcohol are not actually the reasons why people become homeless. The real reasons why are oftentimes due to natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, or because of the economy changing and other things out of our control. Sometimes taxes go up, and neighborhoods gain value, and then the apartment you were living in raises the rent, which you can’t pay, so you get evicted, and if you don’t have family or friends, you can easily find yourself to be homeless.
Sometimes when people are homeless, they get accusations of being addicts or alcoholics, because that’s what they might go to if they’re stressed about their situation and the stress gets to be too much.
I think God calls us to help out with this community because He knows that through leading and experiencing these things, we will all be willing to help others with what they need. We are in this together as a community and need to care for one another because we all have value as people.
On the Way 