Holidays for the Homeless - The Plan is to Bless

A few months ago God put it on my heart to make some real changes to how I served, or rather didn't serve, the homeless in our city.

I shared our ideas here and was incredibly blessed by your willingness to take part. We decided to make small bags of food and toiletries that might be a blessing and a help to someone on the streets. Our family also had a strong desire to serve in some capacity on Christmas Day.

Dozens of people have told me they want to join us for our Christmas Day project, which is nothing short of amazing. I only say that because I know how hard it is to find time in busy holiday schedules to fit in time with family members, let alone go meet a bunch of strangers to serve the homeless, so it's just lump-in-my-throat awesome to me that anyone would join us.

People's willingness to sacrifice their time for others is seriously beautiful. God is so good.

This, folks, is The Plan.

On Christmas Day at 11 am, we will meet at Cesar Chavez Park* to distribute bags of helps, cookies, hot chocolate, and more. RAIN OR SHINE

Cesar Chavez Park is a "hot spot" in the city for our homeless population and will likely have many people in the park and surrounding area. The idea is to set up a simple table with hot chocolate and cookies to hand out, maybe a second one with blankets, bags, coats etc.

Our desire is to do two things, first meet a physical need for comfort and warmth to the best of our ability, and second (actually primarily), to bring blessing and humanity to people who are largely ignored and unloved on a day when they may feel especially so.

I cannot imagine that Christmas is an easy holiday to see pass by on the streets. It is one thing to have your physical needs met, but an entirely other thing to just be joyfully and fully loved. I think we can all come together and do that. I know we can.

Here are the ways YOU can help, should you feel led:

1. Join us! For five minutes, two hours, or a little while in between, you being there, willing to love and serve, will be the best gift we could give. Invite your friends, your family, your church, your scout troops, your book clubs, everyone!

2. Donate, as little or as much as you want. Bring your items to the park or email me (glitterandgrunge at gmail.com) to arrange pick up. No donation is too small!

• cookies (store bought or home baked - we are equal opportunity here)
• hot chocolate packets
• coats (mostly adult sizes, though children's sizes would be fine)
• small (pocket sized) comfort items - stuffed animals or soft toys that could bring comfort to someone on the street. You would be amazed at how child-like (in the best way) some homeless folks are. A small toy to help them remember what I hope to be a happy day for them, could be a huge blessing.
• Dog treats, leashes, collapsible water bowls
• blankets
• homeless care bags

 3. If you play guitar or any other musical instrument and would like to share your talents, no one will stop you.  Christmas carols, top 40, indie rock, songs you wrote in your room in high school, all welcome. Please! (Family friendly songs only, please!)

4. If you are willing to lend a table or two, or pop-up tent, it would certainly help!

5. PRAYER. Look, I have no idea how this is going to go. There may just be 40 of my friends and family at Cesar Chavez, singing, eating cookies with no one to serve, or we may find ourselves 10 people strong and overwhelmed by need we aren't prepared for. All I know is God is calling us to do something and we are trusting Him enough to do it. But I am most definitely terrified about how it will all turn out. Like sweaty palms, heartbeat in my eardrums terrified.

6. Spread the word. The end.

My information:
Claire Bone
email: glitterandgrunge @ gmail.com
Chronicles of Claire on Facebook
@Bone_Claire on Twitter

Find me. Message me. Tell me how you can help.

I ask a lot of the people who read this blog, I know that. I am so thankful to all of you. God has blessed me with some pretty fabulous people - friends, family, acquaintances, readers - you are all a gift. I hope I get to see you all over the course of this project!

All About The "Getting"

We just started getting the weekend newspaper again after a several-year hiatus. We weren't reading it enough and the Sunday ads just taunted me with cheap clothes and electronics that no one needed, but oh, how I wanted. What tipped us over the edge was the girl going door to door selling subscriptions "to help her earn a college scholarship". Yes, it was about as believable as you can imagine, but seeing as a six month weekend subscription was somewhere in the ballpark of $13 we went with it.

Our timing could have been better. The first Sunday paper was so overloaded with holiday ads that Charlotte couldn't have picked it up if she wanted to. Which she didn't.

As soon as they saw the paper the kids started clamouring for the funny pages, because as Sunday paper newbies they had no idea what waited for them inside.

I rolled open the giant paper and began sorting through for the funnies. As I did, I was inadvertently handing my kids ads labeled "Holiday Toy Lists", "Hottest Toys of the Season" and "Totally Toys". By the time the funnies were finally produced I found that my children were huddled over the Target toy ad, oohing and ahhing over the lastest and greatest.

I didn't pay too much attention to it until I realized that the kids were carrying around the ads like prized books. If a page got crumpled or torn, the kids turned on each other like reality show contestants, trying to find the culprit.

They fought over the booklet, then finally settled down to start looking at the ads together, folding down pages for the items they wanted. It's a kid tradition to peruse catalogs and ad inserts for the most wished toys each Christmas. Entire holiday movies are based on the concept.

I watched my kids fight, then make up, then listened to a chorus of "I want that's" and my heart began to sink. They all found items that they truly wanted, the things they have been wanting for a long time, princess dolls for Charlotte, Legos for Tyler and American Girl dolls and accessories for Lily. These are items that they had been talking about for weeks and months, that they had been studying online and knew the ins and outs of.

But they also found things that they never even knew they wanted. Bigger toys that were more sparkly or more pink or had more pieces. Before the wonderful world of Sunday newspapers my kids knew exactly what they wanted. After the glossy ad enlightenment they suddenly thought they needed so much more.


That doesn’t really ever change, does it?

We always have desires. Things that we work towards our whole lives but often when we are presented with something bigger, fancier and more sparkly, our old desires seem too small, so we upgrade. Sometimes we get our desires and then we want more, barely taking time to enjoy the joy and blessings we do have.

It's so easy for this time of year to become all about the "getting". I'm guilty of it. Heck, I am writing this post while texting my sister about our planned Black Friday shopping exploits, where we shop cheap deals for ourselves, not so much our loved ones, so yeah. Guilty.

Our proclivity towards more more more certainly can rear its head this time of year. I am trying to find the balance between desire and outright coveting. I want this holiday season to be full of peace and joy and family and service while enjoying the gifts we do have.

I am so excited about this upcoming holiday season and the plans we have for Christmas Day service to the homeless. We have nearly 40 people signed up to go to Cesar Chavez park on Christmas day. Forty. People. Unbelievable!

Come back tomorrow, because I'll be laying out the whole plan. If you are local to the Scaramento area, I urge you to consider participating with us.

Active Love

I am so encouraged by the response my Call for Help received. 

245 bags have been pledged by my readers, friends, Girl Scout Troop and church family. Dozens more of you have committed to making something, but not a number (that's ok! something is awesome!). I had one reader, Aimee, suggest making bags for dogs, too. A ball, treat, baggies for poo, maybe even a leash or a chew toy. I LOVE that idea. I am in the process of securing a plan for our Christmas Day service act, as well.

Please remember that the bags, can be as big or as small as you like. They can have one item or a dozen. They can be snacks, a meal, change, toiletries, socks, dog toys, anything. We can't give out big bags like we did the first week every week, as those had many items in them and were about $8 each. This week I have a large box of peanut-butter crackers and apples in my car to hand out. Next week it might be bars of soap and a granola bar. The week after it might be blankets from the thrift store.The point is to actively love people.

If you are helping in any way, would you do me a huge favor and take pictures of your sweet, smiling faces with your bags? I'd love to just share what you all are doing. If you are a blogger yourself, would you post pictures of you doing your bags and then link back to the Action and a Call for Help post here? I just want everyone who has agreed to help to have a chance to be encouraged by each other.

When we first began thinking about how we would help the area homeless, I was curious exactly how large Sacramento's homeless population is. I found this study done in 2011 by a consulting firm. It was estimated that Sacramento County's homeless population is about 2,300 people. I was and still am shocked by this number. It seems so low. I read in the study that they get the count by gathering volunteers and literally do a head count the best of their abilities.

Volunteers physically counted around 900 people, and after handing the data to their statisticians, the firm came to the final number of an estimated 2,300 people who are described as "chronically homeless". I don't know how they came to that number, or how accurate it is, but 2,300 does not seem like that many for a county the size of Sacramento. There are 1,436,105 residents in Sacramento County according to the 2011 Census.

I don't understand how a population so small, by comparison, could be so under-served. It makes me realize how little we do as a church and how big our impact could be just by doing a little, and I mean a really little bit. I have always wondered why I don't care more given what I know about the population.

Some have been on the streets their whole lives. Some are on the streets because of a lifetime of poor choices they made for themselves. Some are on the streets because of poor choices others made and they found themselves in a place they cannot escape. They have been and continue to be abused, addicted, shamed, mistreated, ignored and are largely poorly educated.

This weekend the Bee ran this article about how fed up some business owners are with the homeless population and the people who feed them (oh, hey, that's us!). I can see why business owners might be frustrated, but I can't help but be worried that people who are already hurting will get hurt further.

I don't know why God is moving my heart towards homeless, but I am glad He is doing it. I'm goig to go ahead and blame Proverbs.

Right now these Proverbs are reverberating in my brain:

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord - and he will repay you! 19:17
Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give. 21:26
The rich and poor have this in common: The Lord made them both. 22:2
Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor. 22:9

I am so encouraged by you all. Thank you.