By Matt Grager

While many people think of homelessness as a mainly urban issue, here in Seattle it has taken to the suburbs as well. Across Lake Washington, minutes east of Seattle, is a collection of tents and tarps, raised on wooden pallets and pitched on the grounds of Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, one of the Northwest’s wealthiest cities.

Tent City 4 is a community of homeless people that provides a short-term solution to street living for up to 100 at a time on Seattle’s eastside since 2004. Churches or synagogues invite the community to stay on their grounds for 90 days at a time before they move onto another location. However, as with many aspects of homelessness, the politics around it are sticky.

On one side, the neighborhoods that Tent City moves to inevitably raise an uproar and some file law suits in fear that Tent City will bring with it crime and substance abuse. In their corner are a few local organizations aimed at stopping Tent City, the foremost of which is Tent City Solutions, which, contrary to their name provide no solutions to the issue of homelessness or alternatives to Tent City on their website, other than several calls to simply disband it.

Tent City, though, screens its residents before they can move in, including a warrant check, and is completely substance- and alcohol-free under penalty being forced out of the community. They allow police to come through at any and all times and have strict code of conduct aimed at alleviating the neighborhood concerns. They are also not the stereotypical derelict. Many are couples, most are working, and some are families, all for whom the shelter system and street living are not a reasonable option.

“People always say they need to educate the homeless,” said Leo Rhodes, resident and one of the founders of Tent City 4. “But I think it’s the non-homeless who need to be educated. They need to see the realities.”

Statistics brought forth by those on either side of the issue are constantly contradicting. Tent City Solutions claims a rise in crime in the areas where the community stays. SHARE/WHEEL, the sponsoring organization for Tent City, says that because of the residents who often walk the surrounding area, crime actually goes down. SHARE/WHEEL also estimates that because the Tent City provides a safe space to store belongings and 24-hour access, 90 percent of their residents work at least part time – well above the national statistic of 20 percent.

But to get to the reality of Tent City, it is important to move past the statistics. According to Rhodes, one of the benefits of the community is its interaction with their non-homeless neighbors. Their report with their neighbors has been so positive that they have returned to many churches for a second stay with little to no neighborhood resistance.

This writer, who has lived in an area hosting Tent City 4, twice, has seen no evidence of negative impact, and was impressed by the extent to which the Tent City goes to keep cordial relations with its neighbors.

In one neighborhood a woman complained that the number of residents waiting at the local bus stop may force kids to ride their bikes in the street around them. Tent City agreed to only have residents wait at the stop for ten minutes–a minute longer and they would walk and wait at a stop inconveniently further down the street, again under penalty of expulsion.

While at the Temple B’nai Torah, the municipal government wanted to know what the residents would do in case of a fire, as they are outside but surrounded by a flimsy chainlink fence. Apparently their simple answer of “push the fence over and walk out,” wasn’t adequate. When they arrived, a section of the fence had been removed and in its place was a door frame and emergency exit door, locked on the outside, complete with the panic push bar, leading from outdoors to outdoors.

Clearly, a mobile camp of tents is not a long-term solution to the problem of homelessness. But it does provide a temporary solution for its residents and demonstrates that there is no need to be pushed to the margins of our society.

Tent City 4 will be moving out of the Temple B’nai Torah on August 4, to Mercer Island, Washington. The city of Mercer Island currently has a law suit filed to block the move.

Every day here we see the beautiful kids in this community.  Whether it be one of the hundreds of kids that came through Kids Club, the children playing with us during breakfast in the morning before they had to run to school, or simply those whose home we were building a toilet for.  They were all beautiful, but some we truly made a connection with.  And one of the girls from our last team made an amazing connection with these three little girls in the community of Cambridge. And for this story I asked her to tell it:

“When I came to Jamaica I expected to be working hard for Christ – getting in the mud and shoveling dirt, being His hands and feet. I never expected that my service would be spending time with a group of three small girls – Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana. Throughout the week we taught each other games, blew bubbles, and just sat and talked. Every time they saw me come off the bus their faces lit up and it put a joy in my heart that I had never felt before. We grew so close as the days went on and it felt as though we would always be together, as though I would never have to leave them.

“Then the last day came and the tears started to fall. Seeing these girls cry made me hurt inside and I spent most of that day comforting them and holding them. As I was getting on the bus, the girls handed me two pieces of paper and we said our last goodbyes. We were headed back to the school where we were staying and everyone else was watching ‘Remember the Titans,’ but I was sitting there crying. The girls had written me a goodbye letter and a poem.

“The relationships God helped us build during this mission trip to Jamaica were incredible and everyone will remember the friends they made, whether they were elderly adults who just needed someone to talk to or small children who just wanted a playmate and someone to hold them. I will keep Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana in my heart and in my prayers always, and I thank God for putting each one of them in my life,”

- Annabel

It is because of relationships like the ones Annabel made with those three little girls that we are here serving and working.  It is awesome to be able to serve by meeting the physical needs of the people surrounding us but I truly believe that the world will change when it sees the love of Christ in its relationships.  That is why we serve.

Until All Know,

Nathan Heath

Delays and unforeseen problems seem to like to find their way into our first day’s schedule here in West Virginia, as we have seen this happen every week and thus have almost come to expect problems. Wesleyan Chapel United Methodist Church brought 31 members, and it was our largest single group yet. This group of 31 was full of spunk and already seemed quite unified and just happy to be together, which made for an easy-going and fun environment. The first night was off with a boom when Jackie Colenda and Elliot Malpass led worship in our group time on keyboard and guitar.

As I talked about earlier, Monday morning had a slow start when construction coordinator Todd got sick, which put him out of commission for our first day of work. So Emily and I scrambled to get scaffolding and ladders to two different painting sites, to find the right paint colors, to give out directions to a project 30 minutes away, and to do it all with one vehicle and to make sure everyone was happy while it was all happening. So we got Todd some medicine and sent him off to bed and then had to share the van to deliver groups and their supplies to each work site in somewhat of a timely manner. When all groups and we thought, all the supplies were finally to their destinations the problems didn’t stop there. The wrong paint had been dropped off at the wrong location, and the scaffolding didn’t fit together and there weren’t enough ladders and the benches for painting were wet, and our community partners, Jack and Brenda were gone for the day, and there was only one van and two interns to fix it all. By the grace of God Emily and I didn’t crack under the pressure though, and we slowly but surely worked everything out to where each group was happy and working, at least for the morning.

The next couple days mellowed out a little, and once again God proved He had it all under control and apparently just wanted to make sure we knew it. Life in West Virginia is always an adventure, and never without struggle, but we have come to expect and look forward to each new day, not matter what it brings. The week ahead is sure to be productive and a learning experience for all!

Lovin’ the Lord in West Virginia,

Leanna

By Matt Grager

Today, the doctors say that the tumor inside Sergio Efrain Rochin Avila’s brain has minimized to a manageable size and his migraine headaches that he has suffered constantly for the past three months are gone. Only fifteen days earlier, on the day it was discovered, the tumor was so dangerous to Efain’s health that it demanded immediate surgery or he risked losing all of his five senses.

Efrain is a 19-year-old Ruiz resident who is now recovering from the benign brain tumor, but the doctors cannot explain his progress. Efrain and his family believe his recovery is a miracle from God.

“My family and I were scared and shocked,” Efrain said through a translator, “I’d had no previous head injuries and could not explain how it happened.”

It took two days from his diagnosis to find a specific valve for the surgery he required. Efrain’s brother, Omar, said this is typical of the medical system in Nayarit. Efrain waited, checked into the hospital in Tepic, 45 minutes from Ruiz, scared.

While Efrain waited for the operation, Pastor Abel, an Experience Mission community partner, went to Tepic to visit and pray with him. In Ruiz, the EM youth missionary teams devoted a portion of their nightly service to praying for him and Pastor Abel’s church held a special prayer service.

“I am glad and appreciative to those people who I don’t even know me that prayed for me in those days,” he said. “I am grateful to God for bringing those people.”

When the valve necessary for his surgery was found, the doctors made a startling discovery. His tumor had significantly diminished in size, so much so that it did not need to be removed. Instead they inserted a tube from his tumor to his stomach to allow the fluid in his head to drain properly.

“The doctors could not explain why it diminished, they were confused and shocked,” he said.

Now, after his surgery, Efrain must be cautious. He has taken two months off from his job as a waiter in order to recover. He can no longer go out often with his friends, or play soccer, because his tube may be knocked out. But, Efrain can be seen almost everyday walking through Ruiz, as the doctors have told him to do.

There is still the small possibility that the tumor may grow again. In this case, Efrain faces a very risky surgery in which his skull would be split completely open and his tumor cut from the center of his brain.

At this point, with his miraculous progress, the doctors and Efrain do not believe it will come to that.

“We believe God will take care of him, that he has already taken care of him and will continue our miracle,” Efrain’s brother Omar said.

 After a long break of no teams it is good to be back in to the swing of things. From the get go I was impressed with this new team from Texas. As soon as they got out of their vehicles they were ready to work, and we were ready to give them work.

This week starts a camp meeting where many of the local Navajo meet at the church here and have full day services…and there is a lot to do to prepare for this. So immediately we put them to work on putting up the tent, and the team, without any complaints, went straight into service mode with no down time from their drive. I thought this was incredible.

To continue their service we sent part of the team to Grandma Helen’s place. Grandma Helen is a patriarch of one of the Navajo clans and has been in and out of the hospital for the past few years. She really has been through a lot in her life and is so grateful for the little things that she has that some of her stories really broke my heart. To help her out a little bit the team patched up her roof, painted the interior and exterior of her hogon (or house), and filled in the cracks of her house with silicon to prevent the wind from getting in. It wasn’t much, but every day Hellen would be so excited to show her gratitude and try to repay us by any means possible.

Every day it seemed that she had something new for us. From frybread to bologna we were constantly getting gifts and it was truly humbling. This woman who had little would give us everything she had. It reminded me a lot of what I should be as a Christian, completely giving no matter what I have.

-Chris

For me, one of the most challenging things about being here in Ruiz is working in the overwhelming poverty. From what I’ve seen, it manifests itself in all aspects of their daily life. The roofs over the people’s heads leak in the rain and some children swim naked in streams that double as sewers. I’ve learned to see beyond these things and become envious of the joy many of the people display even in these circumstances. They are hospitable and talkative, even as many of them go hungry. But what I didn’t realize until today was the ways that the poverty of the area affects people in ways I could have never seen at first glance.

I had the chance to sit down and talk with one of our translators, Carlos, today at a work site and ask some specific questions about Ruiz and the struggle in the area. The biggest problem, he says, is the lack of jobs. The jobs that do exist, mainly construction, pay very little even by Mexican standards. Carlos, one of the top in his class at the University of Nayarit, estimates that only about 8 percent of students make it past high school. With the lack of education and the lack of job opportunities the men of Ruiz look elsewhere. Many leave their homes, families and lives behind to try and find a route across the border to the United States risking life and limb to do it. Some make it across, some stay in the border towns to work at factories and some are sent back to Ruiz.

Carlos personally knows a man of only 24 who has tried and failed three times to cross the border. On one attempt he rode for hours gripping the undercarriage of a freight train inches from the track. He then walked for almost three days through the desert with no food or water. He was caught and sent back to Ruiz.

Once the men leave Ruiz for better pay, the true problems begin. While they begin to send back money for their families it often slows down and eventually stops coming at all. It is common for the men who left to start new families across or along the border and never look back at what they left. The money stops coming in and the boys grow up without fathers to learn the harsh reality of their town on their own.

In the United States, we tend to thing of illegal immigration as an American problem – just another topic for the pundits on television to fight about. But being here has shown me that immigration is not only an American issue, but also a Mexican one. It is not only a political problem, but a personal one as well.

- Matt Grager

Our boat sped out across the Caribbean away from Honduras, bouncing on the the low rolling waves and occasionally spraying the warm sea water across those of us seated in the back. Only after the land was out of view did I really start to think about how easy it was for us to leave.

At $50 each, our boat tickets to Belize were well out of reach of the average Honduran. Most earn only $100 a month, and they have little hope of saving anything. Almost all of their income must go toward food and rent; for even skilled workers it costs more than half a day’s wages to buy enough beans for a few meals. You don’t have to spend much time in the country before you start to see those who have a roof over their heads and meals of any kind on the table as fortunate.

Honduras consistently ranks as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and evidence of that fact is seen even in the richest areas of the country. The capital city, Tegucigalpa, consists primarily of sprawling tin-and-wood shantytowns that cover the steep mountain slopes around the downtown area. They are the sort of impromptu developments that famously collapse en masse during major earthquakes or hurricanse, causing thousands of deaths.

There are high-rise buildings, a few upscale businesses catering to travelers and a smattering of people walking around in business suits. If you confined yourself to a few city blocks, it would seem possible to sheild yourself from the most glaring signs of poverty.

But even in those guarded, well-developed areas of the city, they are there. Behind a newly built city park with stucco walls we saw a vacant lot filled with trash. This is a common sight throughout Latin America. In this lot, however, five enormous pigs nearly blackened with filth grazed through the refuse, oblivious to the half-dozen constantly barking dogs or the 20 or so vultures moving through the trash with an ugly waddle. The animals were near downtown Tegucigalpa and there were no homes nearby. The pigs appeared to have no owners.

A day later I was walking through downtown when it began to rain. I saw an old woman sprawled on the sidewalk shift herself under an awning as she spread soaked newspapers across her lap. As I got closer I saw that her legs had been ravaged by elephantiasis. Both were grotesquely swollen and deformed and covered with patches of dried, dead skin.

Those wretched sights aren’t endemic in Junquillo, where we hope to work next year, but seeing them is a reminder that in Honduras, even the most ambitious and gifted residents have little hope of escaping the crushing poverty there. As one Costa Rican friend of mine puts it, Honduras is the place “where dead dreams go to die another day.”

The internationally publicized phenomenon of the crumbling U.S. dollar and the fragile state of our economy would make it ignorant, arrogant and absurd for me to start talking about how rich we are in America and how we so often take it for granted and all that jazz. Just the same, when you see people suffering like that it’s tough not to feel guilty about the undue privilege we were born into; our economic worst-case scenarios would still leave us richer than almost all Hondurans. Running water, seeds for family gardens or a kindergarten–things mission teams could help provide–are well out of the reach of Junquillo residents. They would come at little cost to a team from the U.S. and would drastically improve the residents’ quality of life, and when you realize that, you want to get started right away.

Looking at the few Hondurans on the boat with us, I felt as though they had dodged a bullet. They were packed not for a visit, but for a move to a better life in Belize.

By comparison, Belize seems utterly rich. But it’s not. Countless Belizeans live in a sort of poverty not normally seen in the U.S. and there is plenty of work to do there. As we’re seeking it out, though, it’ll be hard to shake the thoughts of the suffering in Honduras.

-Steven B.

I was impressed upon the other day to go explore the projects of the city and find the most broken and destitute parts of the low-income housing district and what I found was shocking and heartbreaking. Never in all of my life have I seen so many homes closed up and run down. At first glance, the row homes seemed nothing more than boarded up buildings with no occupation, but what hit me was the fact that these buildings were once homes of men and women, brothers and sisters, families and friends—these buildings held stories. It was clear from the faces of these buildings that there weren’t stories of joy, hope, and peace, but hurt, hopelessness, and desperation. With such a graphic depiction of brokenness in these homes, it begs the question of “Why?” What has forced so many people from their homes and turned once thriving neighborhoods into dilapidated streets of despair?

The vast majority of the homes in the city neighborhoods were once part of government issued housing projects which were built to support low income families. A handful of the original homes are still intact; which date back to the 30’s and earlier. As I talked to the people from these neighborhoods, I learned that many homes would be boarded up and destroyed because of tax evasion, drug activity, domestic disturbance, and murders. Whether from eviction, or domestic problems, the low-income district is marred with broken lives; some even forced into homelessness for having nowhere else to turn.

I guess what I’m finding hard to deal with is the fact I have never lived in a neighborhood like the one I visited that day. I have never had to experience what life of a low-income family was like. Until that day, I never would have been able to comprehend life in the projects. My heart goes out to this community. Having been in the inner city for over a month now, I am beginning to see how hard life really is for this part of Baltimore.

Even amongst the turmoil in city housing, there has been an increased effort and encouraging support from volunteers and organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, who are working to rebuild hope to the cities most rundown area. As God continues to work through people to bring His love and hope, lives will continue to be changed and a broken city restored.

Peace Out,

Blaine

By Matt Grager

One of the many obstacles in the recovery of Pearlington, Miss. after Hurricane Katrina devastated the community has been money.

Many of the residents simply cannot afford to rebuild permanent housing and therefore have been stuck in their FEMA trailers or temporary cottages for the past three years. People in these situations have been forced to rely on charity and volunteer work for help. Sonny Wilkinson, 75, a Pearlington native, is no different.

This summer, Wilkinson hopes to finish his permanent house, only a block down the road from where his home of 35 years was completely destroyed. The only thing keeping him from completing it is, of course, money.

“I’ve got a little over $20,000 or so put into this thing, and I’ve got about [$10,000] left,” Wilkinson said. “But I’ve got that stowed away to bury me with.”

Wilkinson’s home is a one-story house raised 12 feet in the air on eight-by-eight posts. The frame and roof are complete, and the siding and wiring each halfway finished. Volunteers, including some from Experience Mission, helped him get this far with their labor.

“If this were 10 years ago, before my heart attack, I could have built the whole thing myself,” he said. “But now, I am blessed with the help.

Though he bought the plot of land and the materials himself, he wonders how he will afford the drywall he needs, let alone the $7,000 elevator he needs for himself and his pals to reach the wrap-around porch and front door.

After the storm, local residents were required to fill out applications for FEMA grants of $26,000 to help them rebuild. Wilkinson complied, understanding he would be receiving a grant. While he was filling out that application, he was asked to fill out an application for a Small Business Association loan as well. Again, he complied.

Because of his good credit, he was offered a $190,000 loan from the SBA, with a $900 a month payment. However, Wilkinson, who lives on a fixed income of $1,000 a month, had to turn the loan down.

“FEMA told me because I was offered the loan and refused it, they couldn’t give me my $26,000. Ain’t nobody in their right mind going to loan a 75-year-old man $190,000,” he said. “It just ain’t right.”

FEMA did offer him $11,000 for the destroyed contents of his home. Later on, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency gave him a grant of $23,000 for the first phase of their Katrina relief grant program. A few months later, MEMA asked him to return the money, saying he had never actually qualified for the grant.

“Six months ago they told me I had qualified for the Phase II grant. I told them to take it out of there if they wanted their money back so bad, because I certainly wasn’t going to give it back,” Wilkinson said. “But I found out last week that they were lying to me this whole time and I’m not getting any Phase II money.”

In order to finish his home, which needs only drywall, paint, flooring and his elevator, he needs about 10,000 more dollars.

“If I can’t get my money from the state, I’ll have to spend my burial money and go find a lawyer. I don’t know what else I can do.”