on living homeless

I want to live homeless for a year. I know, I know, living homeless is crazy. First of all, it's dangerous. And then there all the other ways that I could go about doing what I want without doing such a drastic thing as moving to a big city with no money and no home.

What is it I want to do? Oh, so glad you asked. :) I want to help homeless people, and tell them about God. But that's just part of my idea.

First, let me give you some background on my thoughts, and what I've grown up thinking.

I read an article in the JBU paper last semester about a guy who spent six months homeless. The article explained that the guy realized that he was not living the way he felt the Bible called him to live. He wanted to change his perspective, and challenge himself. I found the article really interesting, and it got me thinking. I've never really known a homeless person. Even people who do have a house or apartment but are really really poor, what do I know about that kind of lifestyle?

What I do know about homeless people and really really dirt poor people, I've learned from living in a parsonage for eight years. I saw so many people come and ask for help; some people were really in need, but many were just making rounds. They'd go to one church after another asking for money, and then go spend it on drugs or cigarettes. Sometimes the church would ask for a phone number of a friend or boss to verify a person's story, but then the he or she would split. It's made me less likely to trust people asking for help.

So, I still want to help homeless people. I think that they are often forgotten about, or ignored. Maybe they are just grossly generalized as drug addicts who have no future.

This makes me wonder: how could I know how to really help homeless people in a way that would really benefit everyone? I don't think that it would be worth the risk to just give money to anyone, because there is no way that I could guarantee that they don't use it to their harm on drugs or cigarettes or alcohol. Giving food could only help for a short time, shelters would be a good place to start, but is another soup kitchen or shelter really going to make that much difference? What could I do?

I've decided that the only way that I personally could really learn how to help is to actually live homeless. It sounds drastic, but I don't really think there is any other way to get the kind of knowledge of needs other than being in situations myself. (No that does not mean that I'm going to start doing drugs, alcohol, or other...bad things. I'm talking about basic needs like shelter and food.)

I do realize that this would be a very dangerous thing to do, so I will admit that I would not want to do this alone. I think that the best option would be to wait until I am married, and start a ministry with my husband. That being said, I guess I'll have to wait for this dream to come true until I'm out of collage, have fallen head over heels for a guy, and gotten married. ;)

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about right now.

Thanks for reading my wild and random ranting! :)

Lauren