Matthew's Hope Fundraiser

UPDATE (2/26)

The Matthew's Hope fundraiser is winding down.   Only THREE days left to shop forward. You don't want to miss out on this opportunity.

Starting Saturday March 1st the Accept Pregnancy Center will be the beneficiary of Origami Owl sales.  Stay tuned for links to shop. This will be an online fundraiser, however, I am more than happy to have an in-home event as well so you can see the new spring line, which comes out March 8th.

If you haven't visited Matthew's Hope in person, or their web site, I strongly encourage you to do so.  Scott Billue and his team of dedicated volunteers are making a tremendous impact in the lives of the homeless, the poor, those struggling to meet the basic necessities of life -food, water, shelter, love.

Shower Trailer

Farmer's market

Guest-run garden

Transitional housing

Showers for the homeless, a garden to grow their own food, transitional housing.  These are but a few of the services provided.  Everything,  and I mean EVERYTHING is done with donations from the community - cash, supplies, physical labor, food, clothing, technical and office support.

I have been blessed to be a part, a very small part, of Matthew's Hope from the beginning a little over three years ago.   Read all about it on their web site and their 'Moving Forward' magazine.  I know all the work they do first hand, I know how much money it takes to do the services, and I know it is used properly.

It is my heart's desire to help as much as I can by working directly with Matthew's Hope in any way I can and by spreading the word.  Homelessness isn't what it used to be.  It isn't always what is preconceived.  My heart breaks when I see a young mother with her children come through the doors, homeless because her husband abandoned her and she lost her job because she cannot afford child care or the man who asks for help because his house burned down and he has nowhere to go, the veteran who has been lost to the system.  The stories are as endless as they are diverse.  (you can read some of them in this blog:  the homeless interviews)

I would give every penny if I could.  However, if I did then I would be homeless.

God has given me an amazing opportunity to give back.  Origami Owl custom jewelry.  It is a new business for me and I plan on using it as a platform for giving.

Now through the month of February I will be donating the proceeds of my MH online party to Matthew's Hope.   Shopping for a cause.  Tell your story through your locket while giving money to buy a new pair of shoes, a blanket, or a meal for someone in need.

Caring for the Homeless Men,
Women and Children of
West Orange County

Matthew 25:35-40 NIV

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Read about Matthew's Hope, pray about where you can be a force for good.  Then, click here and shop away, knowing that  with every purchase you are helping a man, woman, child, family in need.  In March, I will post the amount donated and a picture of me handing over the check so you can see for yourself what YOU have contributed to.  

"Matthew’s Hope fosters the physical,
emotional, and spiritual well-being
of the homeless men, women, and children
of our West Orange community by meeting
basic needs, developing skills,
and restoring dignity and independence."

Living lockets

dangles

love locket with crystals

believe

The Homeless Interviews #5

This next interview is with a man I will call Bob.  Bob is a small man, about 5'4", maybe 120 pounds.  He has red hair and freckles and bright blue eyes.  I thought at first he was going to be a difficult interview because he spoke very quietly.  However, Bob liked to talk, tell stories.  I'm going to 'sum up' a lot of his interview because he didn't keep a strict time line and I was so confused after the interview.  I had to listen to the tape and read the transcript several times to get it straight.  I finally figured out a small part of the problem.  Bob had a brain injury.  Here is his story:


Bob was born and raised in a small town in Florida.  He lived on 10 acres with his family and extended family.  At the age of 5 his father died in a car accident. He had been drunk.   "Mom comes up to me and my brother comes up to me and I seen my brother and I went like ‘where’s dad’ and they said sorry son he’s not coming home.  My brother he lost it after that.  The family kind of split apart.  My mom had to raise 4 kids on her own from there.  She never remarried.  She started drinking and went.. she went to work, come home.  She did not go nowhere.  Never went out.  Never tried to have any friends." Bob tells me he raised his younger sibling.  They moved into "town" when he was 16 and that is when he "started to get into trouble".  He says his extended family abandoned them.  "They never called.  They never come over.  We were poor and it just got worse."


Bob eventually got a job and started taking care of his family. He worked hard, made enough money to "pay the bills".  He says, " I had been very independent.  Always had a job. Always had a ride."  


At one point in his life Bob had an accident at work and he broke his hip, and apparently, he became started drinking to 'ease the pain', it was a little unclear.  Years later, he had a horrific car accident.  He and another guy had been drinking. He had an argument with his wife/girlfriend and had lost his job: 
" 2 miles from the house and I hit 3rd gear and there was a curve coming up.  He says watch out man you are going to hit that telephone pole.  I says no I'm not man I'm in the middle of the road.  I got this covered.  He pulled my wheel and when he pulled my wheel I pulled it back...  and I hit the pole.  The pole come down on top of my side of the truck.  Went through my truck to the headrest of my seat.  My head went into the windshield.  I was cut from here all the way to here, I was scalped (from the middle of his nose back).  It almost took my eye out.  It ripped my nose off my face and I lost 4 fingers.  My hand held onto the door.  It kept me in the truck when it rolled but the skin was so mangled they had to cut them off.  We stopped about (10 feet) from about a 1,000 gallon propane tank.  I could have blew up half of (his town).  I am left-handed and now I'm laid up damaged, hurt, mentally, physically, emotionally, and 3 months later my boss gives me my job back knowing I was incapable of doing what I used to do.  So I was trying to learn how to do everything with my right hand, you know just keep your head up and do what you can do and then 2 years later my hand got strong enough so I started depending on it again.  I started working harder and harder and harder because I wanted my own place again.


Bob doesn't like drugs but of course he does admit to drinking.  He is now with a woman who is mentally challenged.  "She is mentally challenged because she starting smoking crack and I do not deal with drugs.  Not like that.  When I met her I picked her up off the streets and I ain't never met someone who was crazy. never.  suicidal."


I couldn't help but think that Bob was an enabler.  He had been taking care of his family his whole life and now he cannot take care of himself.  He considers himself a victim. 


Bob: People that are victims, (Colleen: how do you see yourself as a victim?).  Abuse. child neglect because they would rather drink their beer on friday nights, lock the kids in a room while they are in the living room partying,  play some board games or something. 
 
  *** Was Bob's family the reason for his homelessness?  Did he take on too much and couldn't handle it?  Was the fact that both his parents were alcoholics, his surroundings full of drugs and abuse that caused his downward spiral? Why did his extended family not help out? Or, was Bob's homelessness simply a product of his wrong choices?  More from Bob next post. 

The Homeless Interviews #3

I will get back to Scott later.  Today's interview is with a young man I will call Al.  He is 40 years old and this was his second day at Matthew's Hope.  He was very nervous to talk to me. I completely understood that.  All of the homeless I spoke to were nervous, leery, afraid of me in some ways.  With each interview I started with their childhood in order for them to see that I was interested in who they were as a person, not simply their current situation.  Here is Al's story.  


Colleen: Tell me about your childhood and then how you became homeless.
Al: I was born in Rhode Island, a small town in Rhode Island.  My mom and dad got divorced when I was 7 or 8.  Father was an alcoholic.  Chronic alcholic.  Once my mom and dad got divorced my mom decided to move to Florida so my mom packed me and my brother up and we moved to Florida  I never went to HS.  I quit school in 9th.  My girlfriend got pregnant.  We were both 15 years old.  I had my first child when I was 15.  And then I was introduced to crack cocaine.  That was 1985, 1986.  I went to rehab.  I was with her.  He was born while I was in rehab. I got out of rehab and she was 17 and stayed clean and sober for 4 years.  After that I relapsed. Ever since then I have been in out of jail.  I spent my life in department of corrections.  Dealing with addiction.  So, just got out.  I spent 7.5 years.  I just got out not long ago.  I did so much damage in the past to people. Burnt so many bridges when I was on drugs that nobody wants to help me or anything like that.  My family don’t want to talk me, nothing like that.  So now I am homeless pretty much. I do not have any ID.  I have a department of corrections ID.  So any job I applied for as soon as they see that they do not even want to look at me, they dont want to talk to me. I’m having a hard time.  Now I am here trying to get some clothes and stuff like that.
 

Colleen: What brought you here (to Matthew's Hope)?

Al: A friend of mine told me about it. Another homeless person told me.

Colleen: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

Al: Well, as long as I stay clean and sober I see myself, if somebody will actually hire me with my record, I see myself probably having a decent future.  I do the best I can with my record.  As long as I stay clean and sober that is my main goal.

 

Colleen: Did you have a goal in life when you were younger? Something that you wanted to do? 

Al: Like I said, you know me and my wife we had our son really young and we did not have time to set goals or nothing like that.  We had irresponsible sex, you know, puberty, and all of that and then we had 2 more sons after that right behind each other. They live in (south Florida).  She divorced me when I went to prison. She has remarried.

 

Colleen: Have you seen your children?

Al: I seen then a few months ago.  they are grown now. I mean, they are doing alright. 

 

Colleen: Do they know about you, where you are now?

Al: Yeah, they know. 

 

Colleen: Looking back, what would you do differently?

Al: Maybe if my mom would not have moved me to Florida. If there was some way that her and my dad could resolve.  My dad would have gotten help for his alcoholism, but then I would not be here and I would have never met my ex-wife. I would have never been here.  I would have never dealt with the crack issues they have here, AIDS, you know.  I think that if i had just never came here I would have been a lot better off.  But then again I just have the personality that it could have happened anywhere, you know what I mean.

 

Colleen: (Without sounding 'preachy' I asked everyone a quick question about church) Do you attend church?

Al: No.  I have not found a church yet.  I have only been out a couple weeks and I am just trying to survive.  You know what i mean. 

 

Colleen: Describe a typical day.

Al: Typical day for me is get up, sleep in the woods, get up and try to find a job.  Try to find something to eat.  Just try to make it through the day without using drugs and alcohol basically.

 

Colleen: Do you live in the same place all the time?

Al:  Yeah.  Last week was my first week here.  You are not going to believe it.  They (Matthew's Hope) gave me a tent.  They gave me a sleeping bag, everything I needed. This is only my second time here.  I am amazed at how much help they give here to people.  I cannot believe how they can fund it.  It feels like kind of a community situation.  Like I said it is only my 2nd time here.  I really do not know anybody.  There are a couple of people that I used to use with that are here that are clean and sober now, and uh, they seem to have their act together and they seem to like it here.  I mean they do a lot here for people.  I cannot believe it. 

 

** More with Al next time. 

The Homeless Interviews

Several months ago I did a series of interviews with a dozen or so people involved with a homeless ministry in my state.   My blog for the next about a month or so will be excerpts (edited only for relevance and length) from those interviews.  This first interview is with Scott, Founder and Chairman of Matthew's Hope:


Colleen: What is your first/earliest thought when you heard the word homeless?

Scott: When I was.  You don’t think about it so much when you are there.  I mean I did not.  I was very young. I found myself on the streets at a young age and I learned so I understand the survival mentality.  You did what you had to do.  I started...when God just kind of stuck this on me early in my ministry myself and a few friends just went and tried to figure out who these people were and tried to figure out what they needed and it really started out with something as simple as what we called “sock Sunday”.  When I went out into the homeless community I just noticed more and more people and who is doing what, and I couldn’t.  All I could find was people arguing about what the problem was, how these people got there but nobody trying to do anything.  They just kept talking and creating symposiums and committees and focus groups but nobody did anything and so my attitude was according to James 1:22, do not merely listen to the word and so decieves yourselves, do what it says.  I said well let’s do something.  So we just started going not, not knowing a thing other than drawing from my own background of homelessness.

Colleen: How did you become homeless?

Scott: 9 divorces between my parents, mostly.  The first time I was ever on the streets I was 9 years old and several times then over the years into adulthood.

Colleen: On your own or with your parents?

Scott: No, on my own.  And, there is more of that going on than people think. It is a very hidden community because as a kid you figure out things.  In my case, in Indiana, as long as I showed up at class I was good.  Nobody really asked me questions.  I mean people knew something was not right but as long as you showed up at class at that time for the most part you are left alone and so I knew to keep in school.  Keep going.  You know and as silly as it sounds that is exactly how it worked.  I had various friends, families that occasionally would let me take some spot on the couch or the floor but it was not ongoing because most people were too worried about getting involved. There were other times where you just snuggled up to a dumpster and tried to stay warm and found a public restroom that you can kind of wash up.  I did not know a term for it.  The homeless now call that a ‘**** bath’.  I’m learning a lot of knew terminology.  That is literally going into a public restroom and washing the most essential parts and that is what they have learned how do to. The question I asked that got everything started was ‘what do you need that you are not getting?’ And it was so silly, it was socks and underwear. You know when i was homeless if you offered me your socks and underwear, no thank you.  I may be homeless.  I may be dirty but I do not want your dirty on me. What I did is I first went to my church and I said we are going to have a sock Sunday and I challenged each of our families to bring a 6-pack of socks to church and I will make sure that they get to the people that need them and that then went on to become undy-Sunday and then from there. I did that for a couple of years. When the weather changed I started taking jackets and gloves and beanie hats and then a few years ago some friends and I were talking and we were saying, you know, there has got to be a better way to do more.  Nobody is doing anything, especially in (this) county.  The closest place for shelter to here is 10 miles. We started to look at the idea. What if we could get various churches to agree to host homeless people when the temperature was 39 degrees or below.  Could we not find churches that would share the responsiblity? 

**** more of this interview next post.