Making an Impact Among the Homeless

By Elisabeth Jordan, All Saints Dallas

The Human Impact began unintentionally when I lost my for-profit job and was invited by a nonprofit leader in Dallas to join him on the streets of Dallas’s most under-resourced neighborhood. He was going to get to know his “neighbors,” as he called the homeless, which both intrigued and terrified me. I grew up affluent and away from poverty. But I had re-encountered Jesus, who spent time on the margins of society, and I wanted to follow Jesus, so I said yes to going. Even though I was out of my comfort zone that first day, I kept going back and over time began to release my judgments and stereotypes of the homeless to get to know them as individual people.

From these first three years of listening to myriad stories, I came to understand that many people experiencing homelessness grew up in poverty, had significant trauma or abuse in childhood and suffered great loss (divorce or death of a loved one) in their adulthoods. For many people, by the time they end up on the streets or in a shelter, they are alone. I kept hearing people articulate not just the need for resources but for people to care about them and walk alongside them; so, the mission of The Human Impact, to befriend those on the streets, was born.

We go to the streets without material goods, but with open hands. We find that bringing “stuff” distracts from building relationships. Our hands are open because every person we encounter is made in God’s image, and we expect each person we encounter to offer us gifts, too. We listen 80% of the time; many of our friends on the streets don’t have anyone to listen to them. As we grow in friendship, we ask each person, “What are your hopes and dreams for your life?” and then we walk that path with them. The healing journey is nonlinear, but our hope and prayer are that we will get to see each person, and ourselves, made more into who God intended us to be.

We attend to pain and suffering in our work because there is a lot of it; with courage, we enter difficult and dark spaces holding Jesus’s hand and his light. We celebrate people’s lives, like by bringing out birthday cakes and having parties; there is a lot of joy, too, and we stop to bless God.

Many of our friends have rich faith in the Lord. People will wake up from a tent and bless God for waking them up. They live dependent and have much to teach less-materially needy people what it looks like to bless God no matter our circumstances.

All Saints Dallas has been on the journey with me and The Human Impact from the beginning. I was on their “urban missions” committee right as I began my work on the streets. People in the church were cheering me on and praying for me as I was discovering a whole new world and way Jesus loves. Since then, many members from All Saints have volunteered, prayed and given to support our ministry. We have had the youth come out with us many summers in a row.

We hope to see even more churches help their members learn to interact with people they see on the side of the road. Here are just a few suggestions to get started:

When you approach someone, if they don’t make eye contact, it’s probably not the best time to talk. If they make eye contact, you can say “hello” and see if they respond.
If they do, ask for permission to enter their space. Where they stay is often like their home, so we want to be respectful before going into their area.
When you start a conversation, begin with topics you’re used to talking about: music, sports, where you grew up.
Get to know them as you would any new person you meet: Lead with curiosity and listening. You can ask, “May I pray for you?” if you sense an opening to that, or you can say, “I am going to pray for you when I leave. Is there anything in particular I can pray for?”
It’s okay to ask, “Do you stay around here?” People will often answer that they sleep outside or in a shelter.
If someone asks you for money or stuff, you can say, “I’m not here for that today,” or “I don’t have that to offer, but I will remember your name and pray for you,” or “I will remember your name and come say hi this time next week.”
You don’t have to solve their problems; you can just be a person alongside them and get to know them over time.
Don’t assume that they do or do not have faith in Christ.

The church has the opportunity to lead in changing how society sees and relates to our homeless brothers and sisters. We can ask Jesus to give us his eyes and his heart for those on the margins, and we are invited to follow him into tough and unusual places, but we go with his Holy Spirit.