"One Less Homeless in Ft. Worth"

The flooding that has taken place in the past couple of months here in the DFW area has devastated many. Lives have been lost, and homes destroyed. These heavy rains have taken a toll on the homeless of Ft. Worth as well. Grandpa Charlie lives in the woods next to a spillway. When it rains heavily the spillway backs up and floods his entire camp. Since January we have gone over to his place to clean up after a flood several times. During each flood many of his belongings were washed away and never found again. Not only did each flood cause damage to Charlie's "home", it also meant a shopping trip to replace necessities. After doing this three times as a group, and Charlie doing it many more times on his own we decided it was time to relocate…

At first, we didn't know what to do. After all, we are just a group of "twenty somethings" trying to make a difference. We don't have the resources to buy Charlie a house, or place to stay. However, the entire body of Christ working together has the power to do anything. We knew that Charlie couldn't continue to stay there. A few nights before he was awakened at 2am as the air mattress in his tent was floating. The front entrance of his tent faced the creek, which was completely full of water. Right outside of his tent was fast flowing water. So, he had to throw his boots on, cut through the back of his tent, rush up the hill, and seek shelter under the bridge. The next morning when we came our hearts were broken. What was left of Charlie's camp was soaked. His tent was worthless, and he was extremely discouraged. The only thing we knew to do was get him out of there. He stayed with a family that is a part of I.G. for a few days while we figured out a game plan.

The Lord is provider. By Friday we had permission from the owners of a piece of property to move Charlie in. There was an old garage with a room attached to it. It needed a lot of work, but it was a shelter! Charlie was hesitant; after all, everything he had known for eight years was in Ft. Worth. He quickly decided that this would be best. He could receive his social security check at the mailbox instead of having to go check his P.O. box. There was a Wal-Mart right down the road, and running water on site! Once again, this place needed lots of work…

What I am about to share is probably the most beautiful aspect of this entire day. As you know, every Saturday morning we hook up with Michael Hatcher on E. Lancaster to build relationships with, and serve the homeless. Over the past six months we have developed some great relationships with some guys out there. This particular Saturday we offered them some work; a way to earn some money. They were excited, and came back to North Richland Hills with us. The rest of the day was spent working hard…What we learned is that when the body of Christ comes together and serves, something beautiful happens. Those of us involved in I.G. spent the day with Darren, Chris, Charlie, and Robert (All four of which are homeless). Chris, Darren, and Robert graciously worked their butts off all day.

It was beautiful; the homeless serving the homeless. Three homeless men helped move a homeless man into a home. Once we got everything out of the room we had to clean the floors…Then we started painting…Then Carpet & Furniture…Meet the crew…Robert, Darren, Chris, Me & the Guys, The "I.G." Crew, and Paige with Papa CAs you can see this project was a blessing to many people all at the same time. We had a blast with these guys and were able to pay them for their work. Charlie now has a new home that is flood free, not to mention an actual roof over his head. He's closer to where we all live now, so we visit him several times a week. This has been a beautiful thing. Charlie has a real family. We pray daily for the Lord to invade His soul. All we can do now is continue to love on him, pray, and openly share the Gospel of Jesus with him. There are needs all around us as the church. My prayer is that we would all be aware of those needs around us, and make a move toward action to see those needs met. When this happens in communities we will see true "Church growth".

Written By
Aaron Snow