Setting Prisoners Free

I've written and spoken about my old buddy Frenchie a few times. He passed away a few years ago, and to me, he'll always be remembered as that sweet, mysterious gentleman who quietly sat on Uptown's stained sidewalks. Everyone loved him and wanted to see him to move from Wilson's cold hard pavement into his own crib! That eventually happened! Frenchie maneuvered from the streets, through Cornerstone Shelter, to a subsidized apartment in Friendly Towers, until he eventually made the ultimate move and graduation to his resurrected body and celestial home! A more complete version of Frenchie's story can be found in something I wrote, back in 2013:  Rest In Peace Frenchie . I consider myself extremely blessed to have known this gentle, kind man; and that's why I wrote what I did! Yet, today, I'm not rewriting another remembrance; I'm writing about an unexpected surprise, something that truly blessed me! There's always mystery when I get to...

We all need each other!  We all need one another!  We just can't do it on our own!  The longer I work with people experiencing homelessness, the more I realize this truth! It's complex! It takes a community effort! It takes various people, with a variety of skills, networking and collaborating together! One person, one agency, one church or one ministry cannot conquer the daunting reality of homelessness on their own; we all need one another!  Over the years, I've seen many of the countless needs, differences and hurdles people experiencing homelessness face, making it virtually impossible for them to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." I've also witnessed how successfully going from "homeless-to-housed" often only sees results when people, agencies and ministries unite together with a common mission. I've also been part of watching all the various parts come together, just like a complex jigsaw puzzle, with the end result ...

It happened 2 days in a row! 2 different guys. 2 friends! They were both in their mid 40's. They came to see me separately. Privately! They were ashamed and didn't want anyone to see all the pain they were going through. Both these guys had lived rough lives and were homeless at the time! They told me tales of their rampant drug and alcohol abuse, violence, robberies, gang-banging, sexual craziness, homelessness and how they rotated in and out of jail and prison. As they reflected on everything they'd done, both of them started crying uncontrollably! This was strange for me to see, as I had always envisioned them as too proud to cry, but on these 2 days, they couldn't hold back the tears! They were crying, because they were convinced that God was mad at them, and therefore, had given up on them. They were both convinced that they couldn't be forgiven and God was sending them on the fast track to hell. They felt that all hope was lost! Now, similar to what ...

A few years ago, there was this fragile older man who used to sit on the corner right next to my house. Everyone called him Frenchie! I'd known him for years; he had stayed at Cornerstone before, the homeless shelter I'm involved with. He was sweet, humble and shy. Frenchie could easily be described as a "petite" man, and everyone seemed to like him, but he had no money and no one to care for him, so day after day, he sat cross-legged on the sidewalk smoking his cigarettes. Frenchie wouldn't beg for money, he was too shy for that and didn't want to bother anyone! He would just sit there, greeting and smiling at the people who'd walk on by. Random people would stop and give him things he may need, like some spare change, a sandwich or an item of clothing, but in general, he just sat there, day after day after day.  Occasionally, I'd stop my commute and ask him if he was homeless and if he needed a place to stay, he'd always ...

Every Christmas season, I have the honor of watching kids at the shelter rip open their gifts with a ton of excitement. I love watching the parents too. They obviously don't want their children to be living in a homeless shelter, but as soon as they're given a bag full of presents for their kids, their eyes light up and an immense burden is lifted! They realize that their Christmas just transformed from all these feelings of embarrassment and dread into something spectacular! Over the years, I've heard many parents say that their Christmas at CCO was their best ever! There's something else that never gets old; at our men's Christmas party, I love watching grown men, (many who have struggled with addictions, frequent incarcerations, are gang members and have been "on the trail" for a long time), shed tears of happiness, simply because they've been remembered, given a good meal and a little something for Christmas. For days afterward, these fellas k...

A few decades ago, some followers of Jesus saw the desperate need in their neighborhood and wanted to live out His basic command to "love your neighbors as yourself". This group was a young community of Christians, called Jesus People USA, who lived in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood and were surrounded by a lot of poverty and people experiencing homelessness. The members of JPUSA couldn't ignore the plight that surrounded them and Jesus' radical parable of the "Sheep and the Goats", so they opened their doors and their hearts, by providing meals to eat, food bags to take with them, clothes to wear, blankets to keep them warm and beds to sleep in. About 40 years later, there's been many changes, but our mission remains the same; we are still trying to bring Kingdom Love into our Uptown neighborhood. This grass-roots ministry has transformed from our humble beginnings into now running a large homeless shelter, called Cornerstone Commun...

A couple decades ago, I had a job driving taxis and one of my biggest struggles was having to wait. I'm not talking about waiting for customers, I'm talking about wanting things to happen, but I had to wait! I was in an "in-between" stage in my life; I had just finished Bible College and wanted to get into ministry, but I had no money and no doors had opened for me at that point. I had to wait! I had to be patient.  This wasn't an easy time, in fact, it was one of the darkest times of my life. I saw and experienced a lot of pain and heartache. During this time, I was often threatened, bullied, robbed and was even a victim of aggravated battery a couple of times. Looking back, the hardest part of driving a taxi wasn't when I was stuffed in the trunk of my car or beaten by a bunch of young gangbangers; that was terrifying, but it wasn't the hardest. The hardest part about that time was how I felt so alone, things weren't working out the way I wanted...