Monday, January 20, 2025
Martin Luther King Day in USA
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Community first!
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness. No one takes this “priesthood” upon himself but only when called by God.
Just down the road from the FFA farm show we found a friendly community of tiny homes, inhabited by previously homeless men and women. 25 years ago Mobile Loaves & Fishes bought 51 acres, created a master plan, and now hundreds of these folks live in permanent housing within a supportive community.
In 1998 Alan Graham, a crusading get-it-done Austin real-estate leader, gathered support for an idea. He began with a food truck, and since then more than 6 million meals have been served free from that truck and others that followed. But the truck was just the beginning. Alan and his wife found some land on the southeast side of Austin and began walking through the trees and brush, planning a community.
Community First! Village welcomes people who have been living on the street for at least a year. These men and women must meet three requirements: 1) pay rent between $200 and $400 each month, 2) follow the law of the land, and 3) be aware of and adhere to the ways of the community. Getting that rent each month could be dicey, but opportunities for making money show up everywhere, from creating arts and crafts to sell in the local Market to maintaining the organic garden and grounds. In 2023, village residents earned $1,500,000 in “dignified income.”
Working with people is always complicated and unpredictable. But the countless religious congregations in Austin that have bought in to this community don’t much care, because the joy of giving more than just money becomes their strength. Austin’s city government has given tens of millions of dollars. National publicity might topple less stable efforts, but the Today show and others have brought more support than ever.
Visitors are welcome, and Friday morning we drove through this wonderful place. There were people everywhere, many of whom still looked like street people, but now … they are not. They have a home to live in, a place to make meals together, their own bus stop, and an outdoor movie theater. Hundreds of tiny homes and RVs line streets and sidewalks, and flowers and trees abound. Several tiny homes are reserved for short-term rentals through Airbnb.
We just watched the people, mostly. I realized no one was looking down, or looking away. Everyone seemed to be smiling and looking up. It’s easy for me to romanticize a visit like this, but I’m not the first. Just take a look at the videos on YouTube or on their website.
He learned obedience from what he suffered.
The pastor at Hill Country Bible Church confessed his former aversion to contact with homeless people. For him volunteering his own time in this community has been a godsend and turned him completely around. He has learned to open his eyes to what’s beneath the surface of a stranger’s appearance or behavior.
He’s never been happier.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.
(Hebrews 5, Psalm 110, Hebrews 4, Mark 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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