4.11.10

After services today I headed to Tent City to meet a couple that has now saved enough money to get housing. They were ready to make plans to move out this week. This is what Tent City is intended to be – a place for folks to be able to start over and then get back on the journey. They have worked on their budgets and their needs and are ready to go. They’ve thought about which person at Tent City would benefit the most form being able to move into their tent/structure and have made arrangements to make that transition. Since making the decision to move they are totally different people – they now have hope!!! And the source of that hope comes as a direct result of them making money selling The Contributor paper. These folks are focused and see the income from selling papers as their way out of Tent City. They don’t plan for selling newspapers to be their job forever, but it is the assistance they needed. Like most of the folks at Tent City, they aren’t looking for a handout except to get them by in an emergency. They are looking for partnerships and relationships to help them where our systems work to keep them pushed down. And thanks to the folks that are buying The Contributor it’s working.

I also had the chance to meet another Otter Creek couple who wanted to see Tent City and use their gifts to help. These folks have a talent to shoot video footage. So when one of the Tent City residents came to me last week and said he’s like to come to Otter Creek to tell the members thank you for all that they’ve done to help Tent City my first thought was to not only give him the chance to speak but to get his thoughts on video as well. So I met the Otter Creek couple and introduced them to Vegas. It was an awesome time to hear him share his heart. But it was equally awesome to see this couple have their eyes opened to the people and the stories of Tent City. Nothing is as simple as we think it is when we only look at the surface. Through taking the time to ask questions and film his responses this couple was blessed to get to see a little deeper into the humanity of Tent City. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to post the edited footage to this blog so you can experience it for yourself. In the meantime I just want to thank the folks at Otter Creek who have give their time, money, energy and hearts to helping make a difference in the lives of the people at Tent City. After hearing Vegas today it’s evident that it is recognized and appreciated. As I drove off this evening I couldn’t help but feel like Jesus would be pleased with the work going on.