Not the Same Ol’ Song n’ Dance

Overflow Shelter at First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem
Photo by Jordan Green, Yes Weekly

by Justin Thomas


A few weeks ago I received an email notification stating I had an unread email. I logged into my email account and the first subject to catch my attention was “Emergency Help Wanted”. This email was sent by a fellow classmate. I quickly opened my email to find out what was wrong. The email stated that First Baptist Church was setting up an overflow shelter for homeless people to come in from the cold weather overnight and they desperately needed people to volunteer working it. At first, I was a little hesitant to agree to spend the night at the overnight shelter, but I could not ignore that push I was feeling to go.

One Friday I went to First Baptist Church along with three other classmates to volunteer for the overnight shift. During the time we were checking in guests for the night, there was one gentleman who asked one of my classmates and I to sing. Out of nervousness, we declined and instead asked him if he could sing. He replied “no, I sang”. We encouraged him to sing and he began to sing a worship song. This man had an amazing voice. It was as if the angels from heaven were singing in the church. Who would have known I was in the presence of such an amazing voice?

A few minutes later the singing gentleman asked me to sing “Falling in Love with Jesus”, and without thinking I opened my mouth and started singing. The entire gym got quiet and all eyes were on me, but I did not stop singing. I closed my eyes and continued singing. After I was finished the singing gentleman asked me to sing it again, and again, and again. After a while the singing gentleman, my classmates and I were harmonizing in song lifting up the name of Jesus. It was such a powerful moment that I will never forget.

After we finished singing, a few guests that were staying for the night shared with me that they are musicians. There was a gentleman that plays the piano, another the drums, and a few who could sing. I was in the presence of men who love the Lord and desire to once again serve God with their gift of music.

What would have happened if I had treated these men as nothing but strangers on the margins of society? The Bible warns us to be careful when we entertain strangers, for we may be entertaining angels unaware. Now I am not saying these men were angels, but in them was the ministry of worship through music that has been lying dormant a long time. All it took was sharing the love of Jesus through actions and song to discover I was surrounded by men hungry for God and willing to serve.

The next time you are in company of strangers who may not look like you, not in the same economic class as you, or not as educated as you, how will you respond? Will you embrace them with the love of Jesus through your actions? Will you share a song, time, food, or will you decide not to follow Christ's example and cast them away?

Justin Thomas is an intern for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina and a third-year student at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. 

Awesome and Meddlesome

by Rev. Christina Whitehouse-Suggs

I have no idea how I first met Hugh Hollowell and was introduced to Love Wins Ministries but he's become one of those friends that you swear you've known your whole life. You know, the one who is SO MUCH like you but keeps you honest and real? Yeah, he's like that. Awesome and meddlesome, all at the same time.

Growing up as a preacher's kid at Central Baptist Church in downtown Miami, FL meant seeing lots of homeless folks...even serving them a hot meal on occasion from the mission at the back corner of the church parking lot. But it never meant getting to know them. Or seeing them as real live human beings.

Leave it to Hugh to make me re-think that old script.

I end up subscribing to the Love Wins newsletter and one day read this post about/from Tony. Specifically, this:

“Please tell the people who give you this money that I am so grateful. That I could not have made it this long without you guys. And that while it may not seem like a big deal to them, it has changed my life. Hell, it probably saved my life.”

Damn it, Hugh.

That night, my family becomes a monthly contributor to Love Wins. Hugh sends me a direct message on Twitter to say that we rock. I tell him to shove it because it's a pittance and I want it to be more. I can almost feel him roll his eyes when he responds, "You don't know what I can do with a pittance."

In the next few months, I can't get Tony off my mind. Eventually, I email Hugh and ask if there's any way I can get in touch with him. Become his friend and let him know that someone other than Hugh cares about him and wants to know him personally.

Tony agrees and we start emailing. Just getting to know each other. When Tony mentions that he could use some dishes and kitchen supplies, I just smile and shake my head. God's sense of humor and timing continues to slay me...I have a ton of stuff I've "inherited" when a great-aunt passed away.

I had the opportunity to give these things to Tony in person yesterday. I got to see where he lives, hug him, introduce him to my daughter, and talk smack about NC football teams. I discovered that his birthday is close to my anticipated due date and promised I would email him when I found out the sex of the baby at the end of this month.

Hugh told me today that I have no idea what that short visit meant to Tony. I told him that I know what it meant to me.

Because, you see, Tony is my friend.

Christina Whitehouse-Suggs is the Associate Coordinator of CBF of South Carolina. This article originally appeared on her blog, Thoughts from the Journey.

Hugh Hollowell will be a workshop leader at the CBFNC General Assembly at Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh. To find out more information and to register, visit http://www.cbfnc.org/Congregations/2012GeneralAssembly.aspx.

St. John’s Baptist Forms Partnership to House Transitioning Homeless Families

Left to right: Dennis Foust,  Darren Ash, and Larry Hewitt in
the new offices for Charlotte Family Housing.

by Rev. Laura Barclay

In October 2010, St. John’s Baptist Church formed a Space Utilization Committee to assess how to use the second floor of their building, leading to an amazing partnership with Charlotte Family Housing that shelters families above their worship space.

Larry Hewitt, chair of the space committee, related that the church has previously housed a hospitality house for families of patients in the neighboring hospital. The hospital proceeded to build stand-alone facilities, and St. John’s wanted to figure out how to utilize the space in an ongoing partnership with the community and ensure that the building would be serving God beyond Sundays and Wednesdays.

Bert Green, Executive Director of Charlotte’s Habitat for Humanity, put the committee in touch with Darren Ash of Charlotte Family Housing, and they began talks to form only the second shelter in town that houses families. Moving in above the Fellowship Hall with the name “Hawthorne Place,” dorms will house six families at a time, with common areas for a computer lab, laundry room, kitchens and closets.

Ash relates that this move has been a blessing at a time when Charlotte seemed to be pushing homeless populations to the north side of town, making them feel unwelcome downtown. Many of Ash’s clients work at the neighboring hospital and will no longer face a long commute.

Ash shared that the goal is to transition these families out of the dorms and into the comfort of their own apartments, and then offer counseling services to help them cope with past traumas. Charlotte Family Housing has rental vouchers for about 120 apartment units for transitioning families, and the organization shelters and houses around 200 families a year.

Left to right: Ash, Hewitt and Foust in the living area of the
new apartments for homeless families.

In addition to living space, families receive asset-based social work to overcome obstacles to housing, as well as vocational counseling, housing advocacy and subsidies, financial incentives like microloans, ongoing clinical social work, and volunteer engagement with clients.

New pastor Dennis Foust is excited about the investment the church has made in their partnership, and is looking forward to building relationships between his congregants and the new residents through Wednesday night suppers, worship, and volunteer opportunities. Ash noted that the level of faith these families had was astounding and uplifting to the employees, who note their reliance on God during difficult times.

St. John’s partnership is prophetic for our times. Charlotte is ranked #2 in the nation for family homelessness. Charlotte Family Housing formed this year as a merger between three organizations to more efficiently and effectively care for homeless populations.

This partnership exhibits a church actively aware and engaged in their community and committed to what Jesus identified as the greatest commandment—loving God and neighbor.

Answering the Door

by Rev. Laura Barclay

A couple of months ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Power of Persistence,” which I cut from a sermon I delivered recently. The whole point of the entry was for Christians to encourage themselves to live out an active prayer, answering the door when our neighbors knocked and were in need. Somehow, I’ve always found that my sermons have a way of challenging me either when I’m writing them or in the weeks after, but I’ve never faced a more direct challenge that I did a few weeks ago.

It was a late Saturday night, and my husband and I were exasperated with some home projects that including putting up a very complicated ceiling fan and light fixture. It was now 11:45pm, and we’d been at it for a few hours. Parts of all shapes and sizes were strewn about our dining room table with confusing directions to piece it all together. All of a sudden, the doorbell rang. We hesitated for a second, wondering if we should answer the door. It was late, the streets were deserted, and we were tired. After a few more seconds, Ryan and I went down the steps and opened the door to a man who looked both tired and upset. “Do you have a problem with black people?” he asked. My husband, a community organizer, answered no and said, “What do you need?” He continued by talking about his experiences with some local non-profits that had treated him very poorly and refused him services. Before long, he was sitting on our step, pouring his heart out about how badly people treat him on a daily basis. He had asked for a little bus money somewhere in the conversation, which we gave him (we don’t usually do this—we’d rather direct people to services or give food), but he still stayed, telling his story.

Pastoral listening ensued and my tiredness and fear of answering the door at night abated. As children, we are taught to fear strangers and not answer the door, which is healthy and appropriate to some degree. For some reason, that fearing of the stranger seems to be hard to let go in our adult life, and can keep us from embracing fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

After about a half hour of discussion, we encouraged him to visit a local church that had a good homeless ministry. He nodded approvingly, and said he wanted to be around people that would treat him as an equal and not look down upon him because of racial or economic prejudice. He walked off toward the bus station, but his impact stayed with me. I turned to Ryan and said, “We both wondered whether or not to answer the door, and I just preached on this a few Sundays ago!” Ryan responded that my sermon was the first thing he had thought of when the door rang, and that’s why he’d answered it.

I don’t say this to pat myself on the back. On the contrary, I am humbled and alarmed at how close any of us are to turning our backs on others simply because we are tired. At any point in our lives, we can find ourselves playing the various roles portrayed in Jesus’ parables. Though we might try to be that Good Samaritan, we might find ourselves playing the role of the priest passing by the wounded man on the road. This was a helpful lesson in humility to me to practice what I preach!

Finding the Lost

Luke 15:1-7: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

If you have lived in Winston-Salem for any significant amount of time, you know of Whoopi, a fiercely independent, homeless, 70-year-old African-American woman who pushes all of her belongings on a route that takes her from Wal-Mart on Hanes Mall to downtown by way of Stratford Road and back. Stories and legends of her abound.

Here are just a few of them:
*Whoopi is really a wealthy woman who went crazy when she lost her husband and child.
*Whoopi went insane when her house burned down and now she refuses to sleep indoors because of the horrible memories.
*Whoopi was sexually abused by her adopted or real family, and now refuses to trust people or sleep indoors.

One woman who has become friends with Whoopi is trying to get her story and figure out how to help her. Her name is Yvonne Rorrer, and she’s one of the few people Whoopi allows to help her once in a while. Yvonne created a Facebook Page only a few weeks ago for the purpose of having locals help spot her so that Yvonne can find her, and also to help fundraise for her much needed dental treatments and to buy a used van to give her on her 71st birthday. A van is Whoopi’s dream place to sleep because she doesn’t like to sleep in shelters, apartments, or houses. The Facebook page has grown to over 7,800 people because they share a passion to be in relationship with this proud woman who is determined to live her life without walls and on her own.

Yvonne and the group has been met with harsh criticisms—“you need to convince her to live in a house” or “you need to clean her up and get her a job” or “you need to get her to live by the rules of our culture” are comments and sentiments that have shown up on the Facebook wall. But Yvonne is firm—she only cares about Whoopi’s needs and sharing her story. Because of her, we’ve discovered her real name is Esther Smiles, and she used was adopted after being quote “thrown away” by her birth mother. She was never married and never had a child. Esther never owned a house, but did live in three of them before she began living outside. She was a live-in nurse’s aid that cared for sick children. She loves bluegrass music and cowboy shows.

You might be thinking Esther is the lost sheep in this story, but to me she isn’t. Her very existence caused 7,800 people to join the group, and continually update her location when she’s found. Over 7,800 people are struggling to live up to Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbor. Over 7,800 people are in a Greater-Winston-Salem community watch—not to protect their belongings, but to help another human being, made in the image of God. Though Esther almost always refuses help or handouts, she smiled when Yvonne told her that over 7,800 people cared about her and wanted to know she was safe.

I think we were sheep who were found by Esther and Yvonne. A growing number of us in the community are found in the effort to care for another. Those who are critical of Esther and Yvonne are still lost and haven’t yet been found—ones who cling to social norms rather than Jesus’ call to community and helping the poor.

But before I get too excited about being found by Esther, I have to remember that there are other groups, people, and communities to which I’m lost. Who would consider you a lost sheep waiting to be found? Who do you consider lost and what would you do to find them? And let us rejoice that Jesus will never stop looking for us, all the days of our lives.

Check out the Esther Smiles Foundation for more information: http://www.esthersmilesfoundation.org/Mission.html. If they succeed in getting Esther her van, they will continue to help elderly homeless persons in the Winston-Salem area.