Summer outreach has begun!

Praise God, we had an incredible first two weeks of our summer outreach. The weather was fantastic so a lot of people were on the street.

The man in the picture is a homeless man named Larry.  I first met Larry back in 1980 on the streets, and shared Christ with him.  We lost contact until 2 years ago.  Larry is a believer, who although homeless, and still takes a drink or two, He loves Jesus.  He spends his time sharing with others about Christ and passes out gospel tracts.  He is a great resource for us, our point man into the homeless community.

For the last two weeks, we passed out 120 pairs of brand new socks to the homeless.  Larry in the picture is proudly showing off a brand new pair!

We gave out 213 bible, conducted 9 bibles studies, shared one on one with 90 individuals.

We provided 60 lunches in the park, and gave out 35 $10.00 Bruegger Bagels gift cards.

We had several people come down and spend a couple of hours praying on the street.  We will be out all summer, and looking forward to a good and fruitful year.  Please continue to keep us in prayer.  We are in need of some more McDonald's $10 gift cards.

I want to thank everyone who has financially supported this ministry over the years.  We could not do this without your help.  You can now donate on-line using the button below.

Your Missionary to the Streets,

David Russell

Summer outreach

We are gearing up for our summer outreach and our "SOS Burlington" prayer event for May 25 and 26.

We have an important message to those who call the streets home.  A message for people like Alice here who lives most of the time in an alley.  The message is that God loves them, and they don't have to live like this.  For most of these, they don't know about God's amazing love and His gift of His Son, Jesus.  Please help us get the message out to the streets this summer.  Please consider a one time donation to help us with finances for the summer outreach.

Christmas on the Streets

Like many, I had a great Christmas this year.  We celebrated with all of our family, a bonus for us was our grandson's first Christmas.  We had a warm home, plenty of food, and lots of gifts.  We have so much to be thankful for..

But this is not the reality for many.  We were so overwhelmed by the need this year.  I have been doing this for 37 years and never have i seen so many people in need, and for many of them it was their first time.  We had to turn away many many people simply because we ran out of food, and other items we usually have plenty of.  It broke my heart to see so many turned away.

I met single moms living in their cars, men working and sleeping in their cars, several elderly people taking up panhandling because they can't afford to pay heat and buy their meds, or buy food, or simple things like toilet paper.  To see old people sitting on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign saying please help, I have to wonder if we are seeing the new reality in this country.

For the Month of December,

We passed out 400 pairs of new socks to the homeless
Passed out 140 hats.
Gave out 701 $10 gift cards to Bruegger's and McDonalds.
We provided 919 bags of food to people in need.
We gave out over 300 lunch bags in City Hall Park
We had special Christmas services in three places on the street with  74 people participating.  We sang Christmas Carols in an alley, read the Christmas Story in City Hall Park and on Church Street.

What really touched my heart this Christmas was that these 74 homeless people all appreciated the time I took to visit with them and celebrate Christmas with them, and not one complaint, all felt grateful for a God who cared enough for them that He became homeless, and demonstrated what real love is, and went to the Cross and redeemed them.  A few of them told me this was their best Christmas ever.

This is what we are all about!

Your Missionary to the Streets,

Dave Russell

Autumn on the Streets

By now everyone has heard of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests all around the country.  Well we have one going on right here in Burlington.  About a hundred people set up camp at City Hall Park.  This has been an incredible opportunity for us for ministry.  I have participated in prayer sessions, discussions, and spent a lot of time just meeting and engaging in some wonderful conversations about the spiritual with these folks.  I have even conducted several bible studies on Joel, Amos, Micah and some of the other prophets regarding social justice issues.    Quite a few of these folks are well over 50, some older, some younger, a very diverse group of people.

I know a lot of people don't like what they are doing, but it has led to one of the most incredible ministry opportunity for us in many years.

Beside this opportunity, we are gearing up for the Holiday season, and we have some needs we need help with.

We need:

McDonald's Gift Cards loaded with $10 on each card.
New Socks to be given out to the homeless
Energizer Lithium AA Batteries
Postage stamps

Please pray for us as we enter our winter ministry, pray for the harvest, pray for open hearts as we minister to the many people in great need in our city.

Your Missionary to the Streets,

Dave

Summer of Ministry

It has always amazes me when we see God among the people on the streets in unusual places and people.  I have meet so many homeless and street people who are living an incredible living vital faith and even sharing Jesus with other street people.  Faith is alive and well on the streets.  I doesn't look like the typical evangelical faith and life we see in our traditional churches.  These believers are homeless, some have mental issues, some are even addicts.  Most of these know so well that they have screwed up their lives and only by God's grace and faith in Him that they can go on.

I find a refreshing honest faith being lived out on the street.  I found this video that is amazing, which show a homeless man coming across a Christian singing on the street and the praise and worship that breaks out among them.  Watch it here, http://www.godvine.com/Homeless-Man-Joins-a-Musician-for-a-Moving-Performance-653.html

From July - September, we were able to:
Give out 994 bibles
Have personal meetings with 234 individuals to share about faith in christ.
Gave out 1,909 $5 gift cards to McDonald's and/or Bruegger's Bagels to homeless and low income people in need.
Gave out 2,899 bags of groceries to hungry people.
We saw 4 people come to faith in Christ.

Now our winter ministry begins, we move indoors, but the work continues.  We are so grateful for your support so we can minister to the people who call the streets home.

Dave

Ministry Report for April - June, 2011

The word for this quarter is RAIN!  It has rained every single Friday we have had a permit to set out our booth except this past Friday.  It has been frustrating, but ministry to our streets took place even in the rain.

So many of the homeless that have been part of our fellowship and ministry have moved on.  Some of these folks have been our friends for several years.  Now we feel like we are starting all over again.  Many of the homeless have felt pushed out of Burlington because of the increased aggressive stance taken by the Church Street Marketplace.  I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, you can't have lots of panhandlers and homeless just hanging out disrupting business and scaring tourist.

We minister to more than just the homeless.  We also minister to tourist and locals and anyone on the street.  We have seen an increase of ministry to artists, and to local folk who find themselves in need.

So in spite of all this rain, we accomplished the following for the last three months:

Gave out 342 bibles.
Gave out 2,040 $5 gift cards to McDonald's and Brueggers to needy families and individuals.
Gave out 4,804 bags of groceries to needy families
Had personal meetings with 110 people to share about faith in Christ, and we have seen 4 people come to faith in Christ.

The homeless may be leaving the area, but needy folk will always be here, and anyone who is downtown will at some point be confronted with the reality of Jesus Christ.  Your support allows this to happen, rain, snow, sleet or hail, our team is down on the street.

Your Missionary to the Streets,

Dave

Why do they panhandle?

I think it was Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero who once said, "When I feed the poor, people call me a saint.  When I ask why are people poor, they call me a communist".

Well the question today is Why so many people panhandling on the street?  Why don't they get off their butts and work?  Well the question to this has as many answers as the question why are people poor!

Some of the panhandlers are homeless, but this is actually a very few.  Here in Burlington almost 90% of all the panhandlers are not homeless.  They either have jobs that don't pay all of the bills, or they are people on disability whose monthly income does not cover all of their expenses.  Can you imagine working a forty hour week, for $9.00 an hour, paying your rent and maybe your electric bill, then have to decide, do I buy food or pay for my phone?  Or how about the kids medication, or can I afford to buy gas, or even a bus card.  So they take a few hours downtown and ask for spare change.

One of the women panhandling downtown is Ester, a 78 year old woman who has worked hard all of her life in minimum wage jobs, and now living off of Social Security, about $800 a month, she does not have enough money to make ends meet, so she sits on her milk crate with a sign and collects spare change so she can buy toilet paper that food stamps won't cover.  she has two cats which she dearly loves and needs to feed them.

Then of course there are those who for some unexpected situations find themselves in great need, perhaps homeless, perhaps mental health issues, those who fall through the cracks.  These are the ones that Burlington Street Ministries minister too.  The McDonald's and Bruegger Bagel certificates help us feed so many.  And it gives us a credibility to meet people and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them as we seek to make it a bit easier for them to get the help they need.