Spring 2007 - Newsletter

Grants & Gifts
Thank to you the following foundations and organizationsthat supported the Welcome Ministry in 2007:
*Acquerello Restaurant
*Anna Selegean Memorial Fund
*The Episcopal Deanery of San Francisco
*Christ Church Lutheran
*Ebenezer (Her Church) Lutheran Church
*First Congregational Church
*Just Remnants
*Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries
*Old First Presbyterian Church
*The Presbytery of San Francisco
*St. Francis Lutheran Benevolence
*St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

We also give thanks for all of the individual support from donors like you!

New Program - Aristarchus Project
Named after Aristarchus, a companion to Paul on his journey, the Welcome Ministry’s Aristarchus Project will enable volunteer chaplains to help the chronically homeless to gain the services they need to improve their quality of life. Funding from Wheat Ridge Ministries will enable the homeless to gain identification, a mailing address and other resources that are needed to apply before the homeless can utilize services from other health organizations and governmental programs in San Francisco in addition to providing educational and support services.

It is virtually impossible for many homeless people by themselves to step out of their daily survival mode and work on improving their lives. The compounding of homelessness and poor health supports an indefinite term of living on the street and trying to just get along from one day to the next. Because of poor health and necessary focus on daily survival, most of the people we serve have difficulty accessing the social service system. They are unable to keep scheduled appointments, to follow through with services, or obey program rules. Our goal is to help homeless people, one by one, renew their lives and become self-sustaining people.

Post 9/11, new barriers confront the homeless. Due to increased security around the country, many organizations are required to see the identification documents of all the individuals they serve. At the same time, the government has made it more difficult to obtain these documents. As a result, many of the homeless are prevented from utilizing the services they need simply because they do not have the proper forms of identification.

When our homeless friends are ready to start improving their lives, we help them do so. The Aristarchus Project will help the Welcome Ministry solves the new problems facing the homeless in this post 9/11 world.

With your support, The Welcome Ministry’s Aristarchus Project will work with chronically homeless individuals with the following results:
• all our homeless guests will be supported by our more than 350 volunteer chaplains who will help them navigate through the services they need to improve their quality of life
• preventing the arrest of countless homeless individuals (it’s against the law not to have identification in California)
• obtain identification for more than a 150 homeless individuals a year (birth certificates, social security cards and identification cards)
• enable more than 50 individuals to move indoors in the first year, 100 in the second and 150 in the third through our partnership with the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team
• obtain the required identification for more than a 150 homeless individuals a year
• help more than 80 individuals apply for social security benefits
• provide classes for more than 300-500 homeless individuals (each year) to: make and follow goals; create and keep a budget; learn to eat healthy foods on a limited income; prevent eviction for low income seniors; learn to use computers; get their GED and succeed in community college.

Homeless, Homeless Pastor
This year, as I have done in years past, I will be living on the streets for seven days and seven nights with members of the Faithful Fools. Why would I want to go and sleep on the streets with the homeless, when I have a condo a few blocks away and a very comfy bed? Well, like the group I am going out with, it’s a bit about faith and a bit about being foolish.

In the first chapter of Corinthians, Paul declares that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of humans. It could be said that Jesus’ commitment to the poor (especially in the Gospel of Luke), his eating with the tax collectors and sex workers and his own life as a homeless nomad, was/is as foolish as it was/is faithful.

Some would also say that it takes a strange mix of foolish and faithful to continue to long for the day when pain and suffering ends and all people are able to eat together at one banquet table. Yet, I/we continue to work diligently for an end to poverty and hunger.

How can living on the streets possibly make a difference? While I cannot truly know what it feels like to live on the streets, since I know I have a warm bed and an adorable cat to come home to, I do find that living on the streets helps me to gain a deeper bodily empathy for the homeless and hungry that I am in ministry with. Also, in utilizing the services that I often refer the homeless too, I get a chance to learn about the changes in other social service agencies.

But more importantly, I get a chance to be vulnerable. As a leader in the church, I spend a lot of my time creating safe space for others to be vulnerable, to grow and to deeply engage with God. Living on the streets is a way for me to intentionally strip away the comforts of my life and get to what is real. That is what the Lenten journey is about after all; stripping away the many layers of things that have distracted us so that we can re-orient our lives towards God.

So, please join me on my journey. Don’t worry; you don’t have to sleep on the cold hard concrete with me. Please send me your prayers through email or the postal mail that I can take with me on my retreat, so that I can take you with me and pray for you. Please pray for me March 10-17th while I am sleeping on the sidewalk and read my daily blog reflections. And if you are blessed not to know anyone who is homeless, perhaps you will get to know how it feels to know that someone you care about is homeless. Thanks for taking this Lenten journey with me.

P.S. On my street retreat we follow the model of Bernie Glassman in Bearing Witness. The book chronicles Glassman’s experiences on retreats on the streets of New York and in the concentration camps in Germany. As a part of my preparation for this retreat I am required to beg. I often beg for money in the church calling it offering or stewardship, and this begging will be how I live on the streets. I have already been begging for your prayers.

While I’m begging, I will also beg you to spare a nickel or two to support the Welcome Ministry. Thank you in advance for all of your support, prayers and alms. And thank you most of all for giving me the privilege to be a homeless, homeless pastor!

Rummage Sale
The Welcome Ministry will be having a rummage sale on Saturday, March 24th at Old First Presbyterian Church 10am-2pm. The proceeds will be used to get a new commercial dishwasher for our kitchen. If you have items you would like to bring to the Welcome Ministry please bring them to Old First Presbyterian (Van Ness and Sacramento) the week prior to the event. If you are coming after 5pm or before 11am on a week day please let us know so we can make sure to meet you at the church to let you in and help you unload. If you need help transporting items to Old First let us know and we will try to assist you. Contact: Rev. Megan Rohrer – 415-776-5552x310, megan@
welcomeministry.org

Wanted
Does your church have altar supplies that you have not used for years or replacing your old ones? If so, please consider donating altar supplies to the Welcome Ministry including (but not limited to):
• Communion supplies for worship and supplies for reserve sacrament.
• Thurible & incense
• Linens

2007 Community Dinner Schedule
February 24 @ Old First (Old First is located at Van Ness and Sacramento - parking is free with validation at the Old First Parking Garage on Sacramento between Polk and Van Ness) March 10 @ Old First; March 24 @ Old First; April 14 @ Old First; April 28 @ First Unitarian: (First Unitarian is located and Geary and Gough parking is available at the church parking garage) May 12 @ Old First; May 26 @ St. Luke's: (St. Luke's is located on Van Ness and Clay - parking is free with validation at the Old First Parking Garage on Sacramento between Polk and Van Ness) June 9 @ Old First; June 23 @ Old First; July 14 @ Old First; July 28 @ Old First; August 11 @ Old First; August 25 @ St. Luke's; September 8 @ Old First; September 22 @ St. Luke's; October 13 @ Old First; October 27 @ Old First; November 10 @ Old First; November 24 @ St. Luke's; December 8 @ Old First; December 15 @ Old First.

Welcome Ministry Programs
The Welcome Center hosts an average of 80 guests each Tuesday 2 pm - 4 pm. The objective of the Welcome Center is to extend basic hospitality to homeless men and women and to start the process of building relationships of mutual caring and trust with individual guests. The Center provides a light lunch, conversation and an opportunity to develop friendships with Welcome Center volunteers, as well as access to clean rest rooms.

The Wednesday Evening Outreach Program, this program is so sucessful that we have decided to double the number of nights it is open. Now, we will be open both the second and third Wednesday each month, offereing a meal, counseling, haircuts and access to employment opportunities via the Internet in the newly our computer lab. The program also distributes much needed items like socks, toiletries, clothing, blankets, food, nutritional drinks, and bus tokens.

Saturday Community Dinners serve an average of 180 guests each month and educate more than 24 students a month about homelessness and addiction issues. Different church and community business groups host the community dinners each month. Frequently guests at the Saturday dinners subsequently come to the Welcome Center on Tuesdays or the monthly Outreach Program on Thursday to get better acquainted.

Counseling by the Director averages 30 one-on-one meetings a month. Welcome Ministry Director Megan Rohrer offers counseling for homeless guests three days each week. She helps them reconnect with their families, prevent eviction, access appropriate health care, drug and alcohol detoxification treatment and rehabilitation services, as well as find shelter and employment.