Uffizi Mission Project

Well, so word has it more people died last year on the streets than reported…

Some word may be coming out about this soon.  And it is probably also true that some of those deaths may have been avoided.  I have no idea how many, and I guess it depends how you view the sovereignty of God.  I tend to believe that God is asking us to partner with Him to prevent senseless death.

So, I am a big believer in shalom and in an holistic health ideal.  I believe God is concerned with the whole person now and into eternity.  I think our love for people now is a sign of whether we really care about the soul or not… you can’t really just care about a soul on earth can you – don’t we have to work with flesh and blood?

A couple of us, representing the faith community, have been asked to get behind the homeless bill of rights, and rally the churches to awareness.  This is one of the ways I can do it, but publishing the bill of rights on my blog site.  It was put together by Ken Williams, and has the backing now of several local organizations.  I am hoping some local churches will officially back it.

I personally don’t think it is that radical, but of course these folks are my friends now – and I have witnessed first hand many of the street dangers they face.  Just today I was talking with some folks at the Santa Barbara Roasting Company about whether one of their friends was in the hospital or not…

So, I will paste the bill of rights in here.  You can comment on whether you are behind it or not, or if you want to help me get your church behind it

1. Right not to be murdered
2. Right not to be physically assaulted
3. Right not to be raped
4. Right to shelter when sick or injured
5. Right to medical care when sick or injured
6. Right to shelter, food and treatment for people with a mental illness
7. Right to shelter in severe rain, cold or heat that threatens health & welfare
8. Right not to be demonized by private or government entities & treated with respect by all
9. Right of women and men not to be hunted by sexual predators
10. Right of children for clothing, food, shelter & education

You can find the Homeless Bill of Rights on Facebook too, and “like” the group.  You can get involved and save lives with local organizations, or join us at Pershing Park or the community of Holy Chaos on Sunday mornings.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 10:12 am and is filed under Pershing Park, Uffizi Mission, homeless, jesus, santa barbara, shalom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.