The Season Of Giving Is Over

But the Homeless are Still Pouring into Faith Based Ministries like Albuquerque's Joy Junction and others

January 10, 2003
By Jeremy Reynalds, Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

ALBUQUERQUE, NM  (ANS) -- For about two months out of each year, the telephone at Joy Junction rings almost off the hook with calls from happy sounding voices offering food, help, and occasional gifts of money. As you may have guessed, I'm talking about the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. However, the need to take care of our city's homeless is one that is year round.

But when the phone rings now, it's usually a family looking for help and when the office door opens, many times in comes in a sad and scared mom looking for a place to stay. Other times it's an embarrassed and humiliated dad having to swallow his pride to make sure his wife and kids will find food and shelter until he finds a permanent place to stay.

Last night and tonight, Joy Junction will still shelter families who without our assistance would have no roof over their heads. All of the families we help are hurting. Some are addicted to illegal drugs and alcohol.

As concerned and caring community members, we need to remember two important facts. First, the homeless are with us year round, not only during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Second, with proper help, many of today's homeless can turn their lives around.

While many of the homeless have typically made bad decisions in their lives ®¢ getting involved with illegal drugs or abusing alcohol -- there are others who are not significantly different than those of us who can afford to be clothed, fed and sheltered. These people, such as runaways and victims of domestic abuse, come to shelters such as Joy Junction through little or no fault of their own.

A number of the homeless are also people who have served this nation in times of need. According to national surveys conducted in years past by Joy Junction and other faith based ministries around the United States, nearly one in three men staying at homeless shelters is a veteran. Nearly half of these are veterans of the Vietnam War and about one in 10 served during the Gulf War.

If there's one thing I've learned after over 20 years of working with New Mexico's homeless it is that with the right sort of help, many of them turn their lives around. Specifically, rehabilitation requires not only mental and physical counseling, but also spiritual nurturing to give these men and women the strength they need to return to society. That's what Joy Junction in particular ®¢ and faith based ministries in general ®¢ are all about.

This nurturing of faith is the key to taking people off the streets, giving them new lives and making them productive. Yet it must be done in a sustained way. Just as the problems creating homelessness are not "seasonal," so too the solutions to homelessness cannot simply be administered at certain times of the year.

The homeless need an environment in which they are challenged to acknowledge and consistently renounce unhealthy behaviors; otherwise, they will never acquire the practical or emotional skills they need to succeed. Establishing responsibility and accepting an abiding faith in Jesus Christ is the beginning of transforming a lifestyle learned on the streets to a safe and successful life.

Those of us who minister to Albuquerque's homeless at Joy Junction consider ourselves Christian faithful. It is our faith in the transforming power of the Lord that gives us the strength to get out of bed every morning and care for men and women that cause some people in Albuquerque to recoil.

As you go about your daily duties, please remember those in need. Even though we are past the holiday season, please use the recent cold weather as a reminder to thank God for the blessings of your home and as an opportunity to reach out to others who are not so fortunate. Sometimes when people consider the overall homeless picture, they declare the situation to be hopeless. For Joy Junction, while helping the homeless is indeed difficult, with the transforming power of the Christian faith, combined with your generosity over the last 16+ years, (despite the downturn in giving following 9/11), we are succeeding.

For additional information about Joy Junction, please go to http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction