A Korean becoming a homeless in the US

Andy and I arrived at Harrisburg around ten in the night. We walked into the street where most of our “friend” homeless people sleep. As I was walking in, I started to greet to everyone. “Hello, my name is Issac.” As I was introducing myself to a homeless woman, I shook her hand. She told me that her name is Jennifer. When I held her hand I was very shocked; her hand was so hard and cracked that it was hard to believe that I was holding a human hand. As I sat down next to Jennifer, she started talking about very profound philosophy she has been pondered upon. She was keep enlightening me for a long time as if she was telling me that she has been waiting for a companion who would listen to her thoughts. Sitting down on a street in Harrisburg PA, our conversation continued until Jennifer had to go to bed.

                While I was talking to Jennifer, Andy was talking to a guy named Greg. Greg was a big black man who had very deep black eyes. Just by looking into his eyes, I could tell that he is a thinker. Andy decided to buy him a piece of pizza and all three of us headed to a pizza restaurant nearby. The restaurant was located on the Second Street of Harrisburg. Apparently Second Street of Harrisburg is the center of clubs in the city. The street was bustling with drunken people in various costumes since it was Halloween day. After walking about five minutes, we arrived at the restaurants. Andy ordered three pieces of pizza and as soon as they were ready, we started eating.

                My first impression about Greg was right; if there is such a major, Greg would be a master of life philosophy of the homeless. All his insights about the homeless and himself were quite impressive. Greg shared about his life before he became a homeless and told us he was an arrogant person. He was overly self-confident so that he did not see the need for his college diploma and ended up quitting it. Also due to his arrogance, his marriage did not work out well and finally he got divorced with his wife. Greg was telling Andy and me that all the bad circumstances that he is suffering with are caused by his own bad choices. He also said that many other homeless people are making the same bad decisions but the bigger problem is that they do not realize the fact. Listening to Greg, I was further convinced that the education that leads the homeless people to make wiser decisions is the most effective way to help them. However, with the confirmation behind, I faced a tougher question: how?

                After finishing the pizzas, we went back to the street where all the homeless sleep. By the time we got back, all the people were sleeping. Andy and I laid on the street just like other people did. I did not expect the night to be too cold so I brought just a sleeping bag. While attempting to sleep, I covered my whole body with the sleeping bag. The first hour was not too bad; however, the concrete was getting cold very quickly and after few hours, I started shivering. I tried to compel myself to sleep but, it was not working. I felt like I was being tortured. Many times, I was tempted to ask Andy to go back to the campus. I peeked at Andy several times and he seemed asleep very soundly, thus I did not try to bother him. When I kept longing to go back, I suddenly realized that I am blessed person for I have a place to go back to keep me warm while the homeless people do not.

                Around 6:30 AM, Andy asked me to walk to the train station to get some coffee. I thought I would die if I do not move, so I agreed to follow him. After we did so, we came back and talked about the sleep experience. Funny thing was that we both barely got any sleep and were thinking exactly the same things. We started laughing and as we were laughing, a black man with a turban approached to us and initiated a conversation.

                His name was Mr. Boyd and he called himself a prophet for the homeless. He had many things to say about the government. Unlike Greg, he has discovered many wrong those others (mostly rich and high people) did. He also criticized some mission oriented organizations for they overly emphasize oversee missions while they intentionally close their eyes when they look near them. He cried: “Haiti is not far away but here.” He told us to be awake and see the reality and admonished us that we can be homeless as well.

                From what I experienced that night, I felt like I got answers to many questions I had about the homeless people. However, after talking to Greg and Mr. Boyd, I couldn’t stop asking myself who is right and how should we help the homeless?

Issac Won

How I became a homeless

                It was about month ago, one of my floor mates talked about starting a non-profit organization for the homeless people in Harrisburg. I was very intrigued by his idea thus told him that I would like to help him to do so. However, as the semester passed by, we both were consumed by the busyness of school works and our plan never got started.

                One very normal college day, I was hanging out with my best friends. It was a Friday night so I was hoping to hang out with them till late night; however, one of the friends suddenly told us that he needs to go. I turn my head to the person and realized that it was Andy. Andy and I are very close friends who always plan fun activities together; therefore, I was disappointed when he told us that he needed to go.  I asked him the reason and he started to tell me about an interesting thing he has been doing for the past month. Andy (and sometimes few other guys too) committed himself to go to Harrisburg every weekend and hung out with the homeless there. When I heard it, I was reminded about the non-profit organization I wanted to start so I asked Andy to take me there.

                My first interaction with the homeless was quite awkward. I never tried to interact with them; therefore, I could not easily associate with their situation. Despite the awkward atmosphere, I endeavoured to talk to them and finally became a friend of them. On the way back to the campus, I talked to Andy about my plan for a non-profit organization and he liked it a lot. In the car, we decided to really work on it.

                Andy and I gathered together and had to come up with specific goal that we want to achieve and we decided that we want to educate the homeless people so that they can get jobs. With the goal in mind, we believed that the only way to reach the goal is to start a non-profit organization in which our values and thought about the service is prevalent. However, as we researched more about starting a non-profit organization and as we were learning more about the complexity and risk involved in the process, we came to a conclusion that starting a non-profit organization is not a good idea. Due to the sad reality we were depressed. While we were in a sad mood, something snapped in my mind and I told Andy: “Andy why don’t we start living like them? So that we can draw people’s attention and ultimately raise money for them?” And there we started our journey.


Issac Won

Humpty Dumpty

I can’t say that I wasn’t nervous and reluctant when I was asked to spend a night on the streets in Harrisburg to get the experience of what it is actually like to live on the streets. But I’m very glad that I took a leap of faith and decided to do it. I was definitely not ready for what I was about to experience. Mentally I didn’t know exactly what to expect and physically I had no idea what it would be like. Even though I have been going into Harrisburg on Friday nights for a while now and I have seen how they eat and sleep, but it’s a different story when you’re the one who has to eat and sleep on the street.

Our journey started at 9:30 last night when we left Messiah with nothing but the clothes on our back, sleeping bags, a Bible, and some faith. I was able to see some of the people I have building relationships with for a couple weeks but I met someone new, someone who was a true blessing. His name is Greg and we got to talking and I decided to take him out for pizza at a nearby shop. I truly believe that he is a saved man and a strong Christian. He told us his story and we got to talk to him about the issues that deal with homelessness. We were able to ask him why it’s a problem and what leads to people living on the street. He told us that probably 90-95% of homelessness is self-induced. Poor decisions in life lead their poor situation. Also he was explaining that the mindset of the people are the real problem, they need a transformation of the mind. But there was one analogy that sticks in mind. He gave the story of Humpty Dumpty and how he shattered and couldn’t be put back together. That’s how a lot of these people’s lives are. Their lives have been shattered by tragedy and they were either stricken down and are in the stage of rebuilding what they have lost or they took to drugs or alcohol to get over their tragedy and now are stuck in addiction. But no matter what the issue the largest problem is the mindset of the people living on the street. I see a lot of people are on the street for only a short time and have the motivation to get off the street and get back on their feet. Others either have an addiction or not motivation. Our goal is to give them motivation and bring them hope through the gospel.

But after we ate some pizza we headed back to the church where a lot of the homeless sleep in downtown Harrisburg and set up our sleeping bags and got ready to sleep. It was a very interesting night to say the least. First thing is that sleeping on concrete is not fun, and second is that 45 deg is not very warm. Let’s just say that I didn’t sleep very well and there were many times when I wanted to just go back to school. Isaac who was with me was thinking the same thing but I’m glad that we stuck it out and stayed until morning.  In the morning we got up early because we couldn’t sleep anymore and decided to go and try to warm up. So me and Isaac walked to the train station and went inside for a little bit and got some coffee. We then headed back and decided to wait for everyone else to get up. When Greg got up we packed up our stuff and walked to a Methodist church that served breakfast on Sunday mornings and got to experience what it was like to accept a handout meal. It’s a very interesting feeling. After finishing eating and going back to the church we slept outside of we went down to a fellowship hall found out when they had services. We found out there was a Korean service at 9:30 and decided to go. Isaac was able to help translate for us but it was a very interesting experience. It was a very cool experience and one leaving us wondering how we can make the best impact for Christ in Harrisburg.

We have a couple ideas that might help homeless people gain hope in Christ and get motivated to get out of their situation. The main thing that we need to keep in mind is that we are trying to build relationships and we are not just giving handouts. But a way that we can help these people may be through helping individuals get back to school and get a useful degree in a field where there are jobs or maybe start a sponsor a homeless person type program. Something that would work like sponsor a child but instead help an individual on the street to get housing and temporarily support them while building a relationship with them to help them get going in the right direction. These are just some ideas that we have at the moment and don’t really know the details of where to go with these ideas but it’s a starting point and a vision of where our mission could go.

Please continue to pray for the people of Harrisburg and the homeless situation.

Andrew Breighner

Our Beginnings

It was a little over a month ago that my roommate, a friend of mine, and I decided to go into Harrisburg and try to bring them food and build relationships with them. We had gotten this idea in the spring when we went into Harrisburg one weekend just to see what there was to do. We were surprised to see how many homeless people there were where we parked and there were a couple of beggars when we were walking down second street. It was also disappointing to see that there was not much to do in the city other than drinking and clubbing.

The first thing we did before going into the city to bring them food was to actually get food. So we got some small snacks and Gatorade from the grocery store and we had the idea to ask them if they wanted to go to a pizza place and get food if they wanted to. It took us a while to find some people but when we did we talked to a guy and he told us that a van came around with food. So we waited for the van to come and we asked if we could help out and decided to just stay and talk with people.

We have been going back every week building relationships with the people there and also trying to bring basic supplies as they need them. So far we have gotten blankets and sleeping bags for a couple of the guys there and we are looking to continue helping people on an individual basis. We don't want to just give handouts but we want to truly meet needs of individuals which vary from person to person.

If you can pray for us and the homeless problem in Harrisburg that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew Breighner