Last weekend I was honored to speak at The Idea Camp in Portland, Oregon. I gave some good points and ‘next steps’ for people who have a heart to care for people living on the streets. I edited out the 1st 17 minutes or so to get right to the meat. If you’d like to watch the full version click here.
Links to references:

• Andy Bales’s 10 step plan to end homelessness
• Michele Forrest’s blog ChosenFast .com – Greensboro Police Whrrl story
• Mobile Loaves & Fishes – watch Habitat on Wheels video
• Interview with State of Utah
• Family Promise Interfaith Hospitality Network
• ImagineLA
• Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter

Today my plan was to sleep in and that’s about it. I didn’t want to do anything even remotely related to Thanksgiving. But, like most days of my life God has other plans for me. I believe He often finds great joy in how much He changed my heart. Seriously, I am not that nice. My plan for my life was to relocate back to LA, start a new band, find a wife, and vacation in Hawaii. Of course, nothing went as planned – I was laid off (again), lost my house to foreclosure and for the most part hit rock bottom (again). I honestly believe if my plan was successful I would not have started InvisiblePeople.tv last November.

Today my plan was to sleep in, which I did but I eventuality I got hungry. Food is such a powerful motivator. Us single people get multiple invites during holidays and I would bet we all pick the one where we feel less awkward. I had several places to go. All great places and all great people and I’m sure wonderful food. But the closest thing I have to family on the Best Coast is my homeless friends so I got in the car and drove to Glendale.

Since I was about 20 minutes late I thought I’d walk in to the shelter and it would be one huge love fest of food and friends. Instead, nothing was going on and it was obvious the ‘guest chef’ who volunteered didn’t show up. OUCH! That meant my ‘family’ was not going to have a Thanksgiving meal and there is no way I could let a face like this not have a holiday meal.

Not all stories end well but today’s did, and so did my story. By all signs I should be homeless myself. My gross income since March 15th has been $1,500. You live on that amount in Los Angeles for 9 months!!! Yet, even though I’m still in crisis, my heart was changed and I focused on helping others. That alone is what I believe made the world of difference in my life.

This has been an amazing year! Probably the most amazing year of my life (so far)! So much happened I’m not sure if I could write it all. There are so many people I have to think who believed in me, loved me, encouraged me and supported me. I am so very grateful to each and every one of you.

I am grateful for all the pain that got me to the point where I would do something to help others, and I am grateful for all of you that are riding along with me because together there are so many more people we need to help.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I think the world of Michael Trent who many simply know as The Church Bartender. Here is a short conversation we had at The Idea Camp on the Dirty Church. Here is a post by Charles Lee, “Is Your Church Dirty”. To contact and hire Michael visit his main site Third Place Consulting.

You’ve heard it from me before, “housing programs were started, feeding programs were started, a farmer gave 40 acres of land all because YOU supported InvisiblePeople.tv”.

Today walking to lunch I asked Mike Rusch from Cobblestone Project what exactly happened in Northwest Arkansas this last July.

It’s probably not news to most of you that I love the movie Lord Save Us from Your Followers. This summer as I drove across the country I yelled at every stop that you all need to support this movie. What you may not know is Lord Save Us was the sponsor who offered to help before I committed to actually make the tour. Without their financial assistance I would have never said “yes” to 11,263 miles.

But as luck and the economy would have it the LSU team lost an investor so they were never able to fulfill their commitment. It was actually a scary time for me because by the time I was notified I had made my own commitments to Ford and a few others. One might say I stepped out in faith, but the truth is I didn’t have a choice. I had to get in the car and start driving.

I say all that for two reasons. First is the FTC’s new disclosure law starts Dec 1st and to this date Lord Save Us has only given me a T-shirt. But what I want you to see here is that this movie is so spot on with truth that our American Church needs to hear I yelled and yelled and yelled more than any other sponsor even though I never received support. Why? Because I believe in this movie and the people behind it!

Today at The Idea Camp I shot a little video with Dan Merchant the man behind the movie. Cameo appearance by Greg Russinger of Laundry Love fame. Please support Lord Save Us!

Here is an old clip on YouTube about the movie (it’s better than the trailer on their site)

As I make invisiblepeople.tv happen there is so much that needs to be said, yet, because of time or whatever, I never get around to saying it. I hate to write so I am going to try something new. I am going to start shooting video. My goal is to use this blog to tell the ‘other’ story.

This really was a test as I walked to winter shelter training at Union Rescue Mission. Interesting, the nearest parking takes you through LA’s Flower District and there is a huge contrast between the beautiful smells only steps away from the madness and pain of Skid Row.

Although it is a test video I hope you take the challenge seriously and start working as a team to stamp out homelessness.

I will try and write more about my experience both personally and professional in the very near future but right now just wanted to get a few of the videos up. If you are new to my story 15 years ago I lived homeless in and around the area the Kodak Theater is located today so speaking there was very powerful. Also, Ann Marie [click here for her story] joined me thus making history at the Kodak and in the social media world.

140 Characters Conference Presents Mark Horvath: Making the Invisible Visible

not another twitter conference [link]

#140conf Round-up [from TechZulu]

more videos click below

(more…)