Helping "the least of these"

Cindy and George in the Ellis Room

George at the window of the YWAM Staff Prayer Lounge
overlooking Ellis Street where the homeless and addicted
line up for meals and medical assistance at Glide Memorial
Methodist Church



The "Real" Answer to our problems!

Banister on the stairs of the Discipleship Training School lounge

We visited our friends, George and Cindy Freeman, yesterday, who have committed to spending three years working in San Francisco's Tenderloin District with the homeless and addicts at Youth With A Mission. The Ellis Room (photo at top) is a large room where street people can come during the day.  There are pool and ping pong tables and tables and chairs in the facility, where people can spend time during the day.  Cindy spends time praying with people who come in. She also does administrative support work. George spends his days working with the people, counseling, praying and befriending them. George will be teaching and developing curriculum for a program called 360, meant to help street people turn their lives around and learn the "360 degrees" of a new life: spiritual, mental, physical and emotional.  Those who take the class are required to attend daily for one year, from 9:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

The Freemans will live at the facility.  George is standing by the window of the YWAM Staff Prayer Room in the second photo.  The Freemans will live in Room 20, just a few doors down from this room. Smoke from the crack pipes of the addicts literally wafts into these windows at night. This is truly the inner city, with all of its worst problems.

Christian author Francis Chan has moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and hopes to work with the people of this area, establishing home churches in each of the apartment buildings in the Tenderloin District.  YWAM, and our friend, George, may be involved in training pastors for these home churches.

YWAM San Francisco has a Discipleship Training School, where young people come to be trained to serve short-term missions where they share the gospel in different cultures.  Most of the people trained in San Francisco are sent to Vietnam or to Italy.  There is a small patio area outside the classroom, where students write messages in chalk and other mediums.  The lower two pictures are taken in the Disciples' lounge outdoors.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:40 (New International Version)

Thanks you, friends, for doing what you do for Jesus!  May we support you in prayer and love!
--Posted by Mama O.