Help us raise $6,000 before 2011!

God is alive and well here at DOOR Hollywood and we are certainly thankful!  Alayna, Alex, Brady, Josh, Kyle, and Robert are settled in, deeply invested in their work with the homeless as well as the families surrounding 5846 Gregory!  (Click on their names for their ongoing blogs!)  And we need your help to keep this mission thriving: we currently are paying $12,000 annually in property taxes while we work tirelessly to re-establish our legitimate tax-exempt status with California.  All papers are in order and have been for over a year now, but the state is moving slowly.  That $12,000 could nearly cover the living expenses of one Dweller for a year, or it could allow us to send 20 local students from low-income families on a week-long service learning trip in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami, or San Antonio, covering program and travel.  Please help while we are in this waiting game, and please pray that we come out from under this requirement soon!  Click here to go directly to our credit card donation processing page.

From our sunrise hike this week.

God is alive and well in this city!

Merry Christmas from DOOR Hollywood!  Click on any photo to see more of the team in action.

Posada, December 13, 2010

Listening, by Kyle

My housemate Robert and I were heading to West Hollywood to check out a free movie that I won through a contest. As we were getting there, Robert was telling me about his job on PATH’s homeless outreach team.  They offer rides to a hospital if someone is hurt, offer advice, give a bag of food, and let the homeless know that PATH is willing to help them with a 2nd chance at life.   Robert brought up something I never thought about.  A lot of homeless have lost their self-esteem or lack the courage to seek a job. Why?  What if you’d been out on the street for months, or years, and people stare at you as they walk by, never talk to you, and just ignore you.  You may feel hopeless and think that if you tried to get a job, that boss would ignore you just like the people on the street.   So, one of the things the outreach team does is to meet the homeless and start a conversation with them.  The outreach team tries to see the same homeless people a few times every month so that those people know they aren’t forgotten.  That may help their hearts to heal, become stronger, and realize that not everybody is the same.  LA is a big city and it’s our job not only to help the homeless but spread the word about what we offer to help even more homeless with a 2nd chance at life.

From Kyle's blog: You Will Never Go Where God is Not