On January 1, 2009, Steve Farmer chose to become homeless in order to follow Christ’s teachings.  A year-and-a-half after his leap of faith, he talked about what it’s like to be homeless, and what he gets from volunteering every Saturday at UUMC’s Open Doors Ministry that feeds homeless and underprivileged people.

“It was my choice to become homeless. I had my apartment and all my possessions. I didn’t have a lot of extra money. It was a very cold one morning and I was walking to Walmart, and it was absolutely frigid. It occurred to me that some people are stuck out in this all the time. I think it’s unjust, and that everyone should have a place to exist. I went home and I was reading my Bible, and I read where Jesus was homeless. I’m sure you’re aware of it -- the young rich man -- where Jesus said it would be perfect to give up all that you have. ‘Sell what you have and give the money to the poor and take up the cross and follow me.’

People say that’s metaphorical. I don’t really think so. I think you have to make a choice between pursuing your material desires and it’s a kind of graduated scale of your level of your commitment. Some people might be partly committed, and they still maintain their home and their cars and all their nice stuff but they still give of themselves to help others.
I’m still homeless. I’m Ok with it, because I chose it. If I hadn’t chosen it, it would probably make me miserable. I walked out on my apartment. My landlord was trying to convince me not to go. My neighbors were coming over and picking over my stuff like I’d died. (laughs)

I’ve learned that by being homeless, whether you call it an exercise of religious freedom or whether it happens because for one reason or another you can’t provide for yourself, that you’re immediately -- your very existence -- is a criminal act at the point that it becomes necessary for your to sleep.

Particularly here in Austin, they have created a system whereby the act of sleeping, for a homeless person, is a crime. There is no way around it. And that’s mind boggling. If Christ were here today, he’d be deemed a criminal. He would even be arrested at a church for sleeping… pretty ironic.

I could offend a lot of people with what I’m saying. I could say things in a more gentle way. I will have to concede there’s a lot of bad behavior amongst homeless folks. One shouldn’t let the need to be merciful to people cause them to overlook conduct that’s wrong. They’re two different things.
 
It’s kind of an interesting study. Some people among the homeless may seem to have the sense that they’re entitled to things that they haven’t earned, which probably contributes greatly to their circumstances. I won’t say that all homeless people are like that. I’m not shocked anymore when I realize that somebody who’s homeless is thinking they’re owed stuff.  It is common but it’s not 100 per cent either.
 
As a homeless person, you’re stigmatized right off the bat. You have to have the experience of what it’s like to go into Starbuck’s one week as a paying customer and go in the next week and ask for a glass of water, or to use the restroom, with your backpack, being looked at and despised and being told we can’t help you. You have to have that experience to comprehend what that feels like. Do the police stigmatize you too?  Yes, certainly.  Everybody does, pretty much.
I’ve been to worship once at the church and I’m sorry to say I haven’t been more than once.

I don’t consider myself religious so much as Godly. There’s a big difference between those two things. Religion is given to kind of a hierarchy. One of the things that contradict what Christ taught is that-- thing in society where we try to keep up with the Joneses – it may even be more pervasive within the church structure, people being a little bit more snobbish, a little more judgemental, which is the complete opposite of what Christ taught and what I think is defined by Godliness.

In God’s army there is no hierarchy, everybody answers directly to the commander in chief. And he speaks to us through our conscience. And I see that a lot at Open Doors. Even though it is a church, the people who are here giving of their time, they’re not doing it because it’s required of them, they’re doing it because they feel compelled by their heart and their compassion and their conscience to do it. I see Godliness in that.

It was impressive to me that people would give of their resources and their time and leave their home, and come to another place like the church, and invest their labor into helping people that needed help. When I first started out, one of the things was that I expected to discover is that homeless people are being shunned as outcasts. And I have seen that in some ways. But one of the greater discoveries is the goodness in some people to reach out and try to help.

Being homeless has brought me closer to God.  I’ll never look at things the same. You have different values. Some of the good folks I’ve come to know through this experience – some homeless people and some not – some have given me the opportunity to earn money. And I find myself spending money on people. I bought a couple of tents and a couple of fans for people that are not out drinking or drugging. There’s one, she can’t really fend for herself and the other, she’s a radical Christian type herself. I don’t think she gave up her home voluntarily. I think she pursued helping others to the point that it cost her her ability to have a home.

I’ve missed only a couple of Saturdays in the past year, so I’ve been coming pretty regularly. These are people that are doing to one degree or another doing what Christ taught and that’s certainly been an inspiration to me, to the point that I want to become involved. I don’t come for the food any more. A lot of times I don’t eat until after I leave.
It’s just part of the grand tour of the world that the good Lord has led me on. It’s one of the better things. I won’t say that there aren’t some negatives to it but in general it’s a kind of a light in a dark world."

My husband and I were both raised Southern Baptist. His church was much more conservative and traditional, and mine was more moderate. When we were first married and living in Denver, we decided on a church that was Methodist and felt that the Methodist church was a good fit. When we came back to Texas, we were looking at churches and there was something that struck us about this church. It had a sense of tradition and yet it didn’t feel like it was stuck in the past. A lot of the other churches we visited around Austin were a lot smaller and we felt that they were slowly dying out and that there were no other faces that looked like ours in our age range with similar backgrounds.

What we heard from the pulpit let us know that this church had a grasp on what’s going on right now with social justice issues. Chad’s biggest concern was the choir. His positive memories of growing up in the church were related to music and I think that the music is what made it spiritual for him. And the choir here is great.

What we saw right away was the diversity of opportunities to get involved. I’ve heard that we try to do too much as a church, but at the same time I think that our church draws people from such diverse backgrounds and different points in their lives. I know we have some people who have not been a part of the church at all and many who have not been Methodists for their entire lives.

When the church offers so many activities and groups, I think we help people not feel stuck in what they are able to do. And so I feel that I’ve been able to choose what direction I want to go in a different parts in my life.

For a couple of years, I was a member of the mission outreach committee, which does a lot of different kinds of work in the community, with the homeless and other disadvantaged groups. I was able to grow in my leadership skills.

I’ve also been part of the Something More Sunday School class for the past several years. The class has grown quite a bit. It’s mainly made up of people in their late twenties to late thirties, groups of young families with young children. We also have several couples beyond that age range, so it’s good to watch the group grow and change.

I also took a Disciple Bible Study class. I was looking for growth and a spiritual connection as well. It wasn’t just about learning about the Bible, but it’s trying to incorporate it into your life because you’re reading it every day and meeting every week.

As a parent of a four-year-old looking at it from her perspective, I have to ask, "Is she going to have a positive experience at this church?" Over the past few years I’ve seen a lot of growth in the children’s ministry. There are still things that can grow and change, but I think I’ve definitely seen very good growth, and she has a very positive outlook on church.

We’ve been a part of the homeroom group, where different families from the same zip code get together once a month to have a meal and a devotional. So that’s really nice to feel like you have that home base with a small group closer to home. Something that my daughter said is, "I want homeroom to be here!" That’s something that she really wants -- the children that visit have really gotten to know each other.


I would advise new people to come and try different worship services to see which one they like – the music is different throughout the month, and different pastors preach. Visiting a small group would be my other advice. I know that’s hard in terms of a visitor sometimes, but I think it’s good to try a small group ‘cause that’s where I’ve found the heart of the church. Just feeling welcome and a part of the church.


I think that actually my primary source for support has come through the church, and that’s something that had not been the case throughout my life. I’ve been active in churches before, but I think that as an example with my pregnancy right now, being on bed rest, I think I told one person, and then all the phone calls we had, a lot were from the church. And there were many people who came to visit and bring meals, and I think within the first few days I had DVD’s and books and magazines and folks checking on us and calling. They even took our daughter to Vacation Bible School every day because we weren’t able to drive her because of my condition. I think our friendship network has come through the church, and through the homeroom group because we live close to each other.

I came here about six years ago, a little less. I’ve been a Christian my whole life through different stages. I moved to Austin and I started coming to UUMC because it was right here on the drag. And this particular church, I realized, was progressive. It was very agitating socially. It was diverse, very open, you know -- open minds, open hearts and all that. If you want a place that is inclusive and pretty much lets you explore your spirituality in any direction you’d like, then this is a good place to be.

To be perfectly honest, the reasons I stayed were partly because of the people that I had gotten to know, and partly because I was hit by a drunk driver and that changed everything for me. It changed my life personally and my life with the church because they took me in, much more than I wanted to be.

I was standing on the corner of 21st and Guadalupe transferring buses, and I saw a girl I knew that I was acting in a play with. Her and her sister. We talked for a couple of minutes and one of them said, "Oh, my God." We heard this screeching of tires and at that moment things started slowing down. I turned just in time to see this car come up on the sidewalk and he came right toward me, barely missed them. In slow motion, I hit the car, hit my head on the windshield, we went down the sidewalk. I ended up under the car mangled up with someone’s bicycle. I don’t know if they ever found out whose bike it was. I shattered my leg, my knee, my hip, and that was pretty much it.

They rushed me to the emergency room. The doc gave me a choice to have a traditional cast or to have a rod inserted into my leg, and I had to make a decision on the spot. He gave me the pros and cons. And I said, "Well what would you do?" And he said, "Well, I’d probably have the rod, but it’s permanent. Although down the road you can have it taken out." I still have the rod in my leg.

The church supported and prayed for me. First and foremost it was the people from the Disciple Class that I had been taking, that came over regularly, daily. Different people, different times. I realize that in certain times there are certain people that step out and represent the church. I didn’t expect the whole church to come out and see me and hang out. They brought me food, too.

I was having a very difficult time a couple months after the accident. I had a lot of legal challenges and financial challenges, and some of the staff and members held a brainstorming about it. They would do that sort of thing. One of the members became my sole legal advocate; that was a lot of help. It’s frustrating because there are a lot of things that you want to handle on your own, but your stress levels are just too high so you just sort of shut down.


I was basically house bound for two years. It took me over a year to get rid of the limp, and two years to find a job, so it was a hard time. The church was very patient. They couldn’t do everything, and if there was something I felt I needed, I’d ask. I basically needed most everything. Rides to the doc, all that stuff. A lot of times it was just a matter of needing someone to listen or needing a resource. They didn’t solve my work situation but they would ask around if anyone had any employment openings. Cause I was waiting tables at the time, and I couldn’t go back to that cause I couldn’t be on my feet.

I’ve never been a group person. I’ve never been active, though I’ve gone to church my whole life. Now, I’m learning to be a part of the church, how to try to step up when things are needed, when things are asked of you. I’ve been volunteering at this Saturday Outreach to feed the homeless for probably four years, or longer. It’s taught me how to feel in some sense a part of the church, a participant, which is really a different thing from my faith. I’m learning how to give back and how to be a representative for the church.

Somehow I got recruited over to hosting the lunch for the homeless from working in the kitchen and that’s when things really started to change for me. There’s always a certain level of judgment that’s hard not to have, and a certain level of fear that they’re going to ask more of you than you want to commit. Because people are telling you things, and you would like to solve their problems, which is not usually possible, but they want somebody to listen, someone to tell. And give them the sense that they matter, because a lot of people feel their voice is lost in society, and it is. So for me, it’s been a journey that has taught me that we’re all equal, and that’s been more real to me than just a set of beliefs.

It’s also made me realize that they can help me too, and they have, and they love to help in some way. Often times, they have great advice from life experience or from specific knowledge of something, or someone that stops and tells you how wonderful you are, when you should be telling them that.

There’s something that happens that is basically seeing Christ in each other and allowing that moment and that presence to happen, and recognizing it. When it’s very apparent, you just can’t say anything about it. You just know we’re all here by grace.