Sleepout for the Homeless

Last night we participated in our church's Sleepout for the Homeless. The purpose being to become more aware of the homeless community and get a taste of what it would be like to be without a home and everyday necessities.

The evening started with the challenge to build a home out of cardboard boxes and duct tape. Some people had two-bedroom shacks, but we went for a spacious one bedroom. I wish we had a picture of our shack, but homeless people don't generally have digital cameras. And/or I got home from school 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave and had enough time to go to the bathroom (the plight of a teacher--not going to the bathroom for 12+ hours at a time), grab some warm clothes and go.

After building our shacks, we filled care packages for a local mission that assists the homeless and watched The Soloist--a movie about a musically inclined, mentally ill homeless man. Then it was lights out!

I actually slept pretty well and was perfectly warm. Granted we had three blankets and I was wearing three shirts.

Overall, it was a meaningful experience. It's obviously hard to truly grasp what it would be like to be homeless without actually living it. We left our home to go there. We knew we had a home to return to the next morning. We had plenty of blankets and clothing to keep us warm. We still had food. Even the cardboard boxes were provided for us.

I do know that's as close to being homeless as I would like to get.