If you have access to a community bulletin board, church bulletin board, etc., we’d be much obliged if you would print up a copy or two of this LoveWinsFlyer and post it ASAP. Thanks!

(While you’re at it, why not invite your friends to the Facebook event?)

Without further ado, let’s get to the exciting stuff ~

Love Wins Benefit Party on 3/21
The Love Wins family invites YOU to celebrate with us the evening of Sunday, March 21! We are are becoming a self-standing, legal nonprofit, which will provide some perks we couldn’t receive before. Plus, Love Wins is featured in the newly released book, Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide?, by Karen Spears Zacharias (and she’s coming to the party!).

• What: Food, fellowship, live music, swag, raffle prizes…did we say party?!
• When: March 21, 7-10pm
• Where: 224 Polk Street in Raleigh (Meymandi Theatre at the Murphey School, a.k.a. Burning Coal Theater’s downtown performance space)
• More Details Here

(We are in need of some help with supplies, promotion, etc., so stay tuned for more info about that soon.)

Love Wins on Facebook
We’re finally on! You can now find us at www.facebook.com/LoveWinsMinistries. Thanks to the many of you who have already become a fan…tell your friends!

…And lastly, here’s an excerpt of a review of Karen’s new book, Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide?:

One of the most heart-wrenching stories was about a Marine who feeds the homeless, not so he can preach the gospel, but because it is the gospel. The poem “Being Homeless” by Hugh Hollowell will open your eyes as it speaks truth where assumptions run rampant.

Read the Review | Learn More About the Book

In Downtown Raleigh (in a venue with plenty of parking), we will hold a shindig/party/blowout/extravaganza that will blow your mind. Seriously.

We will be celebrating:

• The launch of our own, independent nonprofit status (until now, we have been sheltered under another org.)
• That book we were featured in? The author, Karen Spears Zacharias, will be here to sign copies and read from the book

We will have live music, Love Wins merchandise to buy, books for sale, food to eat, friends to meet - rumor has it dancing may even break out!

More details will be coming soon - location, times, etc. - but hold that date!

After my short bit the other day about day labor, I wrote a long piece for my friend Karen’s blog. If you want to know what the life of a day laborer is like, you may want to check it out.

There is lots going on here I want to tell you about, but right now I just do not have the time. However, check back tomorrow, when we introduce you to a new blogger on our site, tell you to save a date and much, much more.

I haven’t read the book yet (But it is on my Amazon wish list - hint, hint), but the excerpt was spot on with my considerable experience with day labor pools. If there is any thing more depressing than not being able to work, it is the horror of investing 14 hours or so only to walk away with something like $35, assuming you actually get picked to work today.

And of course, we still need your financial support. Nothing impacts our ability to be a real presence in the lives of our friends who live outside more than your continued financial support.

Right now is a blur - in case you didn’t know, Raleigh got hit with about 6 inches of snow over the weekend and the city pretty much shut down. I am still trying to locate several friends that live out in the woods that no one has seen in several days.

As always, your prayers are appreciated.

Is there a difference between a homeless person and a panhandler? If so, how do their needs vary and what are some of the ways in which we can respond to the needs of the homeless?

or, put another way, and in a form I recieve much more often:

Are panhandlers homeless?

I answer her over at her blog.

Yes, it seems I did.

She came down on very cold day in February and watched us eat biscuits and coffee with some of our friends who live outside. We then went to Starbucks (she was buying – what can I say) and she picked my brain for the next 4 hours or so.

We talked about how a white-bread middle-class guy ended up working directly with the very poor and homeless. We talked about how money screws up our perceptions and how we have turned God into a kindly Santa Clause who loves us more than he does “them” – whoever “them” happens to be right now.

In any event, she went home and worked her writerly magic on my no-doubt rambling thoughts and turned it into a chapter of her newest book – Will Jesus Buy Me a Double wide (’Cause I Need More Room for my Plasma TV).

Here is the copy from the back of the book:

What does it really mean to be blessed by God? With Southern charm and razor-sharp wit in Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?, author Karen Spears Zacharias shows how the prosperity gospel has led us astray from true Christianity and helped create people and churches focused on greed. Zacharias unpacks story after story of families and individuals using the name of God as a means to living their own good life. You’ll hear shocking tales of those who exploit the gospel for their own gain, and mega-evangelists who live in million-dollar mansions with children groomed from the cradle to sell the message of Christ while their parents rake in the cash. Discover churches that have modeled themselves on Wall Street and unbridled materialism, and see what is happening to them now. Is this the good life? You’ll also meet some unlikely folks who live with genuine biblical integrity. People who know that God is more than some cosmic genie who gives them an easy life, a fat bank account, and a second home in an exotic location. Come discover stories about authentic Christianity and the true good life in Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?

I have read it, and I have to tell you, she makes me sound great! Seriously, the book is hitting the shelves the beginning of March – but you can preorder your copy now. In fact, preordering is good for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that all the books that are preorderd count as sales (for bestseller lists, etc.) on the first day. And pretty much, the first week’s sales are what determine if a book is successful or not.

In addition, a portion of the proceeds of the book are coming to Love Wins - it seems we have turned Karen into a believer in our no-holds-barred style of loving.

Go preorder your copy now. Then at the end of March, when she is passing through the Triangle, you can ask real nice and she will probably sign it for you.  (More details to come on her Triangle appearances as soon as we nail down times and dates, etc. )

I submit that most of our questions along this line are not really about panhandlers, but about our need to hold onto our money and our service to the false gods of convenience and control.

Huh?

I unpack that a bit over on my friend Karen’s blog, where she asked me this question:

I recently pulled out of a parking lot and there was a line of panhandlers at the stop light. How do I help? Who do I help?

Go see what my answer was.

Leading up to that first Christmas, Mary wanted:

The lowly lifted up.
The mighty humbled.
The proud scattered.
The hungry filled.
The rich to experience lack.
God’s mercy.

Probably not a bad place to start. What do you want out of Christmas this year?