BABY, ITS COLD OUTSIDE!!!

Dear SoupFriends,

Greetings from the SoupMan!

In case you haven't noticed, 'Baby, it's cold outside!!!' A cold arctic blast has hit the Dallas area. Winds chills in the teens and not a lot of sunshine. For most of us regular folk it's only a minor inconvenience. We sashay from our heated homes to our heated cars to our heated offices. Oh yeah, we have to brave the cold as we transfer from one heated place to another but all in all we do pretty well each winter.

However, if you are a homeless man or woman (yes, there are many homeless women out there) it's not so easy getting through the winter. Imagine sleeping in a cardboard box under an expressway with temperatures below freezing and the wind ripping through your encampment. I recently had a speaking engagement about homelessness at an affluent church in Dallas. One of the audience members remarked to me, "Well they (the homeless) should just stay in a shelter if they want to keep warm." Au contraire" I responded---for you regular folk that means 'that dog don't hunt'---and if you want to hear it in pure SoupMan soupspeak it means---NO WAY.

Its estimated that there are 10,000 homeless in the Dallas area but that only about 2,000 shelter beds are available on any given night. Simple math tells us there is not enough 'Room at the Inn.' Just last night I drove by one of the major shelters in Dallas and outside sleeping on the cold sidewalk were at least 25 homeless people. Yes, they were sleeping 'outside' the shelter---there was not enough 'room at the inn.'

Okay, so now you know what the problem is--- too many homeless and not enough shelter beds. So what's the solution you might ask? Well on a ground level basis we need to try to help the ones that are sleeping out in the cold every night. They need warm coats, blankets, gloves and hats. Recently I put out a 'Code Blue' Weather Alert and asked for donations of warm weather gear. I'm pleased to say that the response was fantastic. Friends, donors and supporters stepped up to the plate and donated some much need warm weather gear. However winter has a long way to go and the SoupMobile needs more---particularly warm winter coats. Got coats??? Email the SoupMan at david@soupmobile.org.

On a more advanced level the solution to thousands of homeless people not being able to get 'room at the inn' is more shelter beds. The SoupMobile is also working hard on that front. In 2009 we opened up SoupMobile Village---a series of group homes designed to take a homeless man or women off the streets, put a roof over their heads, clean then up, get them a job and return them as productive 'working' members of society. It's a 'Hand Up' not a 'Hand Out.'

And lets not forget the number one thing homeless people need---Love!!! Yep, you heard me right---the number one thing they need is Love---specifically the love of Jesus. We have to love our homeless men and women. The way I do it is to imagine that one of them may just be Jesus. And hey---if you knew it was Jesus standing out there in the cold, you would move heaven and earth to help him. Well, whether it's Jesus or not, these homeless men and women are his precious children. Lets give them love, compassion, caring and shelter. How can you do that? Simple, join the SoupMan and his fabulous SoupTeam as we reach out in love to the ones Jesus called the 'least of these.' For more information on how to be part of our amazing mission, go to www.soupmobile.org. Be prepared to change lives and be prepared for your own life to change.

Baby, It's Cold Outside---and you can do something about it.

May the Lord Bless & Keep You,

Signed, David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan