Praxis UCC

Have you ever wished for an opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone homeless? Ever wanted to increase your understanding about homelessness and alternative housing issues in Atlanta?You’re invited to Service Saturdays, a ministry of Praxis UCC’s Service and Justice team in partnership with Journey, the Druid Hills Men’s Shelter.

Now twice a month, we gather for coffee and fellowship to reflect on issues surrounding homelessness; then we hop across Ponce de Leon Ave. to Journey (next to Druid Hills Presbyterian) and do art with the residents in a low-key, fun environment. Our goal is to create relationships and allow everyone’s creativity to flourish, no matter how “good” at art we are–or aren’t! Come join us!

Time	Saturday, October 8 · 9:30am – 12:30pm
Location	San Francisco Coffee Roasting Company 676 North Highland Ave.

Mark your calendars: October Service Saturdays are this Saturday, Oct. 8th, and October 29th!

Check out some pics from our last Service Saturday:

Thanks to LauraBeth, Amaryah, Nancy, Liz, Lauren, and Chris for coming out!  We hope to see YOU this Saturday!

One thing we love about this shelter (besides the guys staying there–a great crowd) is that servers cook, serve, and then are expected to sit down and eat with the shelter residents.  So many shelters conveniently leave you behind the serving counter, at a safe distance from the folks with whom you’ve come to fellowship.  This makes it easy to maintain stereotypes or assumptions about people experiencing homelessness, and it’s difficult to create real relationships when there’s always an “us” (serving)/”them” (being served) dynamic.  We’ve found we have great conversations and develop good friendships with folks at the shelter, plus it’s fun to get to enjoy what you’ve spent so long cooking!

Speaking of which, we’ve previously made baked ziti, veggie chili, and red beans and rice with cajun sausage.  It’s been interesting cooking for a roomful of men used to eating MEAT with vegetarians in our crew, but we have decided that hospitality is more important to us than eating rules (no matter how ethically, Jesus-ly, or environmentally driven)—if we show up with a dinner that no one likes just so that we can be righteously animal- or meat-free, have we really done our job to care for our brothers experiencing homelessness?  (Side note: Friday night we did find out that one of the guys living at the shelter is vegetarian and who was SO thankful for meat-free options.  So always having a veggie-friendly option for the vegetarians among the servers paid off!)

If you have any suggestions for easy-to-make but quality meals (we are also committed to avoiding stuff-out-of-a-can and pre-made casseroles–extravagant hospitality to us means, in part, caring for others by not making the industrial same-old same-old you find at lots of shelters) and especially if you want to volunteer with us, leave a comment or email us at chris@praxisucc.org or leah@praxisucc.org.  We’d love to have you, and so would the guys at the shelter!