On the right track. . .

Last Thursday morning after our annual prayer breakfast, a man approached me with a question.

"Mr. James, you mentioned having 50 apartments available for homeless people," he said. "Can you tell me more about that?"

I explained to our guest (one of many homeless men and women we had invited for the morning) that, indeed, we did have the apartments available thanks to a grant we were awarded last year from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD).

"How do I get one?" he asked, getting right to his point.

I pulled out one of my cards and wrote "Marty" on it and handed it to him.

"Come by my office at this address on Monday and I will introduce you to Marty Mascari, the person in charge of this project. He will be glad to visit with you about an apartment," I told him.

I didn't think anything else about his request until I saw him bright and early Monday morning at my office!

"I've come to see Marty like you said," he explained as we shook hands.

It was a pleasure to introduce him to Marty, and the two of them are working out the details on his apartment.

My new friend's name is John.

No doubt, John will be an "anchor resident" in our new effort to get folks off the street and into, not just housing, but community.

John helped me to see that we are on the right track.

First and foremost, homeless people need homes.