December 17th – December 24th

2011

Spencer, Mary, Connor and a

car full of supplies, driving up to

D.C. on Saturday.

Below: Checking out the

map, planning out our scouting

day – Sunday.

Connor carrying a few supplies in

his backpack. We‟re waiting for the

metro to ride into the district.

We‟re at East Falls Church waiting

for the Orange Line metro train

towards New Carrolton

On our way to Metro center to switch to

the red line and ride to Union Station

We came across a small group of

tents in Independence Plaza that

turned out to be, not all homeless

people, but the occupiers.

Independence Plaza is just one

of two locations that the

Occupiers are located. Many

have welcomed the homeless of

D.C. into their tent cities.

The second location of Occupy

is at McPherson Square, a park

not far from Franklin Square, a

favorite location for many of our

friends.

Many homeless people stayed

at McPherson Square before the

Occupy movement. Now they

either have integrated in with

them or moved elsewhere.

Most mornings we walked just a

little over three blocks to the

nearest metro bus stop that took us

to a metro train station.

Here we are riding the bus to

Rosslyn station – an

unexpected long ride that

morning.

To the left: a picture of the tables

and boxes containing some

emergency supplies local

organizations set out for

homeless people to use.

To the right: we decided to leave

some Bibles and hand-warmers

underneath the tarps so that

anyone could pick them up.

Photos taken Thursday night at Mt.

Vernon Square.

These benches are „supply-benches‟

that also have some blankets

underneath the tarp so that anyone

can pick them up if they need one.

Park benches and at the entrances

of metro stations are the primary

places we checked for people in

need.

Above: McPherson Square Station

has a nice current of warm air

coming up from below so that many

people would come to stay here day

and night.

Below: Just around the corner in

this picture, many of our friends

can be found hanging out during

the day and many more come to

sleep at night. We visited this spot

often.

Left: Checking the map to

keep our whereabouts.

Right: Connor kept notes of every

contact, ensuring to write down

names, locations, time of

contact, and needs. Used for

journaling and future purposes.

90% of our time during the day was

spent outside or on a metro train.

Lots of walking involved, hiking the

urban jungle carrying backpacks

full of gear.

Above: Connor carrying his

pack, on our way to another

location in D.C.

Above is a location where evidence

is found showing many people‟s

sleeping spots. To the right is

emergency blankets seen at the

beginning of the week, for homeless

on E. 1st Street that live under the

overpasses.

On Wednesday

Mary met us at

Union Station to

spend the day

helping and

supporting our

efforts in D.C. It

rained that day,

but we worked

hard and received

great results,

making nearly 30

contacts that day.

Trae and Kassie were able to make

it to D.C. on Thursday to help us

that afternoon.

Through their help and the help of

Habtu Zemech later that evening, we

were able to make 40 contacts on

Thursday.

Habtu Zemech, a member of Falls

Church church of Christ, came out

with us Thursday night to do some

work with the homeless.

An amazing and inspiring

individual, Habtu helped us give out

sleeping bags and Bibles which led

us to have the most successful day

of the week with 40 contacts.

During the week we met dozens of people that we

were able to talk with, help out, listen to their

stories, and become good friends with each one.

Some just wanted to talk, others needed some

winter gear or a Bible, and then others only needed

a good meal to eat.

Each day we would go and check up on a few of

our friends that we had met the days

before, making sure there wasn‟t anything else they

needed. We would also often asked if they had

friends or family that might need something and we

would go and find them.

At the end of the week on Friday, we went to the

locations of some our closest friends and asked to

get a few pictures with them for our memories. The

following slides are those pictures that we took.

Allen was a unique artist that selected

wild flowers, pressed them and then

framed them. He was selling his work

along E. 1st Street (above) to raise

money and support himself, despite

being homeless.

Russell (left) was a

barefoot, upbeat guy who was

more than happy to shake your

hand and talk with you.

Keith (middle) was a more quiet

individual yet still friendly and was

pleased to have his picture taken

with us.

Richard Dawson is one of the

friendliest, most talkative, and

liveliest person you will ever meet

in your life.

He shared with us his history, his

pastimes, his poetry, his

interests, and his thoughts. He also

didn‟t mind the rain and enjoyed 5

Guys fries.

Anthony is from Georgia. He currently

lives in D.C. where he caught up with

us after we left him a Bible and hand

warmers.

Above and to the right: We are on our

way to Burger King with Anthony.

After taking Anthony to Burger King

we met Charles (not pictures) who we

prayed with.

It was Charles‟ (left) birthday on

Friday so we took him out to eat and

gave him some presents to celebrate.

He turned 67 and was still going

strong.

During our meal with Charles and

Ramos (not pictured) a few locals

joined us and Cheryl (middle) sang

us a song about not giving up on the

truth.

Dwayne is an extremely

humble, down to earth guy that

we enjoyed talking to.

Dwayne helped us out by telling us a

few more places we could go to find

some people in need.

Scotty will always give you a

smile, ask how you are

doing, and tell you he is keeping

warm.

Prayers need to go up for

everyone, especially Scotty.

Judy was extremely happy every

time we talked with her

throughout the week.

We happened to see Judy in Union

Station on Friday so we were lucky

to catch a couple pictures with her

for our memories.

Kevin was a

very nice guy

that we

always

checked up on

every day. He

loves chili-

cheese

hotdogs.

Anita took a

while to open

up to us, but

she eventually

did and we

had a nice

time talking

with her.

We met Sam pretty early in the

week and he was always thankful

that we checked up on him.

Sam is getting help with an

apartment through the V.A. He is

a pretty big music and history

buff. Please pray for Sam, he

recently found out he has cancer

– keep him in your prayers.

Dennis was just the second

person we met at the beginning of

the week and we could always

find him and his friends at Union

Station.

He was extremely friendly and good

natured. He seemed carefree and

was always happy to see us coming

to talk with him.

Tim, Dennis‟ cousin, is a very

happy and talkative guy that we

met the first day and always went

to check on him throughout the

week.

He would always remind me

(Spencer) and made sure I

remembered his cousin who

played football for ETSU in the

1970s. Pierre Harsaw #44

Left to Right:

Tim

(again), Tom, Spencer/Connor, an

d El.

We became good friends with all

these guys hanging out at Union

Station. We also happened to see

El pop up out of nowhere all the

time.

(Quote Tom about this picture: “It‟s

an Oreo cookie!”)

Left: Connor and

Spencer hanging

out with

Tim, El, Tom, Cynt

hia, and Tim just

outside Union

Station.

Right: Spencer

pushing an elderly

lady in her

wheelchair up to

McPherson Metro

Station.

Ramos is from

Mexico and still

has family there.

He hoped to one

day make it to

Toronto, but he

hasn‟t made it yet.

Ramos could

always see us

from a distance

and would jump

up and start

waving. He

became one of

our best friends

that week.

Though our week in D.C. is over, our work is nowhere close to be done. We

will always remember our wonderful friends we made and hopefully they will

remember us. Please keep all these people and the many more that we

met, in your constant prayers. Thank you so much for making our week a

success.

These are just a few pictures of the many people we met and were able

to help. We were blessed with an amazing week, reaching 140 contacts

in total and hopefully making a difference in a few people‟s lives.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported our trip

through prayers, thoughts, encouragement, and financial

support.

Our trip would have not been as big of a success without all

the support from our friends and family.

A special thanks goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Bryan from the

Falls Church, church of Christ for being our hosts during

the week and providing such hospitality and generosity

each and every day.

Thank you so much to everyone!- Spencer Bailey and Connor Pennings

Connor is preparing a lesson, concerning the things learned

from this trip, that he hopes to soon preach from the pulpit at

Abingdon church of Christ. An audio recording of his lesson

and a copy of his lesson‟s PowerPoint will be available to

anyone interested.

Spencer and Connor both kept detailed journals of every

encounter and every person that they made contact with

each day of the week. We hope to soon post these journals

online to a blog run by Spencer and Connor. Contact us in a

few weeks if interested.