Visiting Mormon Church, Homeless Veteran

[Vegetius]

Does the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans actually do anything to help a homeless vet? The toll-free number they give out online is (877) 4AID-VET (877-424-3838).

I'd like to think they could be helpful in some concrete ways—but of course the OP is specifically about finding a church community, and that's probably not their specialty.

I think I'm probably a lot vaguer in my beliefs than msnobody, but even if you're also less sure where you stand, I think the kind of church she recommends is a good bet for finding people who are open and welcoming and non-judgemental. Jesus was really big on respecting people who are down on their luck, and it's the churches that try as hard as they can to follow Jesus, with as few added frills as possible, that are likely to welcome a homeless vet without asking him to jump through any hoops.

Any followers of Jesus should be happy to help someone in need, but it's not mainly about hand-outs. The Gospels show Jesus getting into trouble just for associating with people who were living hard times, listening to them and talking with them, sharing meals with them, counting them as part of the group. Any church that does that kind of thing is following his example. Churches that don't, really aren't.

Sorry, I missed your post. I'm not really looking for handouts, and from looking online that is precisely why the Mormons insist on having a transient bishop (don't know what a bishop is in the Mormon context yet), and I can definitely see the logic of it on the basis of when I visit the inner city areas to get to the mailbox I rented- most of those homeless in the city core are looking for handouts.

I'm a Airborne Infantry Alaskan veteran. Guys from my unit used to leave base and show homeless how to survive in Alaska, as homeless only had a ten year life expectancy in Alaska. It wasn't an army program, just something we would instinctively do.

While I was living in PA after my time with the VA working in a hotel, I would see homeless people getting booted from the large Presbyterian hospitals in the city, wearing nothing but hospital robes and socks, sometimes a thin blanket. I had to walk past them on my way to my minivan parked a few miles down the road in a bad neighborhood. When winter hit, they were still doing this, and I panicked for them, getting them blankets. I couldn't exactly afford it. Then on the day after Christmas was when I started dying. I still had a bunch of blankets to give out, and still gave some during my recovery when I would see someone huddled scared in a Panera Bread (I was and am a member of the sips club, so I got a place to sit all day to work on my laptop and charge my devices and drink as much as I wanted).

It eventually occurred to me during my kidney surgery I was at extreme high risk of being tossed out onto the streets because I am a member of the prohibition party, I really don't like drugs, even if prescribed, and they were not happy I wasn't up and dancing around right after my surgery after refusing the oxy. If I didn't have my van then, I would be on the streets dying, having my body temperature sucked out of me.

Not too long after that I had my minivan wreck, still winter- and just finally called living in a winter environment quits. I couldn't take it anymore. I have a very acute awareness of all the many different ways cold can kill and injury you, and want nothing to do with it.

That being said, I am not a drug user or mentally ill. I actually know how to set up a long term camp. I have infinite solar power access (a 65 watt and 21 watt solar panel, several back up batteries), and access to a water fountain on the edge of town on a bike trail. I hide out in a wooded section of the woods along a 25 foot drop below the rail tracks. Few come down here, and it is near a few shopping centers. I shouldn't require a handout from anyone. I should be able to get a job from anyone, but nobody wants to hire me. It isn't even a interview issue, just nobody gives me a chance. The only sort of handout I would be interested in right now is a job. Heck, I would even be willing to delay my dream of being able to save up for a vehicle, and accept a job that just pays me enough to feed me and the cat (three cats and 3-4 possums live here too, some Mexicans murdered a possum between my first two posts here in the woods nearby, I think it was one of my baby tree possums, I wasn't remotely happy about it).

So my life sucks, but unlike most homeless, I got infinite electricity and water. I gotta carry the water over a mile in order to wash clothes, etc. But you gotta consider to yourself, six months ago I was literally expecting to die, so I am not too upset about all this. The Army literally trained me to survive in far harsher environments. I showed up to church today clean, I just want to be treated like a normal human being. I don't need that extra dimension of status hanging over my head. I literally ask for nothing. This being said, I won't be interested in baptism until I understand the religion better. I get the 10% tithe rule, and don't want to explain to anyone why I have no income to pay it. So no baptism till I have a job. It could be most any job. Only thing I won't do is work at a gas station or Marijuana distribution center- I don't want to give out drugs, alcohol or cigarettes to people. It isn't a Mormon thing, I'm a prohibition party guy, just happens to overlap. I don't want to be an aid to helping someone else ruin their health.

[Moksha]

The Mormon Church can help lend solace to those seeking some spiritual comfort. Of course, the Salvation Army can also help do that and give you a meal. Best wishes.

[MG 2.0]

Update, just got out of church. I showed up late, during the first part of service. I was expecting everyone to be sitting under the bed sheet forts, but everyone was just sitting on couch benches instead. Woman was directing a gospel song, waving a composer wand around. I know people say the guy waving the stick around in the symphony is actually doing something important, coordinating, but she didn't seem to have a effect on anything waving it about, and she was trying real hard. Then everyone broke up into the male and female groups, and the guys talked about what does due diligence mean.

I asked when the bed sheets start, and nobody knew what I was talking about. Why did the Mormon church at Fort Benning Basic Training 20 years ago make me fill out a genealogy pamphlet and then sit in a bed sheet fort? I vaguely recall ther saying Brother and Sister Sheets when I asked what was going on. I was so confused, and even more so now.

It sounds like you've had some interesting experiences that have given you some accurate and not so accurate understanding of the LDS Church. In addition to the council others have offered here is one more:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... heir-lives

The link describes how church services within this outreach program can help bless the lives of those that have hit some 'speed bumps' or obstacles along the way.

I hope you find what you need and are looking for.

Regards,
MG

[sock puppet]

Update, just got out of church. I showed up late, during the first part of service. I was expecting everyone to be sitting under the bed sheet forts, but everyone was just sitting on couch benches instead. Woman was directing a gospel song, waving a composer wand around. I know people say the guy waving the stick around in the symphony is actually doing something important, coordinating, but she didn't seem to have a effect on anything waving it about, and she was trying real hard. Then everyone broke up into the male and female groups, and the guys talked about what does due diligence mean.

I asked when the bed sheets start, and nobody knew what I was talking about. Why did the Mormon church at Fort Benning Basic Training 20 years ago make me fill out a genealogy pamphlet and then sit in a bed sheet fort? I vaguely recall ther saying Brother and Sister Sheets when I asked what was going on. I was so confused, and even more so now.

It sounds like you've had some interesting experiences that have given you some accurate and not so accurate understanding of the LDS Church. In addition to the council others have offered here is one more:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... heir-lives

The link describes how church services within this outreach program can help bless the lives of those that have hit some 'speed bumps' or obstacles along the way.

I hope you find what you need and are looking for.

Regards,
MG

Keep an eye on your wallet, Vegetius. That outreach program is a guise for the out stretched Mormon church hand that will try to pick your pocket.

[MG 2.0]

It sounds like you've had some interesting experiences that have given you some accurate and not so accurate understanding of the LDS Church. In addition to the council others have offered here is one more:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... heir-lives

The link describes how church services within this outreach program can help bless the lives of those that have hit some 'speed bumps' or obstacles along the way.

I hope you find what you need and are looking for.

Regards,
MG

Keep an eye on your wallet, Vegetius. That outreach program is a guise for the out stretched Mormon church hand that will try to pick your pocket.

Always the critic. So when these folks at transitional services are doing what they do to help people get back on their feet your advice is to turn the other direction and RUN.

That's not very good advice in my book. Did you even watch the video?

You are such a pessimist. I hope this recent poster isn't swayed by your deep seated anger towards those that are trying to help.

These folks are possibly able to help out much better than you or I can in instances like this.

I hope this gentleman gets the help he needs as I'm sure you do. Right?

Regards,
MG

[drumdude]

For comparison, my local Catholic Church runs a free food bank for anyone who walks up.

No begging the bishop during an interview. No tithing requirement or activity level to fulfill. No pre approved storehouse shopping list.

Just like Christ would do.

[MG 2.0]

For comparison, my local Catholic Church runs a free food bank for anyone who walks up.

No begging the bishop during an interview. No tithing requirement or activity level to fulfill. No pre approved storehouse shopping list.

Just like Christ would do.

I think Christ would also, besides providing sustainable, look for ways to help transition folks into something productive rather than simply providing some meals.

Not that this doesn't have its place.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

I think that's the idea behind LDS Transitional Services. Looking at the website it seems to have been quite successful.

Kudos to them!

I hope the good brother that dropped in here sees this link and finds it helpful.

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

It sounds like you've had some interesting experiences that have given you some accurate and not so accurate understanding of the LDS Church. In addition to the council others have offered here is one more:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... heir-lives

The link describes how church services within this outreach program can help bless the lives of those that have hit some 'speed bumps' or obstacles along the way.

I hope you find what you need and are looking for.

Regards,
MG

Keep an eye on your wallet, Vegetius. That outreach program is a guise for the out stretched Mormon church hand that will try to pick your pocket.

Exactly. I have read through the self-reliance course they tout. Starting in chapter 1, the emphasis is on paying a 'full tithe' to the lds church. That is literally taught as the first step toward 'self-reliance.' Not planning for food, housing, bills, family or children, not anything, just -- pay the Mormon church. They promise 'rewards' for being 'obedient' in the commandment to pay them, but the promises are false. It was sickening to read the course.

[MG 2.0]

Keep an eye on your wallet, Vegetius. That outreach program is a guise for the out stretched Mormon church hand that will try to pick your pocket.

Exactly. I have read through the self-reliance course they tout. Starting in chapter 1, the emphasis is on paying a 'full tithe' to the LDS church. That is literally taught as the first step toward 'self-reliance.' Not planning for food, housing, bills, family or children, not anything, just -- pay the Mormon church. They promise 'rewards' for being 'obedient' in the commandment to pay them, but the promises are false. It was sickening to read the course.

The self reliance course does encourage putting the Lord first. I know you didn't quite say it that way...but nonetheless.

Transitional Services serves members and non-members alike, if I'm not mistaken.

You've perhaps forgotten, Marcus, you're looking at all this as a non-believing critic.

You, of course, are entitled to your own point of view.

All opinions are welcome!

Regards,
MG

[Vegetius]

I'm not all that interested in a self reliance course. I'm homeless because I had two cancer surgeries and a car wreck and lost everything, not because I can't balance a check book or show up to work high or whatever generic excuse given for homelessness.

Where I was in PA, homelessness was 90% losing a job and then your apartment, and ending up on the street (rest relational issues, mental disease, felons). I know cause I handed out blankets to them. I saw how the homeless camps ballooned during 2024 the whole year.

Here in California, it's more like 25% crazy, 50% economically cut off from the job market, and the rest are illegal aliens and ex felons. The 25% crazy stay in the super hot, no water anywhere cities. Rats and poop everywhere. Then on the railroad tracks heading into the suburbs, you have the families along the tracks, (75% white, black, Asian in that order with all their stuff, and then 25% Hispanics with foreign accents not caring).

Then on the edge of town you get mostly white guys, and old couples. Some illegals, but they are all debilitated and walking around with walkers. You have packs of feral illegal children robbing everyone on the outskirts here (I'm guessing the kids illegals bring in with them and then abandon). They remind me of the wild kid from Nacho Libre.

I stay on the extreme of the extreme outskirts after that where most won't go. It's a few white guys and we hide away fairly well. I think most of us are ex military. There are roaming groups of Mexicans attacking anything that moves with slingshot, they hunt in groups of two usually, sometimes one. I have no idea why they choose to stay in America if they only way they can eat is by hunting birds and possums like this. They are my main concern as they are the only ones who get close to finding my tent, usually 5am in the morning. Why that time? I don't know.

Reason I can't find a job is because it is all online, but when I walk into a McDonalds, I find nothing but short Guatemalans talking to one another in the cook area in Spanish. EVERY McDonalds. But Taco Bell and Burger King had a ethnic mix, and look like they are trying to hire legally. Thing is, it just takes a few chains like this to effectively cut off the legal born population from getting jobs statistically.

I guarantee you all the illegals are not living along the railroad tracks either. Most are housed, driving up rent for homeless trying to transition into housing. Veterans do have access to HUDVASH, but you gotta have a income into order to qualify. So that's why so many vets are on the street. I know a few elderly vets being transitioned into full time veteran homes, working via the VA, but they are still homeless as they wait.

I am a military veteran, I know how to disappear into the woods and come out looking clean like in Shawshank Redemption. I have no desire to be talked down to or meant to feel like other, or worst, made to go to a special church only for the homeless because I got grouped into that category. I just want the normal church experience. This means no baptism till I get a job. The job has to pay me enough to at least feed me, replace my socks and shoes, and allow me to feed the cat that became attached to me. It be nice if it can do a planet fitness membership too. If it pays me more, I am grateful. I'm at the point in my life where just being able to survive would he welcomed. Constant handouts won't cut it, I literally just want a job.

I say this seeing AI and automation on the cusp of wiping out a lot of jobs. Some of you are likely to be sitting along a stretch of railroad tracks someday too. A large chunk of the population. Short of rationalizing the housing sector I can't imagine it being otherwise. You eliminate most jobs and the age old instinct to yell at everyone for being bums or drug addicts is going to be the instinct most with money will still turn to at first. The illegal alien is just the first version of this automation process. It will hit the white collar jobs soon. Very soon. I think about that looking around in the woods whenever I see some scrap remnant from an earlier age of someone residing here. There will be a lot more here in the future. They will be people who had nice jobs and nice cars, who suddenly found due to factors outside of their control, society had no further use for them. The world doesn't seem to need a cancer survivor like me anymore.

That being said, I did get a job interview for two weeks from now. I'm sad it is just one. You don't get a infinite amount of time on foodstamps, just 3 months in a 3 year time period if you are homeless.