Sunday, December 26, 2010

Under the Overpass by Mike Yankowski

Under the Overpass is a must read. After hearing a convicting sermon one Sunday morning in church Mike Yankowski decided to live out his faith. Be the Christian you say you are…this thought rang in his mind so much so that he had to do something about it. After much prayer and counsel of friends, Mike decided to hit the road and live among the homeless. He knew he shouldn’t go it alone so God brought Sam into the picture.

It all started with each man living in a homeless shelter among other homeless men in a rehab program. They lived in separate shelters in Denver. Once they had “learned the ropes” they met up and headed to D.C. From there they went to Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego and then finally home. They spent about a month in each city, meeting very interesting people along the way.

The church could learn a hard lesson from this book. Sometimes we are judgmental even in our outreach. Granted we should not hand every person that we encounter money but we still can help. We can meet a need with a meal or a cup of cold water. We can tell them that God loves them, but what we really need to do is show them. Don’t condemn them for their circumstances ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and be the Christian you say you are.

You won’t be able to put the book down and when you finish it you will want more. Be ready to be convicted and at the same time develop a desire to minister to the homeless.