Laura Bond, Reporter
12-27-2009
When Fran Brown was told by a friend Larry Emory had been busy working with “the people under the bridge,” it grabbed her attention.The people Brown’s friend was talking about were the homeless individuals and families who hang out around the homeless shelters in Monroe. Intrigued, Brown contacted Longstraw Baptist Church pastor Emory, who leads a group to feed the homeless on the fifth Saturday of the month.
“I said to him, ‘Is this a Baptist secret,’” recalled Brown, who is a member of South Parkway Church in Ruston. “Larry said, ‘No, anyone can join.’ When he mentioned homeless children, well that was the final hook for me.”
Since that time, Brown has been out to Monroe twice to feed the homeless and bring them care packages with toothpaste, soap and other supplies. She has seen a man in a wheelchair and a woman who looked nine months pregnant show up to be fed.
“It was all races — all kinds,” said Brown, who has lived in Ruston for 74 years. “It breaks your heart, and you’re grateful for clean fresh, water not just to drink, but to bathe in.”
Choudrant resident Judy Walters has been going with the group to the shelter area for more than two years and has seen and heard things that have lingered with her.
“I kind of get drawn to the kids,” she said. “We had one little boy who was about four or five months old and had three holes in his heart. They didn’t know what was going to happen — he was supposed to go to the charity hospital in New Orleans. We don’t know what happened to them, but we prayed for them for a long time.”
Each time she goes, Walters said she sees anywhere between five and 10 small children out on the streets.
On occasions, she has witnessed mutigenerational families with the grandparents, parents and children all homeless. At times, she has even spotted a local face.
“I have actually met some that lived in Ruston, but lost their jobs and then migrated over there,” she said. “I always try to pray with them and encourage them, and I feel like I’ve attempted to minister to someone who has more needs than I have.”
Emory actually came up with the idea of feeding the homeless in Monroe on weekends about five years ago when he served as president of the Northeast Louisiana Homeless Coalition board of directors. Emory said he realized that although shelter residents were being fed during the week, there was no source of food for them on the weekends. Multiple churches in the region have joined the effort to feed the homeless on weekends since that time. Each weekend, Emory said a different church group makes the trip to a section of Desiard Street along the Ouachita River in Monroe, where many homeless people congregate because of two shelters nearby.
Emory said the homeless people slip into the abandoned buildings or vehicles to find protection from the wind and rain.
“There’s one we know of that their home is a pickup cover,” Emory said. “A lot of churches talk about the poverty, dire situations and hopelessness in third world countries, but we’ve got the same thing around us.”
During his visits, about 75-100 men, women and children show up to eat, accept items and share their heavy hearts with group members. Emory points out reasons for being homeless are as varied as the individuals themselves.
“Some are there because of drugs and alcohol,” he said. “Some are mentally ill or victims of domestic violence who were fleeing for their life and have nowhere to go. Others have financial problems.”
Every time a fifth Saturday rolls around, many local residents make a difference — if only for a day — in the lives of the homeless.
Brown is already collecting scarves to take to the homeless for the group’s next trip.
“This forces you to open your eyes that this is a reality in our doorstep that I think we should be responsible for,” Brown said. “There are people losing their homes who don’t have family to take them in. Some people may be just three paychecks away from this same situation. That could be me or my grandchildren.”
According to the homeless coalition, only 2.7 percent of homeless people live that way by choice.
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To donate or help
Individuals, groups or businesses that would like to feed the homeless or donate food, clothing or personal items for the effort can call Longstraw Baptist Church pastor Larry Emory at 768-4298.
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