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By Carrie Madren
UMConnection Correspondent

It was a clear winter Friday, in the mid-40s, as seven men perched on folding chairs and shifted on tired feet behind a dumpster and metal storage shed. The loose group that gathers every day in Essex, just east of Baltimore, had been expecting the visitors that drove up in a small caravan of vehicles.

Fridays are a standing appointment for Back River UMC volunteers to bring brown bag lunches to the small homeless camp. On the menu that day was a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread, a packaged cookie and a bottle of water. But the Bags of Hope ministry delivers far more than food - they bring friendship and God's love into lives hungry for hope.

"They've actually become like friends and family rather than those homeless strangers up on the corner," said Jim Wills, whose passion helped start the group and who now coordinates the ministry each week.

Bags of Hope geared up last August after Wills heard the call "we need to do something for the least of these people," through mediation and Bible study. The idea for Bags of Hope germinated in his mind, and he told Back River's pastor, Rev. David Deans.

"They'd been camping out up the street, and we pass them when we come to church," Wills said.

Doris Lipscomb, too, had been noticing the homeless camp that seemed to linger near her regular driving route. "All summer long, I'd seen them and wanted to stop and feed them, give them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," said Lipscomb.

Deans connected her with Wills, and other volunteers stepped up to get the ministry going. During those first visits, Lipscomb recalled, they would drive up and ask if it was alright to enter into the camp area to drop off lunches. As weeks went by, volunteers began to strike up conversation with the men more easily.

Now, twice a week, some four or five volunteers, often including Deans, drive out to visit the homeless camp, lingering for 15 or 20 minutes as they catch up with the men, praying aloud or hearing concerns. Sometimes volunteers and homeless men just shoot the breeze, says Wills.

"There's a lot of [homeless] people out here, more than people realize," Lipscomb says. "I love each and every one of them - they're like family."     

Each Monday and Friday, volunteers assemble sandwiches and gather water bottles and a snack for some 15 lunches, since they never know exactly how many men will be there. Sometimes, a volunteer makes hot soup. When grocery store sales bring prices down, there's ham and cheese; most days, volunteers pack peanut butter and jelly.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the men get hot lunches inside another church near the camp. Come the weekend, they're on their own.

Living outside, homeless men and women face numerous challenges. Seasons bring extreme temperatures, storms and more. There's other dangers, too: an intruder slashed the tent of one homeless man, rendering it unusable. Worst of all, perhaps, is the perception that homeless persons are eyesores, problems that must be removed. It's a hard life, but the Bags of Hope ministry has helped.

"You look forward to them coming," said Randy, who doesn't give his last name but is a regular at the camp. "You start to develop friendships with people [the volunteers]," he continues, "we're all normal people, some of us are just down on our luck." Randy doesn't sleep at the makeshift camp, as do a few of the others - he sets up a tent in nearby woods - but he finds family bonds among the homeless group.

"They look out for each other," Wills says. "And we try to check in with them, see how they're doing and find out if they need anything."

One day last fall, the friends arrived to find one of the men that they knew lying on the ground, unresponsive. The pastor managed to rouse the man - who had had a seizure triggered by cold temperatures and alcohol - enough to walk to the truck. The group called 911 and warmed him up as the ambulance arrived. The man recovered, but Wills believes "we were meant to be there that day," to help. In every visit, he continues, "it's through God's grace that we're there."

At the church, Bags of Hope keeps a pantry of donated food - cases of bottled water, diced peaches, mayo, oatmeal crème sandwich cookies, diced fruit snacks and more. Donated money pays for perishables such as bread and cheese. The ministry depends on donations to keep the food staples coming. One Friday in early February, the volunteers brought a donated tent with an awning for a man who normally slept under a metal storage shed; sometimes donations of clothes and shoes accompany lunches.

"I really enjoy it - it just lifts me up," says Linda Laporte, who felt God's call to respond to a church advertisement calling for Bags for Hope volunteers, who've done more than the bag lunch visits: in January, the church cooked a Thanksgiving meal for about a dozen guests, including the regulars from the homeless camp. Church cooks filled the fellowship hall with aromas of turkey, stuffing, dressing, rolls, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies and more.

Earlier, before Christmas Eve, the volunteers surprised their homeless friends with bags filled with long underwear, gloves, hats, toiletries and candles. "Little things to try to make life more comfortable, not that you can be that comfortable living out on the street," Wills said. "It's the best we can do to try to meet their needs."
For more information about Bags of Hope, contact Jim Wills: 443-823-9420 or