God and the Homeless

By Mike Santa Rita
Posted: January 27, 2010

Rev. Jeremy Tuinstra, 35, is not afraid to go to the dark places.

His mission is to the homeless and he regularly drives to the tent communities around Laurel, picking up the homeless and taking them back to his small Presbyterian church near Laurel for ministry, food and, most importantly, friendship. He spends time with the homeless outdoors, in hospital rooms and court rooms, he said.

He makes it a point to take between 20 and 30 of the homeless into his small church of 70 members on Sundays, and he keeps them afterward to feed them — and to talk with them.

“Some come stoned, some come drunk, some come in spurts because they’ve been locked up,” he said in a recent interview.

Victims of the economy, drug and alcohol addiction and mental illness, Tuinstra tries to reach them all at his small Covenant Presbyterian Church. I was impressed by Tuinstra because he said he did not believe in “throwing canned goods at them.”

Instead, he said he focuses on “redemptive relationships,” — friendships extended to the most vulnerable in our society, restoring their sense of dignity and self-worth. What people need at their worst is someone to talk to, to relate to, to let them know they’re not alone, Tuinstra told me.

“At least they’ve got a friend they can talk to in the misery,” he said. “What we need are strong redemptive relationships when we’re at our weakest … to get to the bottom of any problem that people are struggling with we’ve got to know them.”

Before you can help someone, he said, it’s important to find out “what’s going on behind the things that we are observing.” The only way to do this is to build a relationship and learn about the traumas that have shaped them, he said. This, to me, is part of Christianity’s perennial appeal: its ability to meet people where they are. And Tuinstra is an embodiment of it.

Tuinstra has a special affinity for the homeless because seven years ago he lost a church job in the state of Washington and found himself and his wife and two children living on friends’ couches throughout Washington before moving back home to Michigan, where his father also had lost his job. The pain is evident in Tuinstra’s voice when he talks about the experience. Tuinstra knows what it is like not to have a home, so he speaks from experience.

In these times, more people like Tuinstra are needed as economic upheaval leaves thousands without jobs, or futures, or friends. In the midst of economic devastation, “I talk about an economy of hope,” Tuinstra said.

Perhaps Tuinstra’s minstry resonated with me because in some sense we are all homeless. Perhaps it is the dynamic, constantly changing nature of capitalism to lurch from crisis to crisis, creating upheaval and the constant mobility in the work force. I was reminded of this in watching the latest George Clooney movie, “Up In the Air,” about a corporate man who spends most of his time in planes flying around the country laying people off. At one point in midflight a pilot asks him where he’s from. “I’m from here,” Clooney says, seated in a plane in midair. That is the nature of the modern world and its mobility; people are constantly moving from place to place and home is increasingly hard to come back to. Fewer have extended roots in a community anymore.

The German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, realized that man is essentially alienated from the world he lives in, he finds himself thrown into the world with no solid anchor or values to cling to, and experiences profound anxiety as a result.

So the work of men like Tuinstra is not just for the physically homeless, but for those who might find themselves spiritually homeless, too. He seems intent to help as many as he can.

One example is Weldon Lincoln, who lives in a trailer on Tuinstra’s church property, after living in a tent. Lincoln has a job now and credits Tuinstra with getting him back on his feet. “He may not be able to give you a big bag of money, but he’ll give you a strong relationship, someone to talk to,” Lincoln said, adding, “Strong relationship with friends and family, and God as well, gets you through some of the worst times.”

Perhaps best of all, Tuinstra has found his own place to call home. “That’s exciting,” he said, “to spread redemption in these broken places.”

Comment on this entry • No responses