Hey I’m Back

I took an unintentional sabbatical from the blog, but I’m back now. Last week was really crazy busy, because PIN is submitting a grant proposal to Norfolk Foundation. This year has not been a great year financially, even though the amount of people we serve is growing. The need is getting greater and greater. I think with the economy where it is PIN will be more important than ever. So please pray with us that we will get funding from Norfolk Foundation.

I’m out of town in Miami this week to attend the CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) www.ccdamiami08.org. It is an opportunity to learn from different organizations that work with people who are homeless and living in poverty. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night I will be posting to this blog about some of the things I’ve learned. 

Come back Thursday…….

 

Get your tickets for the PIN’s Comedy Night

The tickets for the comedy night are going fast, and it is possible that will sell out all of the tickets this year. So if you are planning on coming you should order your tickets soon. Tickets are only $40 for an individual ticket and $350 for a table of 10 which includes 6 great comedians (Hatton Jordan, Bill Russ, Joey Grant, Jennifer Voegeli, Bob Featherer, and Beatty Barnes), an awesome elegant sit down dinner which includes (Passed Hors d’oeuvres, Seasonal tossed salad, Chicken marsala, and apple crumb pie), and a portion of the money goes to help the homeless. You pay for your ticket online at www.pinministry.org/comedy.html, or you can mail a check made out to PIN Ministry and mail it to 557 S. Birdneck Rd Suite 109 Virginia Beach, VA 23451. You are not going to want to miss the funniest night of the year.

One of the ways that PIN will be successful raising money during our comedy night is with our silent auction. If you would like to donate anything that we could auction that would be great. So what would be great auction items, certificates for free services, themed gift baskets, tickets to sporting events. If you have something to donate please email Dallas Stamper at dallas.stamper@pinministry.org. Or by telephone at (757) 572-5333.

 

Need Your Help at PIN’s B-Ball Tournament

On Saturday October 4th PIN Ministry is having a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, and we could use your help. We can use a couple people that would be willing to come and help prepare hamburgers and hotdogs for the award ceremony after the tournament. If you would be willing to help PIN by making some hamburgers and hotdogs please email Dallas Stamper @ dallas.stamper@pinministry.org. Also if you would like to play in or know someone who would like to play in this tournament they can also email Dallas Stamper.

 

 

Life On The Street (Part 6)

Last post I was talking about loving the homeless with actions and that sounds cool but what does it mean. Here is a story of about how this occurs.

About 4 years ago I went to a friend’s wedding out of town. My family went a day early because my wife loves to travel so much that she can turn anything into a vacation. My friends Church had a Saturday night church service so we went to it. The pastor was nice, he wasn’t the best speaker I had ever heard, but there was something about him that I felt drawn to him. So after the service I talked to him for a little bit to see if we had ever met. No we had never met. So the wedding was the next day and it went well, but I needed to find out more about the pastor. So I talked to him for a while and nothing, he was just a regular pastor. Well my wife said it’s time to go and I said OK but I want to get some more deserts before we go. While I was getting desert for the road I heard a voice behind me and it was the pastor from my friend’s church (You know the guy I had been following). He asked me what ministry was I involved in at my Church. I said I’m involved with a homeless ministry. Then he said I was homeless before, and this is where things got interesting. I had a church intern that stayed with my family for a summer one time who would say he was homeless, because he had to stay with people at the churches he worked at. So I looked at him and laughed and said sure you were homeless “what when you were an intern”. He said no 10 years ago I was a crack addict and homeless in New York. OK now he has my complete attention!! I need to know how someone goes from being homeless and addicted to crack to being a pastor of a church in 10 years. So I asked how did you go from homeless to pastor in 10 years. He said well a pastor bought me lunch. Now I got real skeptical, so you expect me to believe a pastor bought you one lunch and it changed your life. So I said, “This pastor bought you one lunch and it changed your life.” He said not exactly and continued to explain. The pastor would buy him lunch and would eat with him and talk about life and stuff. This pastor would continue to come out and buy him lunch and continue to spend time with him. He would fall down and the pastor would continue to pick him up. This man found Jesus because that pastor never gave up on him.

So that is the secret….. No matter what happens you have to see people through God’s eye. We have to treat every person like they are important and special, because that is how God sees them. So when I see a homeless person I see a future: teacher, construction worker, engineer, nurse, painter, or pastor.

 

Hoops For The Homeless

Do you play basketball? Ready to get off the couch and get in the game? Want to find a way to combine your ballin skills and help the homeless at the same time, then you need to mark October 4th on your calendar. On Saturday October 4th we will be having a 3 on 3 hoop it up tournament to benefit PIN at Virginia Beach Community Chapel. If you are interested or know someone who is interest they can contact Jay Jump at jump75@gmail.com or (757) 318-1565. Jay Jump is in charge of the tournament in case you have any questions.

 

Thank You Patti !!!!!

I want to use this post to tell you about someone who used their passions to raise money for PIN. Patti Watkins, who is a nurse anesthetist and a runner, put her two passions together and used them to raise money for the homeless. Patti is a nurse who volunteers as a nurse at PIN on Sunday. The homeless are in desperate need of medical care and nurses like Patti are the only medical care that some of these homeless people have access to. Patti is also a runner. When I say that she is a runner that is an understatement, Patti has not only a passion for running but she also has a passion to get new people involved in running. Patti has actually put her passion for nursing together with her passion for running to raise money for the homeless.

Two years ago Patti came up with the idea of putting together a group of nurses that would run the rock and roll half marathon, and the proceeds would go to the homeless. That first year was amazing, and allot of money was raised and it was really fun and cool. This year was the third year and it was amazing. PIN was an official charity of the rock and roll half marathon this year, and Patti did all the work to make it happen. Just so you know Patti spends a good portion of the year working on putting together support for the half marathon. She talks to race directors, politicians, nurses, runners, and potential donors, about the importance of helping the homeless. If you have ever met Patti you know that she is a passionate person that has enough energy for several people.

So PIN would like to thank Patti for using her passions to raise money for the homeless…….

I want to close with a couple of questions….. What are your passions? and How can they be used to help the homeless?

 

My 42nd Birthday was really cool!!!!!

In 4 hours I’m going to my fantasy football draft, so I should be studying my draft picks and getting ready, but I thought I would put my blog entry together instead. Yes I’m a geek it’s OK I think it’s cool to be a geek now… At least that’s what this one guy told me. Yesterday August 31, 2008 was my 42nd birthday, yes I’m Legal * 2. Yesterday was the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, and we had a group of nurses running to raise money for PIN. So instead of running I was in charge of the last water stop.  If you ran we were that cool water stop on 14th ST between Pacific and Atlantic. As someone who has run the half marathon many times I can tell you being in charge of a water stop is way harder. So who was manning that water stop, PIN volunteers, nurses, and homeless people? Yes that is correct homeless people were serving water to runners on the same streets that they get tickets for sleeping on. There was a moment while working the water stop that I looked over and saw a homeless person working arm and arm with a doctor. In India they have a caste system where people are separated by their social classes. In the US we have an unofficial caste system were people are often separated into different groups. If we can be honest for a minute you know what I’m talking about. Rich people in this neighborhood, middle class people in this neighborhood, and poor people in this neighborhood, and none of the neighborhoods want homeless people in them. I’m so proud to be part of an organization that gives doctors an opportunity to work and associate with homeless people.

So I got up at 3:30AM to go to the water stop and we finished at noon. Came home took a shower and started getting ready for PIN’s Sunday services. I actually got to sit down for 5 minutes then I was out the door. I was so tired when I got to PIN, but it didn’t take long for God to give me a second wind. We have a biblical service for the homeless called PINnacle, and during that service we were singing a song when I was overcome with a sense of how Awesome God is. I have to be honest, during August I was dreading my birthday I was thinking that it was going to suck. I was going to get up at 3:30AM and work non-stop all day on my birthday. As I was worshipping with homeless people I was given this feeling of how really great God is. Then we had the message which was provided by Richie Merritt. Richie is planting a church in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania; the church will be called Legacy Christian Church. Check it out at http://www.lehighvalleyproject.blogspot.com/. Richie is working on his preaching skills by preaching to the homeless. HOW COOL IS THAT. As I was sitting there listening to him I was struck by how good of a preacher he is becoming. I can’t wait until Richie is unleashed on Lehigh Valley. I got home at 8PM sat in my chair and realized that this was probable one of my best birthdays ever…..

 

What Is Your Favorite????

Questions for the Homeless, that was a great series of post thanks for all the great input. Thought I would see who is reading this blog, and have a little fun. So if you are reading this blog post your top 5 favorite books, 5 favorite movies, and 5 favorite songs.  

Dallas’ 5 Favorite Books

1) The Life You Always Wanted – John Ortberg

2) What’s So Amazing About Grace – Philip Yancey

3) The Gutter – Craig Gross

4) Trolls and Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See- Jimmy Dorrell

5) Victory over the Darkness – Neil Anderson

 

Dallas’ 5 Favorite Movies

1) Caddyshack

2) The Godfather

3) It’s a Wonderful Life

4) Rocky

5) Raising Arizona

 

Dallas’ 5 Favorite Songs

1) My Own Prison – Creed

2) Waffle – Sevendust

3) Numb – Linkin Park

4) I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2

5) Fade – Staind

 

PIN Needs You to Write the Next Blog Series

Hey, have you ever had a question you wanted to ask a homeless person, or about homeless people. Like should I give a homeless person money when they are standing on the side of the road? I’m going to use the next 2 to 4 weeks to address those questions. I will also ask Kerry a guy who is currently homeless to comment on each of my post so you get a perspective from a homeless person.

So here is how we will do it. Post your question to this blog entry and I will turn each question into an individual post. I will answer each question to the best of my ability. Since I have never been homeless I will ask Kerry to respond to each post. The title of this series will be “Questions for the Homeless”.

So don’t just sit there type a question, and don’t say you don’t have a question I know you do!!!!!

 

It’s Against The Law To Be Homeless (Part 4) “Are You Uncomfortable Yet”

So I’m (Dallas Stamper) at the Veterans Memorial yesterday giving some homeless people breakfast, when I was heading out a lady pulled up in a car and asked what Church I’m with. I then explained that I run a non-profit organization name PIN Ministry, and then I held my hand out and said hi I’m Dallas. Then she said “Oh your Dallas.” I get that reaction allot. Not sure how to take that reaction, so I just pretend they’re happy to meet me. She told me she works at the Virginia Beach Convention Center and she would like for me to stop serving breakfast at the Veterans Memorial. She then asked can I do it anywhere else, and I explained that legally this was one of the few places I could serve breakfast to the homeless without breaking a law. She then said that the problem was that I was bringing homeless people to the memorial and when people visit the memorial the homeless people make them uncomfortable. Seeing homeless people make them uncomfortable, good I’m glad they’re uncomfortable. Before you get too upset let me explain why I said that.

When people are suffering, and hungry, and have no place to live should we be comfortable? I think when people are suffering, and hungry, and have no place to live we should be very uncomfortable. I think if PIN is causing people to be uncomfortable then we’re making progress. Obviously there are not enough uncomfortable people yet. If we make enough people uncomfortable about people not having a place to live then maybe we can get the support we need to build the emergency shelter that Virginia Beach needs badly.

So here is the question of the day, are you uncomfortable about people being homeless in Virginia Beach?