Mike didn’t smell bad when he came for supper at our house a few months back. But our family knew about the time when he and his traveling partner looked bad, smelled worse and were badly treated.
Badly treated by church people at times, who didn’t see (or smell!) past the wretched clothes, worn faces and dreadlocks. They only thought Mike and Sam were homeless men.
In the spirit of John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me, these two college-age men pretended to be of society's underclass. (As for myself, I turned over my clothes for delousing and then slept on a cot in a Chicago shelter once. Can’t quite imagine months of that life. But God was there.)
Living on America’s streets as homeless men, Mike and Sam panhandled by playing their guitars and singing. In Denver, Washington, D.C., Portland, and San Diego they survived the harsh realities of homelessness.
Their adventure of faith is chronicled in Under The Overpass. (The book website is here .) Not only a great read, it provokes readers to ask how much they really risk in their faith. And does their faith find ways to share God’s love through meeting critical human needs?
Mike has a new traveling partner now, his wife Danae. Together, they are researching the worldwide water crisis.
More than a billion people do not have access to clean water and more than two billion do not have “improved sanitation”, such as sanitary latrines.
While in Ecuador the Yankoskis researched clean water projects that Bruce and our Community Development team showed them. Mike and Danae continued their research on clean water three weeks in remote communities in Uganda. Their travelblog is here .
Here’s their web address for you to sign in if you’d like to be notified when their book on the water crisis is released.
If this new endeavor resembles Mike’s account of meeting talented, genuine, sincere and often troubled people on the streets, you should be warned. You might get uncomfortable.
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