Homeless survey for San Bernardino County

Hi! i just wanted to share with you some data that is hot off the presses. It is a study done by San Bernardino county which is the country we live in and where we minister to the homeless. Although surveys like these are usually bureaucratic in nature, and are really about numbers and money instead of people, it still provides some important information and really makes the actual situations hit home in a broader sense. The crazy thing is that when you put these statistics into practice, and touch and see theses precious people it is really quite life changing! if you are interested please follow the link and see for yourself!

http://www.sbcounty.gov/csd/homelessness_in_san_bernardino_county.htm

C.J.

Mobile Bike Shop???

Hey everyone... you may be asking yourself "What the heck is a Mobile Bike Shop?" Well our little version of a "Mobile Bike Shop," pretty much consists of a rolling tool box, some random bike tools and a few miscellaneous parts. But the excitement is not in the actual physical expression of having a bike shop, cus who cares about that, its pretty easy to fix bikes. The excitment is centered around the fact that we will be able to use this little idea to impact the lives of many homeless people who depend on bicycles to transport themselvs around the city. Bicycles to the homeless in Victorville are very important! Obviously they do not have the money or the tools to repair their bikes! They certainly cannot afford to buy their own bikes. This ministry is two-fold: we want to give used bikes to those who are in need and to provide a free repair service! We are really excited about getting this under way and should have all our ducks in a row to begin bringing bikes and tools down to Forrest park during our already established ministry times on Thursdays and Saturdays! If you are interested in participating in this ministry at all: from donating money for parts, donating parts(anything really), donating bicycles(we are interested in all bicycles, even if they are really bad looking we can salvage parts or other things to use for repair) and most importantly yourself! Please consider coming down and helping out! Bicycles are revolutionary!!!
Pictures will come soon!!
c.j.

Wrecked for the Ordinary

I would like to take a couple seconds and thank an online publication called "Wrecked for the Ordinary." They recently asked me to write an article kinda showing what we do in Old Town with our Homeless friends. The folks at Wrecked are really trying to create an arena where people and communities who are trying to make a difference no matter how big or small, can express themselves and their vision. Please go check out their site and read all the articles and submissions that you can! There is some pretty inspirational and intense stuff! The article i wrote is featured in the Community section of the webpage and is displayed in two parts... please read it if you like! They also included some of the photographs in the second part, that Tisha took(also featured on this very blog)! They are amazing photographs and really tell the story of Old Town on their own!!!

http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com

One Love
c.j.

Parea Community Members at the traintracks

On a Saturday in May, the same Saturday as the photographs below, which Saturday I cannot recall, some of the members of Parea Community ventured to the traintracks behind Forrest Park and took a stroll down to the bridge. Here are a few photographs documenting our adventure!

Photographs By Tisha Lynne Galvan

Saturday Morning Continued...

After a long delay... (Tisha gets her film developed in San Diego) Here is the rest of the photographs from that same Saturday Morning in May 2007. These photograph feature community members as well as extended family members from Forrest Park.
*All Photographs are by
Tisha Lynne Galvan

The Family drinkin coffee and hangin out on a saturday mornin

These are some photographs taken by Tisha Lynne Galvan a few Saturday mornings ago. Featured in these photographs are some of our beloved "extended family members" in the Forrest Park in Old Town Victorville.

Photos of some of the members of our community

Hey! these are some photo's that we took after we served coffee down at the park one saturday morning. The bittersweet thing about Old Town Victorville is that there is a beautiful set of train tracks that disects the neighborhood, the downside is that it disects the neighborhood... and because it is one of the busiest lines in Southern California, there is constant train traffic, with loud horns that blow throughout the night! but we decided to take some photos of us messin around on the ol tracks! Some of the community is not pictured here regretfully...