Soup N Soulz ministry at The Shed seeks to help Sallisaw’s homeless

As is characteristic of many small towns — and what some view as an unwanted consequence — everyone seems to know everyone else, and one’s business may not always be private.

But what if someone new and unfamiliar were to be seen around town? What would you do?

What if you encountered a man who is unemployed with no apparent means of support, relying on the generosity of others for food, water, shelter and comfort?

Would you look upon him with scorn?

What if he has no known address, wandering from place to place, finding rest where he can, being a citizen of the world?

Would you complain to your neighbors about him?

What if he obviously hasn’t shaved or cut his hair, and may not have bathed recently?

Would you pass judgment on him?

What if that same man was modestly dressed in worn clothing that he wears day after day?

Would you be able to put yourself in his shoes, even if they’re tattered?

What if he suddenly beseeches the heavens, speaking aloud while he’s alone?

Would you contact mental health authorities to have him committed?

What if he hangs out with several other men who look and act like he does?

Would you be able to find a silver lining?

What if he attracts the attention of others, attempting to persuade them to follow his example?

Would you call the police to intervene?

What if that man were Jesus?

“What would Jesus do?” asks Harold Powell, director for the past five years for the non-profit, faith-based Soup N Soulz ministry at The Shed in downtown Sallisaw.

“That’s where we’re at,” he says, explaining the ministry’s mission and encouraging critics to see the world through the eyes of the less fortunate. “What would you do?

“If you were in such a situation, what would you want to see?

“The key thing is, we’ve got a group of individuals that just needs a little bit of help,” Powell says, finding empathy for those he seeks to help.

Then he invokes Jesus’ charge to his disciples in Matthew 28.

“One of the things when Jesus was alive, it’s the Great Commission that we look at. He said, ‘Go, make disciples …’,” Powell reminds detractors. “How do you make a disciple? You walk with them day by day.

“Basically, what we’re doing is we’re just walking through life with individuals who have trouble,” Powell says. “One of the greatest things we can do is to give them hope.”

Powell says the Soup N Soulz ministry provides both physical and spiritual sustenance.

“I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly,” Powell says, quoting scripture. “Many times, if they were capable of fixing [their situation], they would have. They have reached out to people, they wanted to be helped. After all, what is a friend? That’s what we try to do. Let’s help you a little bit.

“Some of them are just afraid. Just walk with them. What does a child ask you to do when he goes into a strange place? He just reaches up [to you], ‘Walk with me’,” Powell says, illustrating his point. “If I’m afraid or if I’m fearful — I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing, what do I want? I just want help. I don’t want you to solve it for me. Just let me know I’m not by myself. That’s basically what we try to do is walk with them; they need some help.

“Our plan and desire is to see them get help, to help them get jobs, help them do some things that need to be done. We’re not experts on that, we just know that some people need help. We want to help them get past where they’re at,” Powell says.

But it seems Powell and his volunteers are virtually alone in their pursuits to help the homeless. As Powell points out, many Sallisaw residents may be in favor of the homeless receiving help, “but nobody wants to do it — ‘I’ve got my job, I’ve got my wife, I’ve got my kids …’,” he says, citing examples of common excuses.

Is the need real?

According to Powell, he’s been told there are about 60 homeless people in the region, but he can’t independently verify that, partly because the population is a moving target.

“They’ll be in an encampment for a little while until there’s a little disruption, and then they’ll find another place. They move around,” he says. “The homeless, you don’t know where they’re at. They are located in a lot of different places out of sight.”

But he believes the number of homeless may increase.

“I’ve got some thoughts of what’s going to happen when the VA opens,” Powell forecasts. “In visiting with some folks who have come from other areas where there’s a VA, they say, ‘Anything that has to do with VA has a tendency to kind of bring some folks in.’ No one can really predict what’s going to happen. I believe we’re going to have a situation where it will be a challenge as they come.”

Powell recognizes that change may not only be slow, but in some cases, it may be futile.

“There are some who don’t wanna move forward. They come in and we give them a safe place to come and give them something to eat. Nothing real dynamic, just day to day looking out for folks,” he says. “We have a nice little array of people that have been able to get out of that and have jobs, some of them rent homes. Others have stayed for a little bit, earned a bit of money, and then they’re ‘trying to make their way home’.”

Powell acknowledges that moving forward can be difficult.

“But here’s the key. It’s just easier to fall back into a homeless life. That’s what a lot of them like about that situation is the fact that they’re not held accountable. If they want to leave, they can leave. And that’s the whole thing with many things in their lives. They have no desire to go beyond where they’re at. They can’t get past where they’re at.”

Powell would like to see a homeless shelter in Sequoyah County — “It’d be great if we had a facility here” — but efforts for such a solution have been met with expected resistance.

“We’ve made a run at a couple of situations (shelters) here in town over the last 15 years, but everyone has the same idea about it. Everyone says, ‘I think that’s a great idea, but where you gonna put it? Just don’t put it next to me, just don’t put it close by to me. Don’t put it where it’s gonna inconvenience me or potentially threaten me. Go ahead and stay over there, and that’ll be OK.’ They wanna love them at a distance,” Powell explains.

But Soups N Soulz and The Shed rely on volunteers, fundraisers and financial assistance from those seeking to help the homeless. Part of that assistance is use of the building at Cherokee Avenue and Elm Street.

“We’re able to use the facility as long as we keep it up,” Powell says. “We buy our own food, pay the utilities and do the things that need to be done. We just open ourselves up to whoever comes and volunteers, fix the meals on Friday nights” for the Soups N Soulz meetings.

“We’ve been [dealing with] the homeless situation about a year and a half now. We had the time and the facility to try to help,” he says. “But sometimes we need a little help. The biggest thing that we really need at The Shed is [for people to] just spend time. Somebody says, ‘So what do you need?’ I think about money, but what we need more than anything else is just have you come and just be a part. That goes back to just being a friend.”

Powell and his volunteers offer assistance with weekly opportunities for the homeless to take a shower, trips to the laundry for washing clothes, lunch served Monday through Friday, the Soups N Soulz meetings on Friday nights and a Soul Searchers ministry on Sunday mornings.

And The Shed offers help during weather extremes.

“They don’t need as much help when it’s not devastating outside,” Powell points out. “Of course it’s hot, but they can get in the shade. It’s not life threatening — it could be, I guess. But when you’re out in the cold like it was those 10 days in January when it got down to zero, we were open 24/7 for 10 days.”

The warming tent set up in the Sallisaw Farmers Market parking lot across from The Shed was only temporary to keep the homeless out of the elements, and Powell soon found it “was not sustainable, because we didn’t have showers and places they could be.”

In addition to providing the warming tent when it was “really, really cold,” The Shed also served breakfast in addition to lunch.

Once the weather moderated, The Shed reverted to its daily lunch-only schedule, but Powell says the organization continues to offer help “to those who want to get past where they’re at.”

“We have our finger on the pulse of the small group of individuals who are here. They come by and we try to help them. We do the best we can,” Powell says. “But we really need a shelter of some kind. That’s probably the biggest demand right now.”

As well as everyone individually answering the question, what would Jesus do?