Hidden in Plain Sight is part two of a three part series on the plight of the homeless written by Chad Houck of http://share5.org specifically for the GivMusic.com blog.

As we approach our Christmas and New Year’s festivities, may we be mindful and purposeful toward those who find themselves without a home this Christmas season, and beyond.  Don’t know where to begin?  Check out the 12 Days of Christmas Homeless Challenge and get started!

As Christmas day draws ever nearer, one of my biggest challenges of living in the small space of a 34’ ever-moving RV is figuring out where to hide Christmas gifts from the prying eyes of my two young children.  It seems that regardless of my craftiest attempts at camouflage, their attentive eyes pick up even the slightest hint that something is out of place. 

My wife is the same way.  While I can’t even find my keys when they are right in front of me, she can spot a deer with a death wish at twilight on the side of the freeway from two hundred yards or more.  She is the ultimate road-trip spotter. (That’s why she gets the co-pilot seat!)  She picks up on everything.  One day in 2007, she picked up on something that would literally change our very lives.

We had just left church on a sunny Sunday afternoon in March in Boise, ID. I needed a few things for my honey-do chores back home, and I knew I would find what I needed at either Wal-Mart or Lowes.  Since the two are side by side, I figured it would be a quick trip.  Pulling into the Wal-Mart parking lot, I took my normal shortcut through the back corner towards Lowes.  “Oh my gosh” Amy gasped, in a tone that typically meant I was about to ram headfirst into something.  I swerved, not knowing what I was trying to avoid, and came to a stop. 

 “What?!?  What is it?”

“Over there – look at that car”

“What about it?”

“There is someone inside it”

“All I see is bags in the windshield”

“I mean there is someone living inside it,” she said.

Actual photo of the 4 cars at Walmart. John's van is on the left.

Suddenly, it was as if a pair of glasses were placed over my eyes and what before had merely been part of the background stepped into the foreground and came into clear focus.  Not only was there a person in that car, but there were 6 or 7 other cars, vans, and trucks in that corner, each with a person or family in them.  We had just come face to face with the mobile homeless.  They were there all along, but for whatever reason, we had failed to take notice.

 In the days that followed I could not shake the fact that an small population of people in need were literally living in a parking lot less than 2 miles from the church I had been attending for over 3 years.  The following Sunday we headed back to Walmart.  This time, I wanted to know more.

 As I pulled up, Amy asked me what I planned to do.  “I don’t know.  Give me 5 minutes”, I responded.  I parked our minivan and walked toward the man who climbed back into his van as we approached.  I wanted to know his story.  He had been a cook.  He had been a construction worker.  He was disabled in an accident but denied disability, and when he couldn’t pay for his mortgage and his pain meds, he lost his home.  Now he had to do without both.  He was a father and a grandfather, yet his own daughter would not allow him to see his granddaughter because she was ashamed of the fact that he had lost his home.  She didn’t know how to explain to her four year old that he lived in a van, so instead, she forbade him to come around.  Without family, without income, and without a home, he had come here.  His name was John.

In the weeks that followed, my wife and I got to know John better, and we came to know several of the others that lived there as well.  When Easter came around, we made up an invitation and hosted a dinner for them at our church.  When they didn’t show up and we realized our error (expecting them to leave their world and enter ours) we packed up the dinner and took it to them.  Some were reluctant to come out, and yet others were more than happy to sit and eat pot roast, turkey, and deserts with us from the back of our minivan on paper plates.

John moved on that summer.  One day I stopped at the parking lot and he was simply gone.  I don’t know where he went, but I know that his story and his struggle have deeply impacted our lives.  He was a gift to us, opened slowly as we took the time to learn the value that he held in his damaged and discarded state.  The journey he helped us begin has now led us literally 589 miles short of the distance it would take to circumnavigate the earth at the equator (24,890 miles if you were wondering.)  It has taken us to over 20 US states and to Mexico four times.  Who would have ever imagined that a homeless man would help to launch a ministry, and maybe even a movement, simply by being hidden in plain sight.

Read Part I – No Room at the Inn 

Up Next: Part III – It’s A Miserable Life 

Chad Houck and his wife Amy are the founders of World Wins International and Share5.org.  In October 2008, they launched the Share5 Tour, a grassroots experiment to impact people and communities by sharing 5 Christ-like character traits with others through specific and intentional acts of sharing.  They have now, as a full time road-tripping family, traveled just shy of 22,000 miles by RV and another 3,000 by air as they seek to “share well with others.”  You can read more about their journey and their stories at http://share5.org