The Van is often the most visible part of The One, Inc., the nonprofit organization Reddin founded in 2011 to help a cause close to his heart. After struggling with his own drug addiction during his teens, Reddin got clean and found work at homeless shelters and rehab centers. “Once I found God, I started trying to help folks I could relate to,” he says. “I saw there were a lot of people living unsheltered with a lot of needs unmet…until someone went out there and helped them.” His charity is named for the Christ parable in which a shepherd leaves his 99 sheep to find the lone missing one, the one lost soul.
Reddin was moved by the sight of homeless people turned away from full shelters. So he posed a simple proposal on Facebook: If someone would give him $1,000, he’d buy a van and drive it around Little Rock to bring the homeless supplies they desperately needed. He did better than that. In less than a week, a man whom he’d never met donated a 2005 Ford from his used-car lot.
From that initial interaction, Reddin has built a philanthropic machine, combining old-time grit with modern-day social media. A 15,000-square-foot warehouse in North Little Rock—an auction house in another life—serves as The One’s headquarters. There, Reddin and his colleagues store all the donated items, including blankets, sunscreen, clean clothes and canned food, much of which they solicit using Twitter and Facebook. The original van has more than 1,000 followers on Twitter (@itsthevan) and more than 3,500 Facebook likes. “I built most of what we’re able to do through social media,” Reddin says. “It’s how we’re able to tell people what we need when.”There are many things about this story that move me. One is the new wine in new skins (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22) example of Aaron Reddin. His newfound faith has transformed his life and very being into the hands, mouth, and heart of Christ for people neglected or even abused at the margins of our society.
Reddin has made a difference by simply rolling up his sleeves and diving in. All too often we are tempted to question what we can do as simply one person, especially if our resources are limited. It lends itself to mental paralysis. The needs are too great. The obstacles are too many. I cannot do it alone. It is as if we really do not believe that all things are possible with God.
Reddin proves the old adage that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. He cast about for van to deliver items desperately needed by the homeless. Before long, he had a van, enough donated items to fill a warehouse, and eventually the warehouse to put it all in. He used social media to connect with people in need and those with things to give.
His example has inspired others to follow his example.
The Van’s work—and Reddin’s uncompromising ethics—have made him something of a folk hero in Little Rock, a burly saint clad in ripped blue jeans. The local Sync Magazine has dubbed Reddin the “homeless heretic.” And his message is spreading. In addition to the original Van, Arkansas now boasts “The Mission Machine” in Searcy and “The Russ Bus” in Russellville— thanks to volunteers spurred by Reddin’s mission. Terry Smith, who drives the “VanLanta” in Atlanta, got word of The One last year and thought the same kind of operation could work in her city, right down to Reddin’s divine inspiration: She wrote “Jesus was homeless” in white ink on her van’s back window.In a few short years, Reddin has touched many lives through his simple acts of loving kindness. It is walking the walk of Christ.
One section of this article I found particularly thought provoking.
Josh Fendley, the founder of The People Tree, which helps Little Rock’s homeless through urban agriculture projects, recalls an eye-opening exchange with Reddin when the two were just getting their respective nonprofits off the ground. “I asked him one important question. ‘Tell my why you’re doing this: Do you love these people—do you feel in your heart this attraction and pull and love for them that makes you serve them—or is it a sense of rage that these people are in this state?’ ” Fendley says. “And he said the first one…love of the individual.”If I were asked the same question, I would say both. As much as I am moved to tears by the humanity and struggles of those in need, I find it difficult not to be angry at the injustices heaped upon them. However, the later carries many temptations.
We live in a society that is becoming increasingly hard-hearted. Our political leaders disparage the less fortunate and demand larger and larger cuts to government programs designed to provide a safety net for those in need. The rich demand larger tax cuts and find fiendishly clever ways to protect more and more of their wealth even though they have more than 20 generations of their offspring will be able to spend. Corporate leaders do away with jobs that pay decent wages and benefits, all in the name of boosting profits and stock prices. Together, these worshippers of Mammon push more and more people into difficult, if not desperate, financial situations. When so many people have to work two or three jobs just to make enough to escape poverty, our nation has a sick if not outright evil heart. The crowning achievement of that evil has been the recent spate of laws that criminalize the homeless and even those that give them money or food.
As Christians, our silence in the face of monumental injustices becomes complicity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it much more eloquently.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”Liberation theology was premised on the idea that as Christians we should stand with those suffering at the hands of an unjust society. The problem was one of praxis. Some adherents joined in spirit with those seeking to use violence and other ungodly means to right the wrongs. We know as followers of Christ that returning evil for evil is wrong, yet the temptations to do so are great when the injustices are so large.
My gut tells me that Reddin's approach is in many ways superior. He demonstrates a solidarity in body and spirit with the homeless that unequivocally satisfies the teachings of Christ. It is an example that we can all emulate.
It is much more difficult to follow the example of someone like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was able to appeal to the conscience of millions, using scripture as inspiration, without succumbing to the temptation to violence. He rejected the idea of righting systemic wrongs by any means necessary. That takes extraordinary courage.
Even a cursory reading of the canonical gospels reveals that Christ never held his tongue about the injustices he encountered, but I find it interesting that the targets of his outrage were the religious leaders of his day. With the crowds he attracted, Jesus could have joined with the zealots in seeking to overthrow Roman rule and restore power to the Jewish people. Instead, he taught that the Kingdom of God is open to all who seek it, warned the privileged not to value the things of this world, and told his followers that they would be judged by their acts of compassion for the poor, sick, and disabled.
Today I give thanks for the witness of Aaron Reddin.
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