About The Book
Homeless. No other word better describes our modern-day suffering. It reveals one of our deepest and most painful conditions—not having a sense of belonging. However, Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Community First! Village, is improving the quality of life for a vast number of people by sharing his personal story of becoming more human through humanizing others. In Welcome Homeless, Graham delves deep into what it means to be connected to God, the earth, and each other. In doing so, he shows us the home we’ve all longed for but never had.
Graham wants to engrain the human story in you so deeply that you start being who you were made to be—that you start being like the image from which you were made. In Welcome Homeless, Graham also shares the stories of the homeless, and the stories of those whose worldviews have been shifted by the homeless in a raw, humorous, and honest voice. Home is fundamentally a place of connection and of relationships that are life-giving and foundational, and Graham invites you to make everyone feel truly at home by finally inviting those living on the fringes of society into your heart.
Endorsements
Welcome Homeless is a book that rattles you to your spiritual senses and awakens the awe you’ve been missing in your relationship with God by inviting you to love your neighbor as yourself.
I know what homelessness feels like. I started Paul Mitchell with a $700 loan when I was living out of my car. When I met Alan Graham, I knew that this was a man who really understood the problem — people need a place to belong. The Community First! Village and this book invite people into something greater, and I’m proud to be a part of it.
The ministry Alan Graham has launched is nothing short of life-changing. His chronicle of the stories of the people he serves helps all of us see the homeless with new eyes and as God Himself sees them.
Once in a while you cross paths with someone who will forever change your life. For us, Alan Graham is that someone. His life, his heart, and his mission to see “I am” in the “least of these” is nothing less than transformative. Welcome Homeless is a much needed work that gives incredible insight to how the Gospel turns pain and isolation into victory and community. It’s a coming home story for all of us, where we are challenged to see others as well as ourselves, only as Christ sees us.
Welcome Homeless is a gift that takes down the walls of isolation and shows us the power of empathy and action. The most compelling lesson Graham re-taught me is that when we breathe new purpose into our own journey – when we stop, listen, connect and share, even just for a moment – that mighty pause for humanity is one of God’s most generous endowments.
About The Author
Alan Graham
Founder and CEO, Mobile Loaves & Fishes
Alan Graham is the founder and CEO of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a Christian social outreach ministry that provides food and clothing, cultivates community and promotes dignity to homeless men and women in need.
Previously a real estate investor and developer, Alan co-founded Trilogy Development and the Lynxs Group, which developed Austin’s airport cargo facility and similar facilities at airports around the country. In 1998, the seed for the idea of Mobile Loaves & Fishes had been placed on Alan’s heart. He and four friends, along with the help of a formerly homeless man, boldly answered God’s call to “love your neighbor” by delivering meals to the homeless from the back of a green minivan.
Since its founding, MLF volunteers have served more than 6.5 million meals with a side of hope to homeless men and women living on the streets of Austin, and the organization has spawned similar food truck ministries in other cities across the U.S.
Alan also is the lead visionary behind MLF’s Community First! Village—a 51-acre master planned development in northeast Austin that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness.
