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The Kingdom is Inside of You

The Kindgom is inside of you

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Be Encouraged from Open Soulz on Vimeo.

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Love and Understanding - Mental Health and Homelessness

Love and Understanding – Mental Health and Homelessness

Love and Understanding Mental Health and Homeless I have Bipolar Affective Disorder Type 1 and have struggled with this illness for over 40 years.  My mental illness has reared its head during my periods of homelessness, incarceration, and significant (traumatic) triggering life events.   A few weeks ago – I was sectioned to Askew Ward Mental health Ward for showing up at a Foodbank butt…

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I Don't Believe Jesus Rose From the Dead - Yet I'm Building a Church Anyhow...

I Don’t Believe Jesus Rose From the Dead – Yet I’m Building a Church Anyhow…

I’m not a Catholic although I come from a Christian background and I’m not totally Christian as I am Ashkenazi Jewish – so my views on Jesus Christ are a bit controversial.  I am more impacted by the humanity of Jesus as opposed to his miracles which to me often thwart his true essence as a human being who faced his fears and sought-after truth no matter the risk.    Like Jesus – I was born in…

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Black Eugenics - The Crack Cocaine Conspiracy

Black Eugenics – The Crack Cocaine Conspiracy

You would think my licking a man’s dirty asshole for a hit of crack would be the final coup de grace, yet this was just a misnomer within the realms of a slow-moving hellish nightmare of crack addiction affecting a large percentage of the Black population from sea to shining sea. Crack cocaine, as compared to the biblical term (raining 40 days and 40 nights,) flooded the black neighborhoods of…

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The Black Deported Veteran – A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

The Black Deported Veteran – A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

When I see the American flag wrapped around a so-called racist patriot it fills me with disgust and anger.  When I see a black American waiving the American flag I feel as though the only thing that is missing is the red MAGA hat.   What happened to America?  From across the pond here in London, the country looks like it is on the brink of Civil War – a country divided along racial, political,…

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God Damn White Supremacy

God Damn White Supremacy

God Damn White Supremacy I believe the late rapper Tupac Shakur was right.  Clearly, it is a White Man’s World.  And the irony is some of my closest friends are white.  Furthermore, when separating the wheat from the chaff insofar as being mixed race – I am quickly jettisoned into a mulatto netherworld – somewhat outside the periphery of being authentically black when it comes down to the…

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A Revolutionary Moment

I had a vision one early morning whilst incarcerated at Delano California State Prison and believe me – it was most welcomed given the surroundings of pain, trauma bound up in brick, mortar, and steel!  The majority of inmates in our prison block were drug addicts and mentally ill – throwaways of society – the recipients of the three-strike laws, and a host of other draconian sentencing…

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The Good News – You are Divine!!

The Good News – You are Divine!!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other…

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The Prodigal – Finding the Faith and Holiness in the Lives of the Homeless

The Prodigal – Finding the Faith and Holiness in the Lives of the Homeless

The Prodigal son – what was the real reason the younger son left his father’s house?  I’m presuming the father was wealthy and from a first-century standpoint the elder son usually takes on the family’s inheritance and blessing for that matter.  Where was the mother?  Did she die early leaving a psychological and emotional wound? Maybe she was given a notice of divorce especially since women did…

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I Do Not Believe In the Resurrection - Yet I'm building a Church Anyhow...

I Do Not Believe In the Resurrection – Yet I’m building a Church Anyhow…

I’m not a Catholic although I come from a Christian background and I’m not totally Christian as I am Ashkenazi Jewish – so my views on Jesus Christ are a bit controversial.  I am more impacted by the humanity of Jesus as opposed to his miracles which to me often thwart his true essence as a human being who faced his fears and sought after truth no matter the risk, which unfortunately cost him his…

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My Homeless State of Mind - Revelations of a Suffering Servant - Amazon

My Homeless State of Mind – Revelations of a Suffering Servant – Amazon

Homelessness for me began the day I was born in a Women’s Prison in Aichach Germany. My mother was a prostitute back in the 50s, which I believe was a result of her own psychological dysfunction being raised up in an orphanage along with her siblings coupled with the economy of Germany at the time. I believe her unresolved issues witnessing her father snatched up by the Gestapo and jettisoned to…

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Open Soulz – The Work — Open Soulz

Open Soulz – The Work — Open Soulz

The Vision of Open Soulz Poverty is not just about money. Poverty is not knowing what to do and having no one with whom to do it Charity is not about us doing things for the poor but us being with the poor. That, as Christians, we believe we meet Christ in the poor (Matt […] via Open Soulz – The Work — Open Soulz

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Thesis: Taking Back the Eucharist From the Church of England

Thesis: Taking Back the Eucharist From the Church of England

I have been living in London for 18 years and as I touched down in England in February 2004 the cold weather hit me like a hammer.  Cold, alone, homeless, and in need of shelter I made my way to St. Martins of the Field Night Drop-In Centre.  Unfortunately, the place was filled up, so I spent the night seated in Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport.  It took me a few months of rough sleeping for me to…

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Yes, We Homeless Beg for Alms!

Yes, We Homeless Beg for Alms!

We homeless folk are your heart that beats on the other side of the river.  Listen to it closely and you will realize that we are your brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers.  We are the heartbeat that wakes you up early in the morning as you wonder if something has gone amiss.  We are the troubling of water within your soul as you ask, “Why are we homeless?  What, on earth, you ask, has…

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The Homeless - Invisible People

The Homeless – Invisible People

I went to church the other day inwardly disguised as an ordinary person. In 12-step terminology, it is called, ‘fake it until you make it or rather acting as if everything is okay.’ I am clearly not okay and I’m invisible through secular and in particular, Christian eyes. They see me not but rather see a pitiful dishevelled figure mumbling to himself digging for imaginary solace inside the deep…

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The Sacred Place - a Vision for the Homeless and Poor in London

The Sacred Place – a Vision for the Homeless and Poor in London

And the lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Luke 14:23 Ushering the Homeless and Poor into the Sacred Place through Love and Understanding Open Soulz is a charity that seeks to establishes a partnership with a Church in London to provide meals, table talk and the distribution of clothes to the homeless and poor.…