Webber Street (WS) is a ministry of London City Mission, in Waterloo. It’s been serving the homeless for more than 60 years. We’re open five days a week, and serve breakfast, and showers, clothing, and toiletries to homeless men and women.
Between 50 to 80 guests come every day, and every day we open the Bible and share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.
Things don’t stop at after breakfast. In the afternoons, we run groups like a board-games club, a drop-in advice session, a Bible study — which is our most well-attended group of the week — and a gospel-focused art group, which I oversee.
Five nights per month, the guests are offered an evening meal hosted and run by five different local churches. It’s about sharing a meal and building relationships between those experiencing homelessness and members of local churches, with the hopes that those who access our services can get embedded into church families.
My colleague, Rob, and I, work alongside these churches, helping them to build healthy relationships with the men and women they meet, learning how to invite them and welcome them to church, and journey alongside them.
Part of it is breaking down misconceptions about homeless people. How can you have a conversation with them? Our habitual greeting, “Hello, where do you live?” might evoke shame, but “Where did you come from today?” might not. “How do you spend your week?” is better than “What do you do for a living?” Some people, like asylum-seekers, are not allowed to work.
Don’t assume a homeless person has nothing in common with you. You’re not so different. You might read the same books and love the same things. One gentleman loved poetry — he would immediately know or recite a poem by a poet of the place or about the place — but he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse.
Some people like the freedom that comes with homelessness. One gentleman comes to London for winters, but walks to Glastonbury in spring, and then up to the Highlands for the summer.
Many find community, safety, friendship, and acceptance in homelessness: they have a routine. They come to us in the morning, go somewhere else for lunch, somewhere else for an evening meal. We get churches to come into Webber Street to do evening meals, so people can meet churchpeople and begin friendships that can turn into “family”.
Some have really complex needs: how do you help someone navigate the benefit system, talk to their key worker? Some have experienced trauma, struggle with their mental health, or have no one in their lives. Some of the help churches can give is practical.
Carl is a gentleman who attends as part of his routine. He can be very closed-off and difficult to connect with, and I noticed he’d stopped coming. When he returned, it was obvious he’d been in hospital. Something about this made me want to actively get around the barriers he was putting up; so I pursued a friendship with him. He now shares with me the poems he’s written and his favourite songs. He told me he struggles sometimes to control his anger, and when a loose dog in the park jumped on him, he wanted to erupt at the owner, but paused and thought: “Jen likes dogs. She wouldn’t like it if I were mean to this dog.” Our friendship made him stop and reflect before reacting in a way that might have caused harm to another.
Ray is a Christian, but life on the streets has worn him down and made him question God’s goodness. After I helped with some paperwork to get him back into work, he was feeling much better. He accepted an invitation to attend a church that hosts an evening meal. Recently, he came upon a busker in London Bridge Station and fell to his knees in worship. Among the others listening to the busker was a woman who’d received our training and had met Ray at WS. She was there to talk to him after he’d been so moved by the worship.
Ed’s a military veteran who’s recently lost his home. He loves going to church, but hasn’t found one to make his home yet. A member from one of the churches who hosts evening meals invited him to church and to her home group. I went along to his first time at the home group, but he didn’t need me because the home group was so loving and welcoming. He’s now attending the church and home group regularly.
Wendy came to WS on Pancake Day after a rubbish day, and when she saw the plates of pancakes being brought out she started to cry. “I prayed this morning to God, asking him if I could please have pancakes today. He’s using you to answer my prayers.”
I received a BA at All Nations Christian College, and also took their course in art and trauma healing. I’ve worked for London City Mission since 2016, but I started at WS in July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, because I lived within walking distance and could come in to help.
Some guests eventually find a place to live and a job they love, and move on, but many of our guests are very much entrenched in this lifestyle. Our hope and prayer is that no matter where someone lays their head — on a pillow or the pavement — they can become loved, discipled, and thriving members of church families.
I grew up near the beach in New Jersey. As a young person, I developed a great love for theatre, books, and history. When I was 11, I read The Secret Garden, which piqued my interest in coming to England. Today, my dog, Buxton, and I love to travel around the UK, looking for beautiful and historic places that have gorgeous gardens. I’m very involved in my church, Hope Church, Vauxhall, and the life of my church family.
You’d be amazed by number of homeless people who share my passions for books and history. One man who’s been homeless for 20 years spends the rest of his day at the Barbican library. He loves talking about shows, and sits outside the halls so he can hear the music. A lot of guests spend a lot of time at the library. I love to visit places I read about in books — I went to Haworth last year — and share that experience with friends at WS.
As a very tiny girl, I had a teddy bear that played the song “Jesus loves me”. That’s my earliest memory of God. I grew up going to church, and often won a prize for my attendance.
My relationship with Jesus is the central and most important thing in my life.
Injustice and hypocrisy make me angry.
Being an aunt makes me happiest. I’ve got five nephews and nieces in the States, and I can’t think of anyone I love more than them. No day goes by that I don’t think about them. Here, in London, I have dozens of kids who call me Auntie Jen, who are incredibly precious to me — but I get to leave them with their parents at the end of the day. I love taking them to the cinema, buying them milkshakes, teaching them to mimic my accent, and taking them to the bookstore.
It’s a joy to love a child and be loved by a child. Man, we can never have too many people who love us! One kid from church just turned five, and made a hilarious joke the other day. What a privilege it is to have watched this child grow from two months old.
I pray most for my nieces and nephews, and that I’ll see WS guests come to know Jesus, be embedded and discipled in the church family, and then come back to share the gospel here.
A train in the distance is a wonderful sound.
Seeing my friends raise their children with love, truth, and grace is what gives me hope for the future.
I’d like to be locked in a church with either John Lennon or Jane Austen. I’d love to hear more about what art they’d have created if they’d lived longer.
Jennifer Garibay was talking to Terence Handley MacMath.