A trip taken to Washington D.C. by two friends with goals in mind to help the poor and underprivileged both spiritually and physically.

1. December 17th – December 24th
2011

2. Below: Checking out the
map, planning out our scouting
day – Sunday.
Spencer, Mary, Connor and a
car full of supplies, driving up to
D.C. on Saturday.

3. We‟re at East Falls Church waiting
for the Orange Line metro train
towards New Carrolton
Connor carrying a few supplies in
his backpack. We‟re waiting for the
metro to ride into the district.

4. On our way to Metro center to switch to
the red line and ride to Union Station

5. We came across a small group of
tents in Independence Plaza that
turned out to be, not all homeless
people, but the occupiers.
Independence Plaza is just one
of two locations that the
Occupiers are located. Many
have welcomed the homeless of
D.C. into their tent cities.

6. The second location of Occupy
is at McPherson Square, a park
not far from Franklin Square, a
favorite location for many of our
friends.
Many homeless people stayed
at McPherson Square before the
Occupy movement. Now they
either have integrated in with
them or moved elsewhere.

7. Most mornings we walked just a
little over three blocks to the
nearest metro bus stop that took us
to a metro train station.
Here we are riding the bus to
Rosslyn station – an
unexpected long ride that
morning.

8. To the left: a picture of the tables
and boxes containing some
emergency supplies local
organizations set out for
homeless people to use.
To the right: we decided to leave
some Bibles and hand-warmers
underneath the tarps so that
anyone could pick them up.

9. Photos taken Thursday night at Mt.
Vernon Square.
These benches are „supply-benches‟
that also have some blankets
underneath the tarp so that anyone
can pick them up if they need one.
Park benches and at the entrances
of metro stations are the primary
places we checked for people in
need.

10. Below: Just around the corner in
this picture, many of our friends
can be found hanging out during
the day and many more come to
sleep at night. We visited this spot
often.
Above: McPherson Square Station
has a nice current of warm air
coming up from below so that many
people would come to stay here day
and night.

11. Left: Checking the map to
keep our whereabouts.
Right: Connor kept notes of every
contact, ensuring to write down
names, locations, time of
contact, and needs. Used for
journaling and future purposes.

12. 90% of our time during the day was
spent outside or on a metro train.
Lots of walking involved, hiking the
urban jungle carrying backpacks
full of gear.
Above: Connor carrying his
pack, on our way to another
location in D.C.

13. Above is a location where evidence
is found showing many people‟s
sleeping spots. To the right is
emergency blankets seen at the
beginning of the week, for homeless
on E. 1st Street that live under the
overpasses.

14. On Wednesday
Mary met us at
Union Station to
spend the day
helping and
supporting our
efforts in D.C. It
rained that day,
but we worked
hard and received
great results,
making nearly 30
contacts that day.

15. Trae and Kassie were able to make
it to D.C. on Thursday to help us
that afternoon.
Through their help and the help of
Habtu Zemech later that evening, we
were able to make 40 contacts on
Thursday.

16. Habtu Zemech, a member of Falls
Church church of Christ, came out
with us Thursday night to do some
work with the homeless.
An amazing and inspiring
individual, Habtu helped us give out
sleeping bags and Bibles which led
us to have the most successful day
of the week with 40 contacts.

17. During the week we met dozens of people that we
were able to talk with, help out, listen to their
stories, and become good friends with each one.
Some just wanted to talk, others needed some
winter gear or a Bible, and then others only needed
a good meal to eat.
Each day we would go and check up on a few of
our friends that we had met the days
before, making sure there wasn‟t anything else they
needed. We would also often asked if they had
friends or family that might need something and we
would go and find them.
At the end of the week on Friday, we went to the
locations of some our closest friends and asked to
get a few pictures with them for our memories. The
following slides are those pictures that we took.

18. Allen was a unique artist that selected
wild flowers, pressed them and then
framed them. He was selling his work
along E. 1st Street (above) to raise
money and support himself, despite
being homeless.

19. Russell (left) was a
barefoot, upbeat guy who was
more than happy to shake your
hand and talk with you.
Keith (middle) was a more quiet
individual yet still friendly and was
pleased to have his picture taken
with us.

20. Richard Dawson is one of the
friendliest, most talkative, and
liveliest person you will ever meet
in your life.
He shared with us his history, his
pastimes, his poetry, his
interests, and his thoughts. He also
didn‟t mind the rain and enjoyed 5
Guys fries.

21. Anthony is from Georgia. He currently
lives in D.C. where he caught up with
us after we left him a Bible and hand
warmers.
Above and to the right: We are on our
way to Burger King with Anthony.
After taking Anthony to Burger King
we met Charles (not pictures) who we
prayed with.

22. It was Charles‟ (left) birthday on
Friday so we took him out to eat and
gave him some presents to celebrate.
He turned 67 and was still going
strong.
During our meal with Charles and
Ramos (not pictured) a few locals
joined us and Cheryl (middle) sang
us a song about not giving up on the
truth.

23. Dwayne is an extremely
humble, down to earth guy that
we enjoyed talking to.
Dwayne helped us out by telling us a
few more places we could go to find
some people in need.

24. Scotty will always give you a
smile, ask how you are
doing, and tell you he is keeping
warm.
Prayers need to go up for
everyone, especially Scotty.

25. Judy was extremely happy every
time we talked with her
throughout the week.
We happened to see Judy in Union
Station on Friday so we were lucky
to catch a couple pictures with her
for our memories.

26. Kevin was a
very nice guy
that we
always
checked up on
every day. He
loves chili-
cheese
hotdogs.
Anita took a
while to open
up to us, but
she eventually
did and we
had a nice
time talking
with her.

27. We met Sam pretty early in the
week and he was always thankful
that we checked up on him.
Sam is getting help with an
apartment through the V.A. He is
a pretty big music and history
buff. Please pray for Sam, he
recently found out he has cancer
– keep him in your prayers.

28. Dennis was just the second
person we met at the beginning of
the week and we could always
find him and his friends at Union
Station.
He was extremely friendly and good
natured. He seemed carefree and
was always happy to see us coming
to talk with him.

29. Tim, Dennis‟ cousin, is a very
happy and talkative guy that we
met the first day and always went
to check on him throughout the
week.
He would always remind me
(Spencer) and made sure I
remembered his cousin who
played football for ETSU in the
1970s. Pierre Harsaw #44

30. Left to Right:
Tim
(again), Tom, Spencer/Connor, an
d El.
We became good friends with all
these guys hanging out at Union
Station. We also happened to see
El pop up out of nowhere all the
time.
(Quote Tom about this picture: “It‟s
an Oreo cookie!”)

31. Left: Connor and
Spencer hanging
out with
Tim, El, Tom, Cynt
hia, and Tim just
outside Union
Station.
Right: Spencer
pushing an elderly
lady in her
wheelchair up to
McPherson Metro
Station.

32. Ramos is from
Mexico and still
has family there.
He hoped to one
day make it to
Toronto, but he
hasn‟t made it yet.
Ramos could
always see us
from a distance
and would jump
up and start
waving. He
became one of
our best friends
that week.

33. These are just a few pictures of the many people we met and were able
to help. We were blessed with an amazing week, reaching 140 contacts
in total and hopefully making a difference in a few people‟s lives.
Though our week in D.C. is over, our work is nowhere close to be done. We
will always remember our wonderful friends we made and hopefully they will
remember us. Please keep all these people and the many more that we
met, in your constant prayers. Thank you so much for making our week a
success.

34. Thank you so much to everyone who supported our trip
through prayers, thoughts, encouragement, and financial
support.
Our trip would have not been as big of a success without all
the support from our friends and family.
A special thanks goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Bryan from the
Falls Church, church of Christ for being our hosts during
the week and providing such hospitality and generosity
each and every day.
Thank you so much to everyone!
- Spencer Bailey and Connor Pennings

35. Connor is preparing a lesson, concerning the things learned
from this trip, that he hopes to soon preach from the pulpit at
Abingdon church of Christ. An audio recording of his lesson
and a copy of his lesson‟s PowerPoint will be available to
anyone interested.
Spencer and Connor both kept detailed journals of every
encounter and every person that they made contact with
each day of the week. We hope to soon post these journals
online to a blog run by Spencer and Connor. Contact us in a
few weeks if interested.