When I lived in San Francisco I spent about a month in the Haight/Ashbury district. Yes, this is the area of the city famous for the “Summer of Love”, the band The Grateful Dead, hippies, drugs, and now a place that tries to preserve the history of those odd days in the 1960s. For the most part it is a bit of a hipster neighborhood for people who want to live in a place with a famous anti-establishment past. I was very excited when a home became available in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood.

While a popular place to live it is a hard place as well. There are a lot of tourist, a lot of parties, a lot of bar hopping, and a lot of homeless teens.

I am not sure what draws them to the Haight/Ashbury. Maybe it is the desire to relive the past? Maybe it is anti-establishment enough to welcome those escaping from anything and everything. Whatever the case may be it is more that a must-see place; it is a place of need.

Over the last couple weeks I have been highlighting the work of a local church in the city, the Lighthouse (see here and here). This undersized group of Jesus followers has found themselves sending people once a week to this neighborhood to sing, pray, feed, love, and care for these teens. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas they have held parties giving these kids gifts.

For such a little church they are covering a lot of ground!

If you have been reading these post and you feel like giving to this church or partnering with this church you can do so here. Over the next three weeks I will share their work advocating for juveniles, assisting meth addicts, and their dream for a healing center in the midst of one of the most depraved areas of the city.