Book Review: Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski

I found this book to be a very interesting book that was hard to put down.  It was a book that made me a little uncomfortable to read because it was convicting.

Mike and a friend, Sam, felt like the Lord was calling them to live on the streets as homeless people for 6 months.  They took 6 months off of school and prepared for this experience with their professors and mentors.  They left with a 3 dollar sleeping bag, water, and enough money to use a hospital if they got stabbed.  They lived on the streets in six different cities: Denver; Washington, D.C.; Portland; San Francisco; Phoenix; and San Diego.

Mike recounts everything that he experienced while on the streets, including panhandling, staying in a shelter, living under the bridge, making friends with drug dealers but being a witness by not doing drugs or drinking.  They were rejected for the fact that they were Christians, but they also were a great witness to several people who felt like they had lost all hope and that no one cared about them anymore.

So why would they decide to be homeless when, in fact, they weren't?  Simple....or maybe not.  They wanted to see if their faith was real.  They wanted to to see if they were really the Christians that they said that there were when all of the comforts of life were removed.  It was easy to be a Christian when they could walk past the poor and homeless and pretend that they didn't really exist.  They could talk about theology and the importance of faith.  However, when all was stripped away, would they still be able to stand firm in Christ?  The answer?  Yes.  They said that through this experience, they learned that they battled depression and loneliness.  Nothing prepared them for that aspect of this experience.

I was interested to learn of ways to help those that I come across that were panhandling.  I have always heard to not give them money and Mike and Sam confirmed that.  They said that in their travels through those major cities, they came across a majority of homeless that chose to be homeless because of their actions that had led them down the road for that.  There were quite a few that didn't chose it, but he said that the majority of them would use the money on drugs because they needed "food."  He highly recommended that you give them food or carry around gift cards for groceries (that can only be used on food) or to fast food places.  I hadn't thought about that and that's a simple thing to carry around.  However, they stated that it really does mean a lot to them if you take the time out to take them to dinner.  As a girl with kids, I'm not completely comfortable with that, simply because you never know about people these days.  But I can definitely smile at them at show them that they do exist.  Mike talked about how much a simple smile meant to him while on the streets.

The saddest part of his book was when he recounted the Christians in the church and how many of the churches didn't want them around.  There were only a handful of churches that accepted them and helped them.  When they asked a pastor for food, he said "we are here to worship.  We can't forget the purpose of why we're meeting here today."  At one church, they fell asleep on the front doorstep.  Instead of waking them up as the congregation entered the church, they chose to all use the side door so they didn't have to be uncomfortable walking over them.  We are called to help those less fortunate than us, but so many times we reject them because they smell or don't have the up-to-date clothes. 

I would definitely recommend this book, but be aware that you won't look at the homeless the same way again.  You will be challenged to reach out and help even more than you already do.




I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.