Mobile Loaves & Fishes: 40 Days and 40 Nights: An Immersion On Our Streets

40 Days and 40 Nights: An Immersion On Our Streets

The Plot : 40 Days and 40 Nights: An Immersion On Our Streets, is one man’s attempt to involve the community in his battle against homelessness. Tom Baum plans to spend 40 days and 40 nights on the streets of Austin, TX with only the clothes on his back, the prayers of his community, and a streaming web camera strapped to his chest.

See the Streaming Video here.

Read the Blog here.

By streaming live video to his website, he hopes to bring the very real problem of homelessness in America right onto people’s computer screens, and into the forefront of their hearts and minds.

On the Street

The Point: By streaming live video while on his 40 day mission, Tom hopes to:

Bring Awareness. Did you know that homeless persons are 34 times more likely to die than the general population? Did you know that there are an estimated 3.5 million homeless in America? Many people see homeless people every day without seeing the growing ethical, social, and practical dilemma that accompanies them. Baum hopes, through 40 Days and 40 Nights, to help Americans see the people behind the problem.
Foster an online community. If 40 Days and 40 Nights could foster a caring, social-network-based community for many of the 5,000+ homeless in Austin, we could start impacting lives.
Raise Hopes & Money. Whether a person is homeless because of illness, past mistakes, or a broken family, realistically, it is a predicament and not a choice. In order to fillhelp Austin’s homeless with new hope and get a fresh start off the streets and in the world, he needs to raise money.

The Cast of Characters: While 40 Days and 40 Nights: An Immersion On Our Streets is as unpredictable as life,
there are bound to be a few recurring characters. Tom, Alan, Avon, and "Redman" are a few.

tom_baum Tom Baum was born in 1957, was raised on Long Island, NY. He moved to Texas in 1981 upon graduating with a Masters in Materials Science and Engineering from SUNY at Stony Brook. He spent the first 25 years of his professional career in the semiconductor industry. Mr. Baum is happily married with two wonderful children who have each participated in website development and testing on this project. Since 2005, he has served as President of TRACEe focused on “tracing lives for good."

Alan Graham, President/CEO Alan Graham is the president and founding member of Mobile Loaves & Fishes. He is married (since 1984) to his wife Tricia and they have four children; Decker, Taylor, Marlee & Keaton and a niece, Samantha, that they have raised. Alan formerly was in the real estate development, investment, management & brokerage business in Austin, Texas having founded Trilogy Development, Inc. and co-founded The Lynxs Group, developers of on-airport air cargo facilities. It has been through the love for Jesus Christ that Alan is called to serve in this ministry, enabling others to serve their brothers & sisters in need.

Avon Owens has been homeless for three years on the streets of Austin. He and Mr. Baum met in April of 2007 while on a Mobile Loaves & Fishes street retreat. Mr. Owens has created a 20 year life plan in which he hopes to use his experience with homelessness to become a homeless advocate and to help develop a place where the homeless can get off the streets with dignity. Mr. Owens first year goal is to get off the streets and into a secure shelter with a roof over his head.

James "Redman" Warren is an ex-convict turned Christian gospel singer. He was released early from a longer than life prison sentence through having turned his life around to follow Jesus Christ and preach His good word to fellow prisoners. A synopsis of his story can be seen here. You can purchase his CD from the MLF store here. You can listen to him sing here.