My Road Leads Home is a documentary project of Rising River Media, an independent, non-profit (501c3), Christian publishing and media company located in Spokane Valley, WA. That’s right. In addition to making documentaries, we also publish books, with a special focus on Christian discipleship and what it means to serve “the least of these.”
Offering Hope. My Road Leads Home is about more than exposing and highlighting difficult issues like homelessness. My Road Leads Home is about offering one of life’s greatest intangibles, one that none of us can live without. It’s about offering hope. Hope that a community working together can solve critical community problems like homelessness. Hope that tomorrow will be better than today. Hope that, even in our darkest moments of life, we are surrounded by people who care, people who want to help and who want to make a difference; people like you. In other words, we all need hope that we aren’t alone on life’s journey.
Welfare. An ancient Hebrew prophet once wrote to a group of struggling exiles, telling them “Seek the welfare of the city . . . . for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7). There’s a simple truth at work here. If you and I want peace, health, wholeness, and welfare for ourselves and our families, then we have to seek that same peace, health, wholeness and welfare for others and their families. Why? Because you and I are part of a community, and our personal welfare is tied to the welfare of others.
Faith. As a person of faith, I believe my calling is to seek the welfare – the Shalom – of those around me, not just their spiritual welfare, but their human welfare too. In the process, I’m called to be a “repairer of the breach” and a “restorer of streets to dwell in.” As people of faith, our calling is to repair the torn social fabric of our community and to work toward making our community a place where everyone can live in peace, health, wholeness, and welfare. And, by the way, it’s your calling too.
Community. It takes a community to solve community issues. No government or single private business, agency, charity, church or ministry can solve all of the issues, meet all the needs and answer all the challenges we’ll explore. Successfully engaging all of these issues requires a genuine community response. And there’s no greater opportunity for building community, than the one found in serving one another. As the early Christian community taught, “Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.” Now is the time to find your gift, and to use it well.
Maurice Smith is the Executive Director of Rising River Media and the Executive Producer of My Road Leads Home. Maurice is a graduate of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and an honors graduate of Denver Seminary. Maurice is the co-founder of Feed Spokane, a food rescue agency where he served as Executive Director for five years. Maurice and his wife, Gale, have worked among the homeless and marginalized of Spokane for the past 15 years. He serves as the Media Liaison for the Spokane Homeless Coalition, and on the planning committee for the annual Spokane Homeless Connect. He is an accomplished author of several books including 30 Days And 30 Ways Of Doing Good. A native of North Carolina, Maurice lives in Spokane, Washington with Gale, his wife of 41 years. Gale Smith is a graduate of Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Gale is an accomplished author, artist, illustrator and graphic designer, and serves as the Artistic Director of Rising River Media. Maurice and Gale have two adult children.
Who We Are, In 3 Minutes!
KREM2 Story About Homeless Camps Documentary
KREM 2 (the local CBS affiliate) contacted me about the documentary short on Homeless Camps (which you'll find on this page) and asked for an interview.
Fig Tree Article On “The Dignity of A Shower”
I honestly didn't see this one coming. I got an email saying, "Here's the link to your story." It's a story about "The Dignity of A Shower," our documentary short on the need for showers in the homeless community. My thanks to Mary Stamp (Editor) and the staff at The Fig Tree Newspaper for following our documentaries on homelessness in Spokane.
It’s Always Nice To Get Noticed!
Shawn Vestal and The Spokesman-Review paid us a visit as we were filming "Give Me Shelter." We genuinely appreciated the very positive exposure they gave us for what we're trying to accomplish, showing a better optic, telling a better story, and setting a better tone. Click to read the whole article.
Our Thanks to SpIFF For Selecting Our Film!
We were approached in late 2019 by the directors of the Spokane International Film Festival (SpIFF) and asked if we had a version of "The Hidden Homeless" that we could submit to the Festival. Their board had decided that they wanted to do something relevant to the issue of homelessness and had heard about our work. We agreed and Nathan Slabaugh (Slabaugh Media) worked to chop down our Director's Cut to a shorter film festival version which we submitted to great reviews. Many thanks!