The Homeless and Katrina
The events of hurricane Katrina have helped open our nations eyes to the needs of the homeless people left in the wake of Katrina's disaster. But one question remains...what about the homeless who were in our own back yard's before Katrina. They have each had some disaster in their life that has lead them to where they are today. Some by their own choice, some not. But the fact still remains that they are there and what are we (you and I) doing about it?
I am hoping my community group will start to do something about it this fall. We are talking about taking a day each month and feeding them. I was told by a friend that when they asked a homeless person what is one thing they appreciate most, "a hot meal that is not pizza or sandwiches" was the answer. How easy is that?
I think that we can use the plight of the victims of Katrina to raise awareness of the homeless in our own towns.
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
I am hoping my community group will start to do something about it this fall. We are talking about taking a day each month and feeding them. I was told by a friend that when they asked a homeless person what is one thing they appreciate most, "a hot meal that is not pizza or sandwiches" was the answer. How easy is that?
I think that we can use the plight of the victims of Katrina to raise awareness of the homeless in our own towns.
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
posted by jlo @ 10:32 PM
3 Comments:
At 10:38 PM,
jlo said…
A thought our CG had was what if each month we had a different item designated for our body to bring to church each Sunday, such as tooth brushes/paste one month, underwear the next, and so on. We could probably make a difference in the supply at the homeless shelter each month. What if that spread to each church in town! There are definitely lots of unmet needs in communites with "strong" congregations. I think Jesus would be ashamed of us.
At 10:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
Anything that you can do to help, either individually or as a group is great. Sustaining change, though, often must occur individually with multiple levels being addressed to meet needs. From one person to the next these needs might include mental illness, addiction, hunger, employment, housing, health, disabilities, previous convictions, estranged family, spiritual, transportation, and the list could continue on to include many more fundamental needs, all depending upon that particular person. In a lot of instances these needs are interdependent on each other, so it's important to address them all if possible instead of just one or two. A lot of times this requires getting the person connected with those that can give them this type of attention and has resources and referrals available for assistance. Otherwise it usually ends up as simply sustaining, which is the usual cycle we witness most of the time. Yanster's suggestion of educating younger generations is a great idea too. Breaking the cycle is so important. (Working with kids is so valuable in that aspect.) Again though, anything that you can do would be great.
At 5:40 AM,
jlo said…
I think one of the reasons we have so many poor people in this country and throughout the world is because we, as in the church, have focused too much on ourselves and not on the needs of others.
A group of us have been talking about house churches lately and there is a lot of info suggesting there is about to be major shift to these in America.
If you think about how much money each church in America spends on electrcity, water, gas, building mainenance, and mortgage each month, I bet you would almost have enough money to feed the entire world. That may be overshooting it, but we got some big churches in this country that have to be expensive just to keep the building heated/cooled. I am not knocking them, but just using it as an example of one way we as the church have spent our money on bricks and not people.
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