Cameron (26) and Spencer (29) have been homeless off and on for the last few years. Post eviction from their parents' home (Jan 2011) they have lived at a friends' house, a hotel, the streets, a hospital, a mental institution, a homeless shelter in Dallas, our house, and are presently at a homeless shelter in Salt Lake. They are Bryan's brothers and some of his best friends and they are all doing what they feel is right in this situation.
I am writing about the homeless scene that I have been privy to since the boys talk to Bryan. This info may not be new to you but it was to me. This info is based on the boys having lived in a shelter in Dallas for 4 weeks and SLC for 3 weeks.
-There are enough beds for everyone. If someone shows up at a shelter in time and the beds are taken they can help you get to another place. They have showers. There is no limit on how long you can stay.
-There is free food for you all around town all day long. Not at the homeless shelter, but they have lists of places (i.e. churches) that will give you food. And they send lots of extra food with these guys. The shelter has a rule that no outside food may be brought in (sanitation, fighting, etc) but some shelters don't enforce this policy.
-Sleeping pads are passed out and everyone is in bed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. If you don't make it there, you don't sleep there. If you are disturbing the peace, you don't sleep there.
-If you need medication (Spencer does), they have doctors that will give you an Rx for whatever you need.
-The currency in shelters is cigarettes.
-Drugs are very prominent in shelters. People talk about using them, ask you if you want to use them, try to sell you all kinds of stuff, you see people tripping out on drugs.
-People are also talking about God and finding His peace and presence. You can hear a conversation about God on one side and one about drugs on the other.
-In Dallas: a security guard was hired to keep the peace all night, they give out one-way bus tickets to anyone who could prove there was a residence waiting for them, they provide residency to Dallas city so you can get a library card to use the internet and check out books. The boys' backpack and laptop were stolen but they got the laptop back.
-In SLC: it is easier to be homeless b/c the shelter's rules aren't as enforced, free TRAX transportation, the downtown library is close and huge. Homeless guys said they love Conference weekend because they make lots of money from asking people. A woman drove by and asked them if they were homeless and then gave them a bag of chips.
All this info has made me wonder: Who is picking up the bill for all this free stuff we are handing out? How come helping people in need of these services easily turns to abusing these services? Why do I feel angry at the people who I think taking advantage of America's security blanket? Is America doing a service to not let these guys fail? I want to help those who are hurting, yet when I see this I wonder what is it God really asking us to do?
~Jacob 2:18-19 "After ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good--to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry..."
~Matthew 6:25-26 "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body... Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ...If God so clothe the grass of the field... shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"
~Exodus 20:9 "[9] Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work"
~John 5:17 "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
~John 6: 28-29 "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."
So the work is believing? It seems to be a cyclical line of reasoning.
Maybe it is in Matthew 7- judge not, seek God, bring forth good fruits, build your house on 'the' rock. I think I will try to judge less, love more, and build myself and my community, and trust homeless people less.
2 comments:
As we get older, we find things aren't so black and white anymore. Wasn't black and white easy?
re-read the conference talks on the welfare program of the church. i think they bring clarity on this subject. the lord's ways are not the world's ways, and vice versa. you are seeing the product of the well-meaning, but often-flawed world's ways.
i think even jesus felt the way you did during his mortal journey. yes, he reached out the homeless, impoverished, downtrodden, etc, but always with the admonition for them to lift themselves out of those circumstances. he would not visit the same person again and again and again, bailing them out each time. we see the initial interaction. what's missing from the narrative is what those people did with the renewed life they were given.
and jesus always left those he healed, blessed, uplifted, etc with the command "go and sin no more." i think we are accountable for how we treat those that are less fortunate than us, but they are accountable for how they "manage" the charity and service they receive.
glad to see we think about the same things. :)
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