This week I went to a gathering of many of the community's service organizations. The common question among us was, "How can you serve people without creating dependance?" Good question. There was lots of discussion about how we tend to think that poverty is permission -- permission to walk into peoples lives and make changes or at least try. We talked about how we define poverty in terms of financial distress. Which isn't how the world defines poverty. We talked about the people standing on street corners with signs asking for help and expecting it to be financial. We talked about how giving aid isn't helping. There are organizations that hand out food to the same people day after day, week after week. Everyone is getting tired. There has to be more!
We talked about how we never refer to someone as "homeful" only homeless. Homeless, here on the coast there are thousands of "homeless". There are tent cities in every nook and cranny. It's hard to go on a walk in the woods. You do not know what you will find. Here, there are many different people groups that are homeless. Including one income families who are working hard to make ends meet. They have an income, but can not find affordable housing. Yes, many do need food aid. But what is really missing is a living breathing community. One that sees those in distress as a part of the whole.
Hmmm, isn't this what we are called to as a Church -- Not to eliminate pain but to be a living breathing community? The deal is, it's a lot harder to walk along side those that are struggling with poverty than it is to throw food in their direction.
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