Life Plan
In life, many things don’t go according to plan. If you fall, get back up. If you stumble, re-gain your balance, but whatever you do never give up. Accept what it is and improvise. Sitting around, weeping on the circumstances w
Beating up Homeless people
We have all experienced situations where the police have been a little too into their authority and perceived power. They are servants of the people and are supposed to Protect and Serve. If they wanted to arrest the guy they should have done that. The escalation was caused by the heavy set officer and the without a clear communication that they were going to arrest the homeless man, he had ever right to walk away. The police need probably cause and a clear and state reason to stop you, hold you and certainly to inflict any kind of force. In most instances I have found individuals who joined the police were not the best and brightest and many are not motivated by Protect & Serve.
Feeding God’s people
This morning with my two friends we had an opportunity to go and feed God’s people.We can do this because of the spirit of people who generously support this effort for the people who are less fortunate.Every person deserves to have a safe place to call home and to enjoy nutritious, meals with their family. This basic dignity is the foundation from which we can develop the skills and learning they need to become self-sufficient in the long-term. “With the community’s support, we are dedicated to providing these quality services to those in need during the holidays and throughout the year. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” - James 2:14-17
First night of the year to meet Friends
Life on the streets is harsh and the stress of being homeless is clearly taking its toll. The event of Christ is the only event in human history that promises relocation and centering, meaning and purpose. This promise and its fulfillment evoke passionate and heartfelt praise and thanks, especially for those aware of their own brokenness and the healing which Christ brings into their lives.
Homelessness does not necessarily entail living on the streets. In fact a comparatively low number of young people, on any given night, sleep rough. Many live in temporary accommodation, stay in hostels, or simply travel between sofas: all are forms of homelessness.
Last night we had an opportunity to drive around the city visiting the homeless and to make new friends.So, there may be a glimmer of hope for most of us. But, surely, for homeless people there is nothing but despair? Relationships with their families have literally been tested to destruction. No reconciliation could ever be possible and they must make their way in the world as best they can without the support of their family or friends. Any help they do get must come from professionals. This would truly be a counsel of despair. However, it does not square with the perceptions of many homeless people themselves. Many are keen to restore old friendships and relationships. Prevention is Better than Cure found that certain per cent of respondents named ‘reconciliation services’ as something that might have prevented them becoming homeless. A further certain per cent cited ‘counselling/someone to talk to’. When the young people interviewed for the Children’s Society study were asked what would prevent running away and being forced to leave, the suggestion that was made most often was family support and mediation services.
DYING FOR CHANGE
Poor people’s experience of health and ill-health
For me, a good life is to be healthy.
Poor places keep people poor. And poor places also kill. Crying out for Change
Lack of food is the most frequently mentioned want. Hunger and malnutrition are
seen as underlying causes of many diseases. They cause weakness and exhaustion,
and make people more susceptible to infections. Many people say they eat only
once a day and sometimes have nothing for days on end. The poorest people rely
on what they can find growing wild or by asking for change.
Poor people almost always live in poor housing or shelters, and often in dangerous
or unstable areas. Many live in huts or hovels made of temporary and unstable
material.
For a poor person everything is terrible illness, humiliation,
shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on
everyone. No one needs us.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see, To allow people the deaths they want, end of life care must be radically transformed…Many people say they want to die without warning, in their sleep. The reality is that most people will die drawn out deaths and they will need support over many months because they will be frail and suffering from multiple chronic conditions.We need to improve the services we have and create alternatives to them.
Informants stress, over and over again, that health care services are vital to their
survival and livelihood. However, the significance that the poor attach to health
services is muted by their widespread disappointment – in some cases anger – at
the bad quality of service and the difficulties of accessing care. These difficulties
include the direct cost of doctors’ fees, medicines and bribes, and the indirect cost
of transport to health services and time lost waiting for treatment. Abusive
treatment by staff is a further disincentive to seeking care.
One of the greatest barriers to health care for the poor is the time it takes to get
treatment. For many, time is a resource, since time away from work may mean lost
income.Once they have arrived at the health center, people may have to wait hours before
being seen. Some say the length of time spent waiting is a strain, and can itself
cause illness.
Poor people want institutions that are honest, accountable, treat them fairly and
show respect. Men and women from Hillbrow, ask that staff “be
there; treat us with good manners; have patience; listen to people; try to
understand the needs of the people; give attention; don’t always say ‘come back
later’; say honestly if you can or cannot solve the problem; work with love; do not
treat us with ignorance, respect the community’s problems; be there on time; give
equal treatment, do not discriminate; solve the problem”.
How would you get a sick person out of here?
Better World End Homelessness
Better World, End Homelessness
“This is my chosen fast: to loosen all the bonds that bind humans unfairly, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry, take the homeless into your homes, clothe the naked when you see him/her, do not turn away from people in need. Then cleansing life shall break forth like the dawn, and your wounds shall soon be healed. Your triumph shall go before you and your Lord’s glory shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. ” Isaiah 57
Somewhere near you, somebody right now is trying to help the indigent and poor – providing food, shelter, clothing or simple kindness.The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are.I think to be a well-rounded person, you have to experience good and bad, wonderful moments and pain. You need to meet people who have no exposure to kindness, who lack any opportunity and have no way out–like the homeless, the mentally ill–and you`ve got to learn empathy for them.
There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conflict, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help. We have come dangerously close to accepting the homeless situation as a problem that we just can`t solve.
“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? “(1 John 3:16-17) Man, whatever be his country, has the same rights in one place as another, the rights of universal citizenship.
