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Lockit -> RE: Lift Detroit In Prayer! (9/15/2008 11:27:53 AM)
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LOL this is an age old debate for me. I wasn't in detroit, but one of the shelters there came to see me at the shelter I directed to see how my programs were running and how I was doing things. I was in those churches and praying with them all and what I learned was that it wasn't god's hand that would hand out a blanket or warm a home, but the hands and work and money of those that might pray and do some good works. I found that most would hand me a twenty long before they would ever come to the shelter with those people... scary they were... some didn't smell so good and some were just dysfunctional messes that had few chances in life being born to other dysfunctional messes... but actually sit with them, learn them, help them other than a twenty spot... oh hell no! Okay, I was thankful for the money some gave, but what I needed was hands and feet and bodies coming to do the dirty work.
Even back then... there were those in Detroit and surrounding area's that were job poor. When I first saw the city I had moved to, to create my future... I looked around and said... what have I done? Jobs were being lost at a high rate and there wasn't much to replace them. There were poor of all walks of life that needed the assistance of shelters and do gooders. You would not believe some of the past's that some of the people I dealt with had.
When you have a woman whose husband has left for the sweet young thing down the street and doesn't bother with the um's and this woman catches a cold say... we send them to welfare and the job bank. Good idea... but after being home to create this lovely family with dear hubby and his deciding to do something new and different, this woman may no longer have marketable skills if she didn't have the family structure to enable her to go past high school and falling for the magic of the home front dream. She needs more than welfare as no person could live on that and she needs more than minimum wage and I don't care what um support laws have been changed, a lot of single parents are not getting it.
Then we have our vets... unpopular when they returned from fighting in an unpopular war and treated like scum sometimes, who could not handle what they saw and did and came home unwelcome and lost. Where some at the time played with drugs and were able to go on in life, some of them were not and they lost themselves in the pain of it all with self medicating. They fill our shelters. One I will never forget was a short man with the look of an elf. He had no one and no one wanted him. I doubt that man had a hug in at least twenty years by the time I met him.
He took a liking to my um's who were very much involved with my work... as we made headlines in moving into the shelter so that I could clean up the mess that the prior director left and give more to everyone. Don't worry I handled that debate at my first speech on whether that was safe for my um's... saying... if it wasn't safe for my um's, it wasn't safe for any um. I made that place safe and I did what I did because there was no one to come help and I had to be there twenty four seven.
This dear man, not so pretty and surely not someone I or anyone would want to reach out and hug showed me his heart with my um's and one day as I talked to him, I simply gave him a hug. You will never know what that did to that man. I made sure I hugged him every time I saw him. He started to bloom and you could see a joy in his eyes when he saw us. Soon I was talking to him about his life and future and how nice it would be if he could have his dream... his dream of leaving the city and living in a peaceful place.
So... pray... but put some hands and feet to those prayers and meet some real needs. That is what they are grateful for... because hands and feet have an affect that prayers do not. They actually touch the people and make a difference in their lives. A prayer, a blanket, a twenty mean little unless they come with a bit of love.
Repeatedly the guy that started this thread has tried to make clear his complaint and I can understand his complaint well. It isn't so much a stand on prayer, but more a stand on how people who need those prayers, need a bit more. I'm with you dude... I've gotten a little sick of watching people pat themselves on the back for their good c deed, without lending a hand to actually see that the deed gets done. Address the need if you will... ignore it if you want... but don't go a claimin you did something to be proud of unless you actually did. Those in those churches and with charities often times get very rich... I know the founders of our shelter did. There is big money in homelessness... if you know where to get it. That is why I am no longer in the churches or the business... and went out to start doing it from home until I got sick and was in need of both. Did I get the help... no... but I did get a lot of prayers.
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