FAITH IN ACTION

This past weekend Paul, Grady and I were at Michelle’s house delivering a twin bed to her son Chase, who has been sleeping on the couch in his tiny room  no bigger than a large walk in closet.  He plays football for one of the local high school teams, and his room is populated with typical teenager stuff, from a stereo, guitar, and picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his youthful muscular heyday.  The home includes Chase’s brother who works 20-30 hours a week at Kroger stocking shelves, his older sister who is afflicted with Crohn’s Disease, and her four year old daughter.

Chase’s smile and easy manner is infectious as he cheerfully helped us manipulate the couch out of his room and move the bed into his room.  His mother, on the other hand, is deeply afraid.  Her family may be homeless the first week of February when their home is sold on the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse.

Michelle’s unemployment has run out, she can’t find a job, and the kids’ father does not pay child support.  She’s more than willing to pull herself up by the bootstraps, but she can’t find them.  She visits the Pantry faithfully to gather food for her kids. She went through the Hope Project to become more employable, but there are simply no jobs out there to be had.  She looked to us for answers, and all we could promise was a week or two at an efficiency lodge while we place her family in a shelter, if it comes to that.  Meanwhile, we pray and look into the child support while Michelle feverishly pursues a mortgage modification even though its doubtful with zero income.

Hemingway’s book “To Have and Have Not” talks about how the Depression forced depravity and hunger upon the poor residents of Key West, some of whom end up doing the wrong thing just to survive.  Jesus Christ told us who have, to share our blessings with the have nots.  Compared to Michelle and her family, Paul, Grady, and I have many things.  We are not worried about being homeless in less than a month.  In America people tend to look at their material possessions and decide it was achieved by their own hard work.  But what if you get sick, or your company shuts down? What if the big pile of money you are sitting on that you think will keep you safe becomes worthless due to inflation and economic upheaval? The reality is that everything we have, including our lives, is a gift from God.  So let us who currently have, share our lives, and our things, with the have nots in Jesus name.

Picture a young woman at the curb of a local hotel in the cold calling churches begging for help because she is homeless. I never asked if she got Crossroads on the phone because the A’s and B’s said they couldn’t help.

Alma of our FiA team asked Randy Stauffer to go with her and he kindly said yes.  Tina had spent the last hundred days or so in our jail, then with her boyfriend in south Georgia but her probation officer said she couldn’t live there because he was on probation as well.  She somehow wore out her welcome in Buchanan with friends.

She has children being raised by her mother.  Drugs, jail and other things that upset Alma to even think about. We convinced her mother long distance to fund a week at In Town Suites while we prayerfully searched for a shelter placement in Atlanta, since Douglas County offered nothing, other than jail. This is something we hope to fix someday, God willing.

So one day we are sitting in the nice leather easy chairs at Crossroads’ beautiful new cafe and Tina shares her story. Her demeanor is child like while she talks about being a consistent drug user over a course of years, being estranged from her family, jail, separated from her children.  She looks at me, face hidden in the afternoon sun silhouette beaming through the church front door and says, “you’re so serious! Why are you so serious? Skittles and rainbows, skittles and rainbows! You know, the candy! I like skittles, and rainbows are so pretty. I always say that over and over again when I am sad, it makes me feel better….”