Tag: poverty

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Dear Congress

Generally, I steer clear of politics.  It’s such a divisive subject.  But today I’m going to make an exception. As I write this, we are hot and heavy into the 2012 campaign season.  Print media and the airwaves are rife with lies, mischaracterizations, logical fallacies, mud slingslinging and other intellectual pablum designed to get supporters to the polls and turn the hearts of the undecided.

But there is a gorilla in the room people aren’t talking about.  It is a package of budget cuts and other painful economic measures that will hit us next year if Congress and the President fail to pass a responsible budget.  The fallout from their failure to act has the potential to drive this country into yet another deep recession. So herewith is my plea to our elected representatives.

Dear Congress:

As you campaign, remember that you have pushed this country to the brink of a fiscal cliff.  Please get off your ideologies, cooperate, and pass a responsible budget.  You really don’t have to wait until after the election to do something.  I’m sure the American people will be perfectly happy if we don’t have to live through yet another display of childish brinkmanship. You can do something now.  Yeah, I know that’s wishful thinking, but it’s such a nice dream.

There is enough poverty in our country.  We don’t need you to add to it.  We understand some of us may lose tax loopholes, and some of us may lose government services.  We’ll live. The alternative is an economic disaster that will throw more people into poverty than you can imagine.  So please, grow up, play nice and get something accomplished for a change.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings, Executive Director

http://www.TeensOpposingPoverty.org

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Open the Door and Walk Down the Street

For the first time, Teens Opposing Poverty has coordinated a week-long mission outreach to the homeless in Washington, DC.  Part of the week’s activities included visiting other organizations that work poor and homeless people.

 We visited So Others Might Eat (SOME) and DC Central Kitchen. Both of these organizations do incredible work for the poor and homeless.  DC Central Kitchen provides 5,000 meals a day that are served through a variety of soup kitchens, Meals on Wheels and other programs.  They also have a training program that moves people from homelessness to employment (at a living wage) in the food service industry.  SOME has a soup kitchen, food pantry, clothes closet, low income housing, a warehouse full of furniture and other essential items and a long-term rehab program, along with providing medical, dental and mental health care.

 The people who took us on our tours were passionate about what they do and totally focused on their mission. 

 That is a good thing and a not-so-good thing.

 It’s good because passion and focus on your mission may be the only motivations to carry you through tough times when you are in the nonprofit world. It also keeps all of us who work with an organization or ministry on track.   I am often the same way with TOP, and it has been an important reason why we have stayed alive during the lean seasons.

 But that kind of focus can also be a negative.  We (fingers pointing back to me) too readily put on blinders and fail to connect with our fellow servants.  Thus we often re-invent the wheel, creating unnecessary duplication of services. 

 I’ve had people suggest that we do all sorts of things to combat poverty from job training to setting up day centers for the homeless to transitional housing.  In my wild imaginings I picture TOP doing those things. But other people are already doing that, and it’s not our mission.  We are often the first point of contact for the people we serve.  Our job is to encourage them, find out what keeps them on the street, and point them to the resources that help them into a new life.

 Getting to know other organizations helps us to do a better job of fulfilling our mission and opens our eyes to new possibilities in how we serve others. A fringe benefit of this interaction is that we learn things that help us do a better job of running the organization.

 If you’re involved in a church or nonprofit organization, I challenge you to open the door and walk down the street to other churches and nonprofits and groups who serve the people you serve.  Learn what they do and how they do it.  Don’t be afraid to form partnerships and cross referrals.  Every once in awhile take off the blinders of passion for your own organization and learn a little from others. You’ll be glad you did.

 God’s grace to you

Steve Jennings

www.TeensOpposingPoverty.org

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How Long Will You Hide?

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Psalm 13:1 (NIV)

David, the King of Israel and psalmist,  penned these words about 3,000 years ago, but some things never change. If you live long enough, chances are you will go through at least one time of trouble that will leave you feeling the same way.

You know what it’s like, don’t you? You feel stuck in a hole with no way out. It beats you down. It takes a toll on your mind, body and soul. You feel overwhelmed, frustrated, drained, desperate and angry all at the same time.

It’s awful.

For most of us this pain, and the situation that causes it, will pass. But others get no reprieve.  Broken relationships, addiction, chronic sickness, long-term unemployment and poverty can drive people into the dark pit of despair for a lifetime.

How do they respond? They adapt. Their tough situation in life becomes the “new normal” and they learn how to live in their dark place. They try and fail to “get over the hump” so often that they give up. Once they reach this state of mind, any efforts they make to improve their lives are tainted by the expectation that they will fail again. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can’t count how many homeless people I have worked with over the last 25 years who have given up trying to get out of their situations. They have embraced the belief that God has hidden His face from them and will forget them forever. For them, it takes a bonfire instead of a spark to light the fire of hope.

And yet that fire can still be lit, even in the heart of someone who has been homeless for 10, 20 or 30 years. I have had the unspeakable joy of seeing it happen.

That is where you and I come in. We can light the fire through friendship, exploring possibilities, re-igniting dreams and showing them that maybe- just maybe- God hasn’t forgotten them after all.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings, Executive Director

http://www.TeensOpposingPoverty.org

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Straighten Up

April 4, 2012

Martin Luther King was assassinated on this day in 1968 when I was 12 years old. There was a lot I didn’t understand about racial tensions back then. But when cities burst into riots in the days that followed, I knew enough to be saddened. I knew Dr. King would have mourned that betrayal of his commitment to nonviolence. Although I was young, I clearly remember singer James Brown on the radio in Washington, DC trying to find words that might pour some cooling water on the powder keg that was igniting in the nation’s capital.

The day before he was killed, Dr. King spoke to Memphis sanitation workers who were trying to form a union. “I’ve been to the mountaintop!” he exclaimed. “Mine eyes have seen glory of the coming of the Lord!” were the last words he spoke to an audience. I heard these words and was made aware of their timing when I was searching for my own faith. I marveled at their prophetic power, and it helped me to see a God who was present with us, who could prepare our hearts, minds and souls for things we could not foresee.

Today, I heard another line from that speech that resonated with me: “Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they’re going somewhere because a man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”

As I pondered these words of Dr. King, images of the downtrodden people I have known flashed in my mind’s eye. It renewed my passion and focus in ministry and helped me see one thing that the church can help poor and oppressed people accomplish better than anybody else.

We can help people “straighten their backs up.”

We can help them stand on the shoulders of Jesus. Although His back was bent beneath the weight of the cross and our sins, He is strong enough to lift us up.

We can let them know that somebody believes in them and that they are precious, not only in God’s sight, but in ours. Our acceptance of them as humans of equal value helps them stand straighter and more boldly confront the challenges set before them.

It’s not as easy to see the results of this gift as it is to see somebody eat the food we hand out, but it is far more important. Even if their situation in the world never changes, they will change. Even if they remain on the streets, they will “go somewhere” because they recapture that key element of humanity that is too often torn away from them. The food is important for the moment. Helping people “straighten their backs up” is for a lifetime and for eternity.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings
Executive Director
www.TeensOpposingPoverty.org

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Facing Hell Alone

Our group of volunteers from Teens Opposing Poverty (TOP) pulled up to the motel for a midweek ministry trip. We dodged raindrops as the youth played with the children who lived there and the adults handed out toiletries, paper products, cereal and other needed items.

From a room near the end of the building, a man walked slowly, unsteadily and painfully towards us. His lanky frame was stooped. Sometimes he winced as he took a step. As he got closer, we could smell the alcohol on his breath and see the haze over his blue eyes. We welcomed him and introduced ourselves to Donald.

After a few minutes of conversation he told us that, just four days earlier, he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. The doctors told him there was nothing they could do. He had six months to a year to live. Tears welled up in his eyes as he told us about the pain in his body and his heart. He was grieving.

“I’ve been drinking” he said. “I never drank much before, but it helps to take away the pain. I know you’re Christians. I’m a Christian, too. But it hurts. It really hurts.”

We gave Donald some things he needed and slipped him a bag of cookies. He smiled as he hid them under his shirt and made the short, painful journey back to his room. A few minutes later, he shuffled slowly up the sidewalk to rejoin us. He stayed with us for over an hour, drinking in the love and fellowship of his new friends.

As we got ready to leave, he gave us all a hug. The things we brought him were a big help. The rent at the motel consumed all of his income, so he was grateful for any other help he could get. But he told us that spending time with us meant a lot more than the stuff.

Donald was facing a living hell of pain, fear and grief. Until we showed up, he faced it alone. Nobody should have to face that kind of hell-on-earth alone. An hour, or even a moment, of knowing that somebody cares can impact a person’s life in ways we can’t imagine.

Of all the things we do in TOP’s ministries, sometimes just being there for a person at that all-important, God-appointed time when they need a friend has the greatest impact on everyone involved.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings
Executive Director
www.TeensOpposingPoverty.org

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When It’s All You Have Left

I never cease to be amazed.

Last Sunday a group of brave people ranging in age from 9 to, well, almost as old as I am, spent an afternoon in the cold to conduct Teens Opposing Poverty’s first homeless outreach in Lynchburg, Virginia. We wanted to be a blessing to people who could carry their life’s possessions on their backs and had no family to visit on Christmas day.

We took a little Christmas tree, some Christmas music, cookies, hot soup (it was delicious), hot drinks, water, gift bags with toiletries in them, clothes and wool blankets. Throughout the afternoon a steady stream of people came by. Some lived in tents. Others lived at the Salvation Army Shelter across the street. Still others rented a room or apartment, but the rent ate up almost all of their income. They were all grateful for the gifts we shared.

A lot of the people we served stayed out in the cold with us. We had great conversations and made new friends. It was a successful “TOP Trip”.

In two different conversations that day I heard something that I have heard on many TOP Trips over these last 23 years, and each time I hear it, I am moved and amazed. We were talking to people who had experienced tragedy. The obstacles they had to overcome to get off the street were daunting. They had lost almost everything.

But their faith was strong.

It was elemental.
It was powerful.
It was simple and pure.
God drew close to them.

Their relationship with Jesus had reached a depth that far too few of us experience in this life. When they were dealt the blows that put them on the street, they could have walked away from God. But they didn’t. They ran to Him. They were stripped of everything except Jesus and found out He was all they really needed. That was their message to me.

As I heard them proclaim their faith, I thought about Christmas. Not the Christmas of cathedrals, or silver bells or shopping malls. I thought about the Christmas in Bethlehem. I thought about God in the flesh lying in a manger.

It was elemental.
It was powerful.
It was simple and pure.
God drew close to us.

This Christmas I pray that each of us may experience the closeness to Christ that these precious souls have shown to me. May we all live our lives knowing in our hearts that Jesus is all we need. For that is the greatest gift of all.

Merry Christmas.

Steve Jennings

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The Power of Friendship

The one aspect of TOP’s ministry that has the greatest impact on the poor and on our volunteers can’t be measured or quantified, but it truly changes lives. It’s friendship.

Homeless and poor people spend much of their lives dodging the boulders that the world throws at them. When this happens day after day, they feel tired and beaten.  Often they are ignored or herded like cattle in order to receive the goods and services that keep them alive. It’s dehumanizing to say the least. Just having somebody who will look them in the eye, smile, or give an affirming touch is enough to change their week or their lives.  This encouragement can happen at a first meeting.  But when young people and the poor develop deeper friendships, incredible things can happen.

The benefits of friendship with the poor and homeless go beyond being a bright spot and having warm, fuzzy feelings. For some homeless people, friendships with teens have created a positive accountability. They don’t want to let their young friends down. That sense of obligation has helped several men I know kick a drug or alcohol habit and stay clean.

Another benefit to homeless and poor people is having someone outside their peer group to cheer them on and encourage them when they are down. Here is where teens really shine in their ministry. They don’t judge. They don’t condemn. They listen, try to understand and offer hope. When a homeless man gives up after being knocked down for the fourth or fifth time in a year, that word of encouragement from a teen can be enough to get him to try again.

Through our friendships we earn the right to share the good news of Jesus.  Many nonbelieving homeless and poor people have heard the gospel or read a tract, but they haven’t seen Jesus at work in the people who serve them.  Once they see perfect agape love in action, many are more receptive to hearing about the source of that powerful love.

Never underestimate the power of friendship. It’s the key that opens the door to transformation and hope. 

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings, Executive Director

 Teens Opposing Poverty

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The Best Option for the Poor

            What is the best option for the poor when it comes to the help we provide? What is the best, first step to help lift people out of poverty? Is it meeting their physical needs, helping them find jobs, looking for opportunities for them?  The ways in which we can help poor people are limited only by our imagination.  But I think we often miss a key component that, if not addressed, dooms most poor people to failure in their attempts to improve their lives.

             The neglected key component is how people think.  Unless we help them change their attitudes and worldviews,  most will be doomed to their current station in life.  After meeting their basic needs, the best option for the poor in our work with them is to help them see that there is a better way to approach problems.

             Below are just a two of the mental obstacles that keep poor people poor:

 Entitlement Mentality: The attitude that someone else should provide for them and fix their problems.  This, in my opinion, is the strongest link in the chain that enslaves people in a life of poverty.  We must help them realize that, ultimately, they have to take initiative and develop persistence in overcoming their obstacles.

 Hopelessness:  In homeless people, this is a common problem.  Some of my homeless friends have been knocked down so many times, they stop trying, or when they suffer a setback, they medicate themselves with drugs or alcohol or indulge in other destructive behaviors.  Encouragement should be a key element of every ministry with the poor.  Faith in Christ is also a strong deterrent to hopelessness among the homeless.

             So the best option for the poor is to become their friend and help them see that they can make it if they change their thinking.  With the right attitude and lots of persistence they CAN win their personal fight against poverty.

God’s grace to you,

Steve Jennings

Executive Director, Teens Opposing Poverty