Feeding the Homeless + the Poor

[Woody]

My wife just shared with me a dream she has for our church.

Currently we have a soup kitchen and feed the homeless and poor or anyone needing a meal ... one day a week.

My wife would like to see our church feeding them on the weekend because they say that there are no meals available to them on weekends.

Well ... the radical idea of my radical wife .... is to feed them Sabbath morning just before church. This way ... they we could invite them to stay for the church service.

While I like the idea ... I can see the work that it would involve and that disrupts my idea of Sabbath. Would it be worth it? Even though it is uncomfortable ... Would it be worth it?

Has anyone heard of this idea ??? Has anyone tried it?

Would you end up hurting the 'image' of the church with the poor and homeless among you attending church?

I would really appreciate any thoughts on this idea. Is it workable and would it help or hinder the church?

[Nightingale]

This sounds like a wonderful idea!!! I beleive this has been done before, maybe in Seattle or somewhere like that. It is possible to do alot of the work before Sabbath.

Do you live in an area where there are lots of homeless?

Are there many people in your church who would be willing to help in this way? Teens and youth love doing these kinds of things.

Great outreach idea!

[Woody]

Thanks for your response Nightingale. We do have a large amount of need in this economically depressed area. We have a fair amount of support for this program of feeding them during the week. I don't know if there would be support for it on Sabbath. This is why I would like to gather ideas and information from all of you. Does anyone know of a contact person who has tried it? You mentioned Seattle? Do you know which church?

We do have a good youth group but so far they have not been involved. Good idea though. I will mention that to my wife. Also ... We are a University town. I wonder if we could even get Non-SDA help from the University here. They often have motivation and concern for the Homeless.

[Gail]

The church I'm attending now just finished up a feed-the-homeless program. (They stopped because the Salvation Army just received a big grant to do a big program and ours would be doubling up so was now seen to be redundant)

Over the years the church has received cards and letters from the recipients, letting us know how much the food AND THE VISITS were appreciated. Now, upon our farewell they said that they will especially miss visiting with the children.

And yes, we've had some attend church, one quite regularly.

[Woody]

Thanks Gail. Could you explain more about what you mean when you say 'visits' ?

Do you have children come to visit with the homeless while they eat?

[Gail]

The church members brought the food to them AND yes, they took their children with them.

It was a lunch-making program that happened every Sunday. The lunches were prepared every Saturday night, then delivered on Sundays.

[Gail]

I like that aspect... I think it's good for the homeless and it's a good life-experience for the children.

[Woody]

Thanks. Now I understand. With your program ... you brought the food to them rather than with our method of having them come to the church to get their food. I am not sure which is best. The homeless do have some difficulties getting transportation to our church. We are located downtown so it is central but still some have to walk a good distance. With bad weather this is difficult.

[carolaa]

Redwood, my friend, I think it sounds like a great idea, and I think you sound like a legalist.

[Gail]

Thanks. Now I understand. With your program ... you brought the food to them rather than with our method of having them come to the church to get their food. I am not sure which is best. The homeless do have some difficulties getting transportation to our church. We are located downtown so it is central but still some have to walk a good distance. With bad weather this is difficult.

Probably more practical than anything else. The one man who came regularly (he still comes every so often but not so regularly as before) brought his grocery buggy with stuff and it must have been difficult. The church is not as central if you have to haul your stuff with you.

[Liz]

The homeless do have some difficulties getting transportation to our church. We are located downtown so it is central but still some have to walk a good distance. With bad weather this is difficult.

Are you on a bus route? It may mean adjusting your meal times, for either the breakfast or the lunch crowd. But bus passes are not that expensive, and you could hand them out a week in advance. Then time your program between drop off and pick up.

Oh and by the way, I think this is a great idea. You don't have to have fancy meals, to keep the workload light, and use paper goods, so you can just toss everything in the trash--I know, I know, not environmentally friendly, but it does help with cleanup; or until you get your program under way and know how many volunteers will be helping.

[Woody]

Redwood, my friend, I think it sounds like a great idea, and I think you sound like a legalist.

Huh?

Hmmmmm?

Ahhh?

Who?

What?

Oh!

Now I have it figured out ... you must be talking to that Redwood Tree standin next to me. ??? Please help me out with this legalist comment. I had a short self imposed Sabbatical of a few days while I had the stomach flu ... so my thinkin may be slowed while the other parts of me were running. But, I just don't get it. Could you further explain this??? I may be a conservative as confirmed by those here ... but certainly not a legalist in my view. How do you view that thought?

[Gail]

Redwood, if your wife gets this going please let us know how it goes!

[Woody]

Will do that. She has big dreams of getting corporate sponsorship also. She is in the process of taking a class on grant writing. Wish her luck. She is a go-getter. No. Rather than wishin her luck ... please pray for her efforts. Thanks.

When I married her ... she had taken in a homeless person for years and helped her to turn her life around. It was a good success story. BTW. This person was on drugs and the whole works. It is not easy to assist someone in this situation but it can be done.

So, when you are talking about the homeless ... my wife does more than just talkin.

Hope you don't mind a little spouse braggin. But she deserves it. I get tired just watchin her.

[Gail]

I don't mind a little spouse (or kid) bragging at all! I always like to read good news!

[carolaa]

I can see the work that it would involve and that disrupts my idea of Sabbath. Would it be worth it? Even though it is uncomfortable ... Would it be worth it?

Has anyone heard of this idea ??? Has anyone tried it?

Would you end up hurting the 'image' of the church with the poor and homeless among you attending church?

Maybe you were just playing devil's advocate; it didn't sound like it to me. It did sound out of character for you to be more concerned about work and image than about helping people.

[Woody]

Mostly ... just playing devil's advocate.

But it IS a sacrifice for I would be losing my comfortable and easy and addictive way of Sabbath. I have a routine. I like my rest and usual Sabbath. This would be a disruption ...

But a good one for a good cause.

[carolaa]

It's true - comfort is a tough thing to give up. It's one of the things we tend to value most. But it's pretty low on God's priorities, I think. Kinda sobering to think about.

[Amelia]

I did not give up any comforts today but I did feed a homeless persons dog. And that was all he asked for. The store I was working just happened to have a closeout on very good dry dog food and he had such a sweet dog. I couldn't resist.

[Woody]

HEY Amelia ... What a great idea for a ministry. Dog feeding. Seriously. I am glad that you did that and also that you shared it with us. Thanks.

[rush4hire]

Helpin' the homeless. That's good ole' fashioned legalism. My kind of thing.

At Oklahoma City, at the church I used to go to, all the legalists there would feed the homeless every Sabbath. I thought it was a good project. It made us feel good. They appreciated the food. There was a TV there playing some prophecy seminar so they would have something to watch while they ate. It was not in the church, but at some big ware-house-like building.

I guess they where trying to earn their salvation by the works of the law.

[color:#BF0000]Duet. 15:4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance to possess it:

15:5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.

15:6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

15:7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:

15:8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, [in that] which he wanteth.

15:9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

15:10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

15:11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

To be honest, I really wish there where more legalists who will be afraid not to do this. Because at times I really could have used some help. There where people in my SDA church, (in Kansas), that owned cattle ranches that make hundreds of thousands a year and I couldn't even get any of them to give me a loan of $1000 so I could buy a junky car so I could get a job after the corrupt Literature Evangelist program took all my money and sent me away with nothing, because I kept saying we should not just focus on sales, but on witnessing and sales will take care of themselves. And I couldn't eat their food 'cause it was stuff Ellen White said not to eat. They had been raised in the church and their works where much greater than mine, so naturally, they where offended.

I've been there. I know how it feels. I was eating out of trash cans at one point in my life, living in an abandoned trailer, and no in my church moved a finger to help me. Well, If I ever make it, I sure won't be like that. I will go looking for people that need help. By the Lord's grace, may I not fail to do this.

[Woody]

Quote:

I've been there. I know how it feels. I was eating out of trash cans at one point in my life, living in an abandoned trailer, and no in my church moved a finger to help me.

Eating out of garbage cans rather than accepting the meat that was offered you by the church? Ellen White frequently ate meat ... even unclean meat when nothing else was available. What is it with you?

Why would you have this strict food diet so that you can obey Ellen White and then go against what she says about sports by playing tennis which she says is evil?

Just curious how you justify that.

[rush4hire]

Originally Posted By: rush4hire

I've been there. I know how it feels. I was eating out of trash cans at one point in my life, living in an abandoned trailer, and no in my church moved a finger to help me.

Eating out of garbage cans rather than accepting the meat that was offered you by the church? Ellen White frequently ate meat ... even unclean meat when nothing else was available. What is it with you?

Why would you have this strict food diet so that you can obey Ellen White and then go against what she says about sports by playing tennis which she says is evil?

Just curious how you justify that.

I never said meat was offered by my church. And I replied to your comment about spectator tennis.

And where do you get the idea that Ellen White ate unclean meat after they learned about it in 1967? Because of the duck? They still didn't know it was unclean. Duck being unclean is an unsettled issue among many to this day. Also they didn't know oysters where even animals. They thought they where plants or something.

[color:#BF0000]Romans 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that [there is] nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him [it is] unclean.

[Woody]

IN 1873 She ate duck. See Manuscript 12, 1873

Yet, in 1876 she calmly talks about eating salmon a number of times at home while her husband was gone. Check this out in MR vol 14 p.336

1882 she asked her daughter in law "If you can get me a good box of herrings, fresh ones, please do so. These last ones that Willie got are bitter and old. ... If you can get a few cans of good oysters, get them" Letter 16 1882

In 1894 she had a reconversion about meat and stated "Since the camp meeting at Brighton (January 1894) I have absolutely banished meat from my table" CDF 88

Again in 1894 she stated "But when the selfishness of taking lives of animals to gratify a perverted appetite was presented to me by a Catholic woman, kneeling at my feet, I felt ashamed and distressed ... I said 'I will no longer patronize the butcher, I will not have the flesh of porpses on my table'" Test p. 38

In 1895 she asked her son to buy some "dried codfish and dried fish of ANY description --- nothing canned". Letter 149

1896 "I use fish when I can get it. We get beautiful fish from the salt water lake near here." Letter 128 1896

1907 ... she wrote .... "I said to Sara,'take chickens from my place and prepare them some broth" CDF 466

[Amelia]

How did you two get from feeding the homeless to what Ellen White ate? We all know she ate meat. She wasn't perfect. Quit arguing jots and tittles!