Prayer
Loving God, Holy One of our lives, we come to you with our heads bowed in shame. We have brothers and sisters who have no place to call home, who walk these very streets....
Loving God, Holy One of our lives, we come to you with our heads bowed in shame. We have brothers and sisters who have no place to call home, who walk these very streets....
Affordable is a nondescript word. However, it gets used a lot, especially now in Greenville while the City works with their consultant and other groups planning to build more “affordable housing.” When people with...
An excerpt from Angelika’s Journal about her Christmas: December 1 We’ve left Ber-ber’s but we’re not where I had in mind. We now live in a shelter for women and children. Thank goodness my...
August 1 Journal Entry I’ve been feeling a tightness in my insides. I look at Mama and she says that she’s already eaten when she gives us our supper but she looks skinnier and...
I was recently asked to comment further on a statement that I made publicly about dealing with Unseen Greenville. I said that change requires dealing with structural and systems issues. The person who asked...
In my previous blog posting, I wrote about the man that my husband Jim and I found lying beside a major thoroughfare. I have now talked with Nick Bush of United Ministries Place of...
On Saturday my husband Jim and I headed out in the car. As we passed the corner of Randall Street and Rutherford Road, Jim said, “There’s a guy lying in the grass over there.”...
I recently revisited some articles I wrote for the newsletter at United Ministries when I still worked there. This scenario from December 2007 touched me once again. Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Many of...
Here is an excerpt from Angelika’s Journal. She and her mother and brother are now staying in a shelter. December 20 Today was our last day of school before the winter break. I’m sad...
I ran into Gloria today whom I first met as an addicted, homeless prostitute. I was thrilled to learn that she has been working the same job for nine years. She goes to church...
I was asked recently asked by someone who is mentoring an at-risk youth, “Is college for everyone?” She wondered about how valid it was for her to push the idea of college for someone...
When I was at a meeting with ministers, one of them asked me how a congregation decided which service ministries to support financially and which ministries for them to create or be involved with. I explained that a...
Not infrequently through the years, I have been asked to bring a program participant with me when I have talked with groups about poverty. People want to hear from someone who lives what I teach about....
With elections around the corner, the words of Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund seem very appropriate. She calls us to renewed vision and commitment for those who follow in our footsteps. She writes in The...
Several years ago the local paper ran an article about a young man who hopped a train from Raleigh to Charleston with $25 in his pocket. Within six months, he had saved $2500 and...
People who live in poverty, those who do not use banking services , and people who use a cash only economy are often at the mercy of check cashing and title loan companies. These...
Powerful Learning Experience Back in 2007, I discovered the Missouri Action Community Poverty Simulation, an experience that opens people’s eyes to the human cost of poverty. The power of this unique learning resource is...
When I worked at a large nonprofit that offered people who lived in poverty life changing opportunities, the work was sometimes frustrating. We had to redefine success. Some people in the community thought our...
Do we reach out to others because we want to change them or because we love them as they are? What a question. Of course, we want people to improve their lives. Why else...
August 12 When Ber-ber went to the store today, she picked up the list of the school supplies that we’ll need this year. I looked at the list and my heart just fell to...