Annual Report 2014 Significant happenings: OEWO once again moved beyond Greenville County. I did workshops or simulations in Anderson, Pickens, and Beaufort counties as well as in Columbia, Roswell, GA. and Buffalo, NY. OEWO...
How many tears does it take to decorate a Christmas tree? There are tears of joy for love for friends for family There are tears of grief for lost loved ones for dreams deferred...
I wish each of you: All the blessings that you can handle Enough tears to keep you real Love that enriches you Discomfort that urges you to reach out to others Hope that keeps...
Beth Lindsay Templeton received the Order of the Silver Crescent, South Carolina’s highest civilian award for significant contributions, leadership, volunteerism and lifelong influence within a region or community. Majority Leader Bruce Bannister presented the...
This ran as a guest editorial by me in the Greenville News on Sunday, December 14, 2014. I have worked in the poverty field for more than thirty years. I am passionate about all...
This time of year is full of contrasts: Darkness of Advent… light of Christmas Excess of the celebration…inadequacy of resources to celebrate Expressions of love and joy… desperation of depression and loneliness Hope of...
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...
This is the gift giving season. We can shop til we drop. We can bake. We can give all kinds of wonderful and not so wonderful gifts. We are also the recipients of amazing...
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...
“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism,” says Walter Brueggeman in The Prophetic Imagination. Compassion says that I feel what you feel, I experience the human frailty that you experience. The powers-that-be cannot allow...
Edited excerpt from Angelika’s Journal November 20 I hope that Mama can work out something soon. With only one bathroom, I have no privacy for ANYTHING. I want to be able to take a...
John-Paul Flintoff, author of How to Change the World, was interviewed in the March/April 2013 issue of The Optimist. He had been active in world changing organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the...
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 told a friend about my mantra verse for all these years of working in poverty: Matthew 10:16 where Jesus is teaching the disciples before sending them out. He says, “Be ye wise as...
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...
In this thought-provoking assortment of stories, author Beth Templeton tells the tales of a composite of Biblical women using their own voices. In truth, she states quite frankly in her Introduction that each of...
Certain words have different meanings for people who have resources and those who don’t. One of the words is the word “money.” Those of us with resources use “money” to mean “security”—home, food, education,...
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...
Simone Weil wrote in Waiting for God: “I have the essential need… to move among of every class and complexion, mixing with them and sharing their life and outlook, so far that is...
This week I was in Roswell, Georgia,to present workshops to both Roswell Presbyterian Church and to nonprofits who partner with the host organization, HomeStretch, a vital nonprofit that works with families for 12-18 months...
