Even After All These Years…
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.”...
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.”...
We are now in Holy Week. Toward the end of his life, Mary, sister of Martha, anointed Jesus’ feet. Here is her story. *** My mother’s sister, Ned, was eleven years older than she....
Are you a social capitalist? I’m not asking you if you are a socialist or a capitalist. I’m asking, “Are you a social capitalist?” Social Capital is the value of social networks and norms...
Have you ever heard of corporate social responsibility? I first read about it in 2007 but it continues to resonate with me. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is “contributing to sustainable development by working to...
Answers to poverty quiz questions 16-20: 16.c; 17.b; 18.c; 19.a; 20.c What was the most successful part of the simulation for you? Teaching us about poverty and hardships people may have in their lives...
When I switch from the 2014 calendar to the pristinely clean pages of my new 2015 calendar, everything seems a possibility. The past year with both joys and concerns is done and the new...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
Suppose you had no car. Sit with that a moment. Where I live, 27,913 residents or 14.0% get to work in another way than driving themselves so they depend on someone else to get...