New Study on Financial Self-Sufficiency for South Carolina Families Columbia, SC (January 19, 2016) – A new report takes a realistic look at how much is actually needed to support a family in South...
When I was at a meeting with ministers, one of them asked me how a congregation decided what service ministries to support financially and what ministries for them to create or be involved with. ...
I have the opportunity on a regular basis to help people begin to look at their community in ways beyond what they know, feel, and think. Sometimes people are extremely grateful that they gain...
Our Eyes Were Opened, Inc. Annotated Bibliography for Recommended Reading Berreby, David, Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2005. Berreby shows how science tackles questions of group...
The Bible talks a lot about the rich and the poor. The Bible never talks about the middle class. One is either rich or one is poor. There seems to be no in-between. This...
Last week I facilitated a poverty simulation for the MedEx Academy sponsored by the Greenville Health System. Participating were high school seniors and college juniors and seniors who are planning careers in the medical...
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...
The gift of Uncharted Journey continues to amaze me because of the hunger that people express for the kinds of things that I have learned and want to share. People who go through all...
Sometimes I’m asked about why I named my company Our Eyes Were Opened, Inc. Well, the Inc. part is just part of being a company. The name, Our Eyes Were Opened, however, has several...
I have now facilitated the Poverty Simulation for more than 5000 people. These are a few of the things I have learned about the process…not the specific insights that people share in the debriefing...
With our area’s ice, sleet, snow, and below normal temperatures, many things have come to a halt. Schools, childcare facilities, medical practices, businesses, service organizations, and churches have been closed or opened only for...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
Perspective is a wonderful thing. A story floated around on the internet about a wealthy father who took his son on a trip to show him how poor people live. Where the father saw...