Poverty

a Biblical thought...
Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage. (Matt 20:26-28)

a Book thought...
Orville Wright did not have a pilot's license. (p191 MacKenzie)
a Dave thought...
As it is Blog Action Day on Poverty I thought I would share a couple of thoughts that have stayed with me over the years. Firstly the cab horse charter from William Booth's Darkest England and the Way Out. The idea here was that every human on the earth should have as much dignity as the cab horse, that is a job to do, food to eat, and somewhere to sleep for the night. William was most disturbed when he saw these horses living better lives than many of the people on the streets in London at the time, and made it his mandate to provide the same for every person he came in contact with. I must agree here with various guys I have met over the years when they have something to do during the day it normally helps their purpose for living and in turn often helps them to afford food, clothing and accommodation. Even those that have just volunteered around our centres have shown that having a reason to get out of bed in the morning can improve their mental health.

Secondly a personal challenge that was given to me by Geoff Ryan at ACC in 2003. He said that it is essential that we all have friends who are poor. Ever since that conversation I have deliberately befriended a couple of guys I have met through the Salvos and although they live very different lives to me, through spending time with them, it has certainly changed the way I think about the first world poor. My ongoing relationship with these guys have meant eating together, meeting each others families, finding them volunteer work, as well as them coming over to my house some evenings.

Just a thought.