Part 5: Do You Know Where I Came From? All of us have a history that affects our perspective on life. Your family and the neighborhood you grew up in makes a difference to how you might live your life. We have had friends and have made decisions that have made an impact on our lives. The mistake we often make when we are helping the homeless (or anyone who is poor) is looking at how to help them, but using our history as the point of reference instead of looking at their life

Part 3: Can I have my Dignity Back Please? One of the definitions of the word dignity is “the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed." One of the things I love about Jesus is how he always treated people with dignity. Not just the people who the world says deserve dignity, but even people who from a worldly perspective don’t deserve honor or esteem. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is found in all four Gospels. It's when a woman comes to anoint Jesus wi

Part 2: Bad Charity So is all charity created equal? As an executive director of a non-profit I get this question all the time. Here is how it is usually worded: "If I help this person, will I be helping or hurting them?" It is actually an important question to ask before you help anyone, whether they are homeless or not. I think the first thing you need to examine before you help someone is your own motive: "Are you helping the person for them or for yourself?" If you are he

Part 1: Why Should We Help the Poor? So why should we help the poor? The answer initially seems obvious…Yes, it’s the right thing to do. However, I would like to spend a little time talking about why we should help the poor. Often we are in a rush to help without a full and complete understanding of why we should help the poor. Helping the poor is extremely important to God; the scriptures are filled with God’s voice telling us to care for the poor. I think it's because He k