Three years ago Gracie and I were flying out of Guatemala and while waiting on our flight we met a lady who was also doing missions. She told us that she had started a community service project where her organization would offer rice, beans, corn meal and oil to residents of the community. The only stipulation was that the resident had to bring a bag of trash in order to claim the commodity. She said it started slowly but as time passed she saw a dramatic change in the entire neighborhood. She said that, what once was a an attitude of throwing the trash down on the street, changed to neighbors holding other neighbors accountable for picking up trash. What once was a very dirty and nasty area has turned into a clean and respectable neighborhood. Residents, who at one time did not know what pride in your neighborhood was, turned into people who were proud of what they were doing. In the book of Ruth we learn that God’s people took care of widows by leaving a portion of the field behind so that the widows could come behind them and gather the grain. Maybe it was done this way in order that the widows could retain some dignity. They didn’t want hand outs they just needed help. Allowing them to have effort involved in the process may have allowed them to retain some self respect. At Prince Of Peace we have done community outreach for years. We have taken commodities to the neighborhood. We will continue to do this to those who cannot take care of themselves. In the meantime we will continue to allow the people of the community to have,as some say it “skin in the game”, by cleaning up their community and being rewarded for doing so. The pictures posted are of trash that was picked up and delivered by residents of the community. We gave rice, beans and other commodities to anyone who brought trash to us. It was a great day. Chris Hager
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 15:00:06 +0000
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