My Experience with the Poor

As I was preparing my Sunday school lesson for this week, I had reason to remember an experience I had in order to illustrate a point.  Here is the story:

One of my dearest friends (now deceased) was the Director of Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) for The Salvation Army (TSA) in the Metro Division of Chicago for 15 years.  Major Pat and family lived in the northwest suburb of Elk Grove Village, not far from where my first husband's family lived so many years ago, and having been somewhat raised in a western 'burb (Oak Park), I was not unfamiliar with the area.

I had accepted the responsibility of SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) Coordinator for Indiana's EDS responses.  Major Pat took it upon himself to train me for EDS.  He included me in virtually everything, even though we lived 200 miles apart.  I would travel up there to visit him and his wife, Carmella, to help do projects a number of times.

As it happened, in one of those visits, "we" were called to go on an EDS run.  There was a trailer park in Robbins, IL (southern suburb) that was slated to be closed down for whatever reason.  Residents--almost all African-Americans--had been warned in advance but weren't moving out.  In a last ditch effort to motivate them to move, power to the trailer park was shut off.  Still, they didn't move.  They had no money to move and nowhere to go.  They preferred to stay in the dark.  The Rev. Jesse Jackson stepped in and asked TSA to help feed the residents of the park until things could be resolved, and TSA responded.  Twice a day, a mobile feeding unit (canteen) was sent to Robbins to feed the residents.  Thus, in one of my visits to the north, I went on a run to Robbins with Major Pat and another volunteer.

When we got there, it took a few minutes to prepare the food and the foam trays to hand out from the back of the canteen.  I went with charity in my heart and the love of God's work on my lips.  Before we started handing out food, I had asked if there were any rules.  I was told, basically, that we gave one tray to each person who presented him/herself to the truck.  I was down with that.

Most of the people we served that day were happily grateful for what they got at no cost to them:  hot dogs, chips, fruit, milk/juice/water, condiments, plus snacks for after the canteen left to get them through until the next canteen delivery.  And then there were the rest.

*One complained that the truck was late.  (Traffic.)
*A couple complained about the food choice.  (They had hoped for better.)
*Quite a few asked for more than their share and/or came back for seconds claiming that there were people back at their trailers still to be fed.
*Several weren't even from that trailer park.  Word had gotten around.  They learned to watch for the canteen.

Through all of it, I kept looking for direction...for someone to tell me, "No, don't serve them"...but it didn't happen.  Later, after we had left the location to go back to the EDS Center, I asked Major Pat about it.   My questions centered around the abuses of resources.  To me, it seemed like a bottomless pit without solution--a virtual grab-bag of "grab what you can before everyone else takes it".  I was focusing on the ones abusing the system rather than the ones who were doing the best they could to feed their families on limited resources.   "You do this all the time, Pat.  TSA does not ask for nor accept donations at the point of service.  Doesn't it bother you that some people seem ungrateful and demanding?" I understood in that moment that it is so much easier to help someone who is appreciative of what you are trying to do for them.  Patrick told me that, yes, it can be frustrating but that feeding these people for personal reward was not what the ministry is about.  The ultimate goal of the mission is to bring folks to Christ, but since it is difficult for people to concentrate on their immortal souls when their bellies are growling, we feed God's children first and hope that their hunger will transfer from their stomachs to their spirituality.

I learned a lot that day and in subsequent experiences working with The Salvation Army in disaster situations.  More than once, I had grown men show up at my SATERN booth at Indiana amateur radio hamfests, with tears in their eyes as they thanked ME, as a representative of TSA, for the free cups of coffee and donuts that they received from The Salvation Army in foreign places during war time, decades before--how much it meant to them to know that someone was thinking of them and caring for them in war-torn places, not asking for a thing in return.  That moved me.

What else did I learn?  I learned that if you don't believe or trust the people you are serving, you don't require proof that they need what they ask for.  That just makes it necessary for them to lie (at worst) or humiliate themselves (at best) in order to succeed in getting their needs met.  If they need food, give them food or a voucher to get food locally.  If they need gas for a vehicle, you give them gas or a voucher to get gas at a station that has an arrangement for such vouchers.  If they need winter coats for the children, you take them shopping.  In short, you don't give cash to someone you suspect might only spend it on alcohol or drugs, but you DO take care of the need, if you can.  It is our Christian duty to care for the less fortunate.  Jesus did it.  We need to, also.  

I also learned that lives of poverty create lives of crime.  Get a traffic ticket and can't/don't pay the fine?  A bench warrant for your arrest may be issued--which creates more fines, and maybe jail time, which means you can't work to make the money to pay the fines, even if you wanted to.  See how that works?  I once had my driver's license suspended because I could not prove that I had insurance at the time of an "incident".  (Couldn't prove it because I didn't have it!)  I received written notification of the suspension on the very day that I was leaving on a 13-hr road trip for a vacation where people were waiting for me on the other end.  I damned the torpedoes and went on with my life.  Drove illegally for months, all the while knowing how humiliated I would be if I got pulled over.  (Thank God, I didn't.)  When I could, I took care of the problem...but not before I realized that there are probably millions of people on the roads whose licenses have been suspended, for one reason or another.  To society, they are criminals.  To themselves, they are simply in survival mode.  And this is just a minor example.

I learned not to judge.  I have a right to an opinion about their circumstances, but I haven't walked in their shoes.  The gal with the fancy fingernails loading Food Stamp groceries into a late-model car may look like someone who doesn't need food stamps, but in fact, may have done those nails herself and is using Grandma's car to shop.  We just never know!  Jesus reminded his disciples that "the poor will always be with us".  I don't have much, but I try my best to help others as I can.

Go thou and do likewise!