Why Are There More Beggars Around the Holidays? II

I know I have published this before but I saw a video on Facebook earlier in the month that just screamed that I must publish this again.  The Facebook video was of a TV news anchor that had seen this pregnant lady and her young son at a local store, she had even given them money a few times. This day she was at a local restaurant not far from where she normally sees the pregnant lady.  The news lady casual watches the young lady leave the restaurant and get into a recent model Mercedes Benz.  The news lady cannot believe this so she leaves the restaurant and fellows the Mercedes.  While driving she takes several videos of the car and occupants.  They all drive to another shopping center where the pregnant mother and son get out and start begging.  The news lady gets out of her car and starts to videotape the beggars. The pregnant lady notices the news lady videotaping.  The pregnant lady picks up a big stone and chases the news lady into her car.  Then the beggars get into the Mercedes and drive away.  With the video the news lady has the license plate of the Mercedes.  The news traced the license plate and found out the address of the pregnant mother.  With a film crew the news lady goes to the address which in a nice apartment, but the pregnant lady has move with no forwarding address.  

Please read the rest again, because I feel this is the best advice I can give for you to deal with beggars this time of year. 
As I said earlier, I had to work hard to find some new traditions I had not talked about for Christmas, and my family came up with two things that were not exactly Christmas traditions, but I think need to be put in a blog.  The first one came from my son, and it was a really good question, so I will tackle it first.  
There are more beggars out around the holidays because of the simple fact that they know that people are more willing to share at Christmas time. This goes back to the blog on A Christmas Carol.  There have been studies and on a good weekend beggars on a corner can make $100 to $180 dollars a day, but during the holidays that can go up to $200 to $300 dollars a day.  The other problem is that there are professional beggars.  In other words, there is a large group of people whose only job is begging.  You may have seen in Houston on the news a couple years ago, where a man was using his children to go into busy streets to beg and he was arrested for child endangerment.  When they checked out where he lived, they discovered that he had a nice apartment with several large TV’s and all the latest electronics, which had been purchased from money they got from begging.
This is why I am very leery of giving any money to a beggar.  In seminary, I had a friend who was in charge of the Mission in Montrose that ministers to run-away and troubled teens.  He told me never to give money to a beggar because in the example of the teens he works with, that money will not go for food or a place to stay, but drugs or alcohol.  He said if you feel compelled to give them something, give them food.  My wife read a book several years ago called Shop, Save and Share.  It was about how to get the best deals using coupons. In that book, part of the sharing was to purchase extra canned food with the savings from the coupons and leave the extra cans in your car. Then when you come across a beggar who says, “Will work for food” give him a few cans of food.    
Another thing my friend from seminary said is never take one of these people home with you to do some work and then feed them because many time they will come back later with friends and rob you.  He says the best thing to do is use the example that Jesus gave us in the Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25- 37
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? howreadiest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus,and who is my neighbor?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which one of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Now what my friend means by following the example of the Good Samaritan is you see the Samaritan takes care of the man’s immediate need to stop the bleeding and other first aid.  In the instance of a person who really needs help, they will take a meal or canned goods.  Then the Samaritan did not take them to his home but took him to an Inn.  In Bible times, Inns were more than a place to stay, they were also like a hospital; they would take care of sick people, for a price of course.  Therefore, for us today that would be equal to taking the person to a place similar to my friend’s mission in Montrose here in Houston, the Star of Hope Mission or the Women’s Center.  There are several places like this in the Houston area.  They are much better equipped than you are to handle the problems of the person. The next part is also important not to forget.  On the next day, the Samaritan gave the Innkeeper money to take care of the man. He did not give it to the injured man, but to the Innkeeper.  Therefore, we need to support the places that are set up to help these people so that they can continue their purpose to care for them.
I think my son asked about a very appropriate subject at this time of year that we all should think about. How you can show God’s love to these people, help them and keep ourselves safe in the process.


  

ACF Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving ACF

I asked several people to pray last week for our Thanksgiving celebration at the American Chinese Fellowship.  First of all, I want to thank you very much for your prayers, they literally made the celebration more than we could have ever dreamed of.  Let me explain. 

First, let me back up a second for those of you who do not know.  Sharon, Kaleb and I, most every Friday night go to a ministry called the American Chinese Fellowship.  A Doctor in the Med Center started it for the doctors and technicians who come from mainland China.   He invites them to the fellowship to help them with their English and learn about American culture.  While they are there, they use the Bible to help them learn English.  On a normal Friday night, they serve an authentic Chinese meal, then the children go with my family and we hold an Awana club.  The adults then have a song, a short sermonette, and then break up into classes where they study the Bible in English.

Last Friday we had our Thanksgiving celebration to show our American culture to the Chinese.  We normally have been running a little over a hundred this semester.  We were planning for about 250 people, so they purchased 275 servings of turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, and a piece of pie.  Well, thanks to all of your prayers they had to purchase additional food…Twice.  The best count we have is that over 500 meals were served. 

Back in the kid’s area, Sharon and I led the kids in some very active songs like “Father Abraham” and “I Got a River of Life”.  We then led the grade school children in a gospel presentation.  This went okay, but most of the children did not speak very good English.  All the kids were thirsty, so we had a water break and while on break they said, “(hey) this is like the women at the well”.  Therefore, when we came back, we told the story of the women at the well, by this time we had an interpreter.  She helped us reach the ones who did not understand English that well.  At the end we always ask the children if there was any one that wanted to learn more about Jesus, we had three that needed Chinese speakers to talk with them. 

I did not hear about the adult side but I do know that we only had two set of parents come early to get their kids out of all the families present.  So most of the people stayed and listened to the program.

One more thing that really warmed my heart, I thought I was there to help lead people to Christ and be a leader, but a little girl showed me otherwise. If you have been following my blog for a while, you know I led two girls to Christ early in our ministry at the ACF.  One of these girls left the next day for China, the other little girl shows up every once in a while.  Well, she was there Friday night, she found me and came up to talk with me as we were going to the classroom.  While we were walking back there, she grabbed my hand and held it all the way back to class.  This just melted me.  I felt like Jesus was holding my hand on the way back to class encouraging me for the task ahead.