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Monday, January 28, 2008

Homeless man named Perry and his gold coin offering

I'm sitting here in tears. Oldtimer Speaks Out has at least one story a week that does that to me.


Perry and his gold coin offering

One of these men, a homeless veteran is Perry. Perry has been described by Pat as “having an entourage of people swirling around him in his head always talking to him.” Perry came to our church among the first two to accept our invitation to visit. Pat and Scott picked him up. During one sermon our Pastor was talking about the woman who gave all she had, a penny, and what a wonderful thing that was.

Perry got up in the middle of the sermon and started for the pulpit. Scott caught up with him and asked what his intentions were. “I’m going to make an offering”. ”But wait, there is a time for that later”, said Scott. “But I want to give now!” So Perry took his Chucky Cheese gold token to the alter and placed it on the corner of the choir railing, and returned to his seat just beaming! Grinning from ear to ear. Gave all he had, real gold to him.

I don’t know what happened to Perry when the evictions came. I think that he had dissappeared. We know of one death, Dominic, and we know that there is likely more - I learned today that the medical examiner sent a homeless person to a funeral home near our church who was apparently found in the same lot we were serving, but Dominic had been found somewhere else.
go here for the rest
http://oldtimer.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/our-fight-for-the-homeless-some-stories/


The pastor was wrong because the woman didn't give one coin, but she gave two. That was all she had and it's been said this gesture is the basis for the saying "putting in my two cents" when we offer our opinion from all we have in our mind.

This would be a wonderful world if we all put in our two cents. When we take compassion on those who have less than us even though we have very little of our own, we prove that we are grateful even for crumbs. When we set ourselves aside for the sake of someone else, that is what Christ was talking about. It wasn't just being willing to lay down your physical life, but to be willing to set aside focus on your own life because someone else is in need. Some may just need a shoulder to cry on, when you are dealing with your own pain. Some may need clothing when you are trying to figure out how to afford to buy the new coat that's on sale and you really want it. You may remember a time in your life when you were eating cereal twice a day because it was a lean month of income but a huge month for bills. You carry on your back those tough days and feel compassion for someone else knowing how much it does hurt to be broke and in need.

For the homeless, especially the homeless veterans dealing with other issues, they live lives as outcasts. Their families have sent them away, refusing to take care of them, or they themselves decided they didn't deserve their families and vanished into a world of wondering.

When we see a homeless person the first thought that comes into our mind is to not look at them. If we turn our heads, they won't come close. They won't ask for money. Horror overcomes us if they dare approach. Why is that? Is it that we fear they will try to harm us or we may catch something from them? That's hardly likely. Are we afraid we may need the change in our pocket or that they will use the buck and half we give them to get drunk with? What business is that of our's? We won't know if they eat or not unless we take them the food or take them to the food.

What about clothing? Do we have a yard sale so we can make some money on what we no longer want to own? Or do we decide to donate the clothes we don't need to someone who does need them? I donate mine. The Vietnam Veterans just picked up bags of clothes that filled my closet I hardly ever wore. No, I didn't go through my closet with them in mind. I did it because I'm a slob when it comes to my closet. My bureau is virtually empty because I'm too lazy to put the clean clothes in draws. It's a lot easier to just stack them on a shelf in my closet. It was purely selfish because I got to the point where I couldn't find anything and didn't have room to hang anything up. So I packed up what I never get around to wearing and donated it to the vets. I figured the clothes weren't doing me any good and cleaning out my closet helped me to find some of the favorite pieces of clothing I haven't been able to find in months.

What about a kind word? Can we manage to say a kind word to a homeless person? Do we even know how they became homeless? We can assume they must deserve to be homeless and then we won't have to face the fact we provide clothing, footwear, shelter and meals to prisoners. We can assume they want to be homeless and then we won't have to face the fact that if they want to be homeless there has to be a reason behind it. Would you in your right mind ever seek to be without anything?

We humans decide who we will judge, who we will help and what we will do while most of the time it's purely out of self interest. Some people will act as if they are doing it for the sake of someone else when what they really want is for people to see them doing it. That is what we think isn't it when we see someone at a feeding table on Lake Eola in Orlando.

Last week this just came out from Local 6 News


Just released this morning

20,000 War Vets Living On Florida Streets; 1,400 In Central Florida

POSTED: 5:42 pm EST January 23, 2008

UPDATED: 10:58 pm EST January 23, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. -- More than 20,000 military veterans in Florida are homeless, living in a kind of war zone they had never imaged -- on the streets and in the woods.

A former U.S. Marine named Pete who once lived in Cocoa Beach with a great view of the ocean is now one of Central Florida's 1,400 homeless.

Pete lives in the woods.

"I got a tent in the woods. I'm not going to a shelter," Pete said. "I'm a carpenter by trade and I just need to get back to work."


Now we can just ignore them, walk by them, avoid them, but they won't go away. As a matter of fact, if we ignore them they will increase in numbers. They already have. 20,000 homeless veterans in Florida when the last time I checked the numbers it was 14,000. We have 1,400 in Central Florida alone. The Dom in the VA center only has bed for 60. There are other beds scattered across the area but there are not enough of them. What we really have to be aware of is there are homeless the VA doesn't even know about.

One of their stories was posted on this blog because of a comment made by the wife of a disabled veteran who lost everything because he was wounded and cannot work but received a zero percent disability. They are living with a relative. We can only assume this is the case here in Orlando as well. While we may be horrified by the numbers we know about, we need to always retain the fact there are more.

I think having homeless people in this nation is a sin. While we can give huge tax breaks to oil companies sucking our wallets dry at the pump, breaks for businesses looking at the bonus money they make by laying people off, the result is suffering for the many for the sake of the few. Still even with this, my heart is tugged by the veterans. They were willing to lay down their lives for this country and we do owe them a debt of true gratitude. We owe them to not be homeless. I posted about this many times that if we can't even take care of them, the chance of the regular citizens to be taken care of is highly unlikely.

Next time there is a meeting you attend or you hear about a homeless person being blamed for their state, put in your own two cents and set the record straight. Maybe a homeless man like Perry will get you a gold coin in heaven for helping him when he was the least among us.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com


"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington

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