Uncategorized
Money Solicitors
I had an experience a few days ago that I’m sure many people face regularly – someone in a public location soliciting cash. How do you handle those situations?
The challenge comes when we find ourselves asked for cash rather than food. Will the cash be used for their stated purpose of bus fare, etc? The further challenge comes with not knowing if the cash will be used for further hurtful activities. There are two options to take with this. First, cash giving is an option as you make a best guess for intention. Second, make an assumption of the end need being food and follow your original intent in providing a gift card for food. The recipient will make their decision on how to proceed. I’ve also experienced the person asking for the cash refusing the gift card. I felt that was a good indication of true intent so I reversed and handed him cash.
Helping opportunities are not always straight forward and we can make decisions that best suit each particular situation. Your options are best when you are prepared ahead of time. Prepare yourself with gift cards.
Thanks for sharing!
Feeding the Hungry
The first thought that comes to mind is seeing a homeless person in a parking lot, asking for food or spare change. These are certainly opportunities but these aren’t always present in our daily lives. Where do you find the hungry?
Start working on your observation skills. Take a look around as you move through your day. I’ll bet you’re near hungry people every day. They may not be obvious but they are there.
I recently was made aware of an employee in our company who was caught stealing company assets. It was a small loss to the company but a significant issue in the view of the employee’s integrity. The reason given by the employee – he “was hungry”. No one knew, no one suspected that this person was unable to meet his obligations AND have enough food to meet his needs.
Its a sad reality that people all around us know hunger and want.
So here is our mission.
Observe those around you and see truly those in want. And more importantly, help these people in need, meet their daily requirements.
That’s how we will be judged – how to we help the least of these…
Why ACT121.org
ACT121.org was born from the desire to ACT in a manner united with the thoughts and teachings of 2 biblical texts.
- Psalm 121 (which lends to a portion of ur name) describes for me how our Judeo Christian God, as his divine plan, has been and always will be with us during our lives and life’s trials.
- The portion of Matthew 25 where Jesus shares the corporal works of mercy – feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and our sharing of time and talents with the unwelcome, lonely and imprisoned.
As these are corporal works, they are interpreted to be a practical means of assistance – actual food for the hungry, actual drink to the thirsty, actual clothing for the naked, and actually sharing our time with others. Althgouh relatively simple concepts, they are difficult for some to see as a clear path to act for fulfilling the needs of others. How can one person, in the normal course of their lives have an impact on another person?
This is the point of ACT121.org. We hope to ACT as a guide for small and simple methods used to meet our mission. We’ve put together a few simple methods to help anyone, help someone. We hope you read through these ideas and will be able to do some advance preparation for providing relief to someone you may encounter in the normal course of your day. We also recognize there are people with much better ideas to share with us. We want to be a point of exchanging these great ideas for the benefit of those in need. Please share your ideas and experiences with us, we’ll review and post here for all.
Can we change the world with such small and simple actions? We believe that our small efforts can indeed become and Archimedes fulcrum to help move the world toward a better place. More importantly is each person’s spiritual movement with the performance of such corporal works of mercy.
Psalm 121:8 – The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.
We’re helping with the “now” part.
Thank you for visiting ACT121.org. We appreciate your thoughts, ideas to help us become better, and comments. Please go to the Contact Us page and share with us.