A new episode of SoLocal Pasco is out. Today, host Greg Smithwick is talking about: Our Homeless Deserve Better, and We Can Do Better. So Local Pasco, September 12th, 2016.
Check it out here: http://ift.tt/2cjsIrM
For more context:

John 3:17 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother (anyone) in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”
I finally got to go out with The Messengers of Hope Mission volunteers.  I wish I could tell you it made me feel good.  I wish I could tell you I feel they are making great progress in ending homelessness.  But it didn’t, and they aren’t.

I know that these amazing people are doing what they do with humility and grace.  That they sincerely want to be put out of business.  To wake up, one day, and find out we took up the cause and ended homelessness.  That IS within our grasp. Other states, using new methods and approaches, ARE ending homelessness.  Did you know that?

Read about Utah’s plan to end homelessness by 2017

But the beat goes on.  Homeless people we spoke to told us they feel marginalized…Boxed into certain neighborhoods, isolated from services and jobs.  This was especially true of the people we spoke to in Moon Lake.

While I applaud ANYONE who has the desire and does the work to end homelessness, what we are doing is not working, is not enough, and sometimes makes the lives of the homeless HARDER.  Why are we doing those things?  Why were we so quick to applaud the recent ban on ‘panhandling’ which included newspaper sales?  It has made the lives of our most vulnerable citizens more difficult.

Messengers of Hope is doing work that is inspired by the highest Christian ideal:  Service to the poor.  Better treatment of “the least of these”.  Please support their work, by donating time, materials, and most importantly, money to keep them going.

Link to Messengers of Hope,  including the donations page.

But I am going to ask you for MORE.  INSIST that your county commission, your city council, your state and federal governments work harder to eliminate homelessness.

We are bickering over $650,000 for BOAT RAMPS, while children sleep in the woods.  We can do better.  We MUST do better.

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