Ideas.

I work in Detroit. You all know that. What I don't talk about as much is the amount of poverty and sickness I see everyday working Detroit. It's one of those things I don't really bring up because it hurts me. I'll definitely talk about how I work in the ghetto, but that's as far as it goes.

Except now. My church is doing a series called "Hope Lives". The church, the small groups, and the student ministries are all participating together (which, by the way, I think is awesome). The series talks about poverty.

I feel like I have some definite insight to this topic. Only because I work in poverty. I see it every single day. But like I said before, I don't talk about it that much because I don't want to pretend to be a saint. I only complain when my families are getting out of control.

With that said, I'd been thinking about some things lately. That I briefly talked about at my small group last night. There is on part of town I am in often. And this part of town has more beggers than any other part of town. Everytime I see them, it breaks my heart. However, this part of town is notorious for drug use. So, hopefully you will see why I am hesitant to hand cash out my window. I feel like just handing out cash is a)feeding a habit and b) such a callous, un-loving response to the problem.

So here is my thing. I need some ideas. I need to figure out some kind of goody bag to keep in my car and to hand out to these individuals when I see them. Unparishable food I can keep in my car. So far I have the ideas of gift cards for local restaurants, bottles of water and possibly bus cards. I need to stay away from crunchy, sugary things due to possible poor dental hygiene.

Alrighty, that's all. Give me ideas!!