So, you’re stopped at a traffic light and see a homeless guy with a cardboard sign asking for help. At least you think he’s homeless, but you don’t really know. If he’s really in need, you’d like to help. But you’re also afraid if you give him money, he might go out and spend it on drugs or alcohol.
Been there? I know I have lots of times.
I feel this tension – do I roll down my window and give him a couple bucks and hope for the best? Or do I try to avoid eye contact drive on by?
A couple of years ago my wife and I started keeping box of granola bars in our cars to hand out in those situations, but yesterday Jan blogged about a much better way to help people on the streets asking for help…
Homeless Bags
A small group at our church small got together to make “homeless bags.” They got a bunch of the big 1 gallon zip-lock bags and filled them with items helpful to those in need. They keep them in their cars to pass out any time they see someone on the street asking for help.
Gina, the group leader, emailed me this list of things they put in their homeless bags.
- Bottles of water
- Snack type items (at least 4 people to sign up for this so each bag has a number of different snacks–all non-perishables). In the past we have used granola bars, breakfast bars, those little snack packs of different sorts, pop tarts, packages of nuts, individual bags of chips, fruit snacks , candy etc. )
- A semi-healthy snack (we did cans of fruit w/ the pop open tops, and/or applesauce)
- Napkins and spoons (for the snack above)
- Juice boxes or Capri Suns
- Hand written notes with bible verse written on it. everyone making the bags signed the cards.
- A copy of “The Daily bread” if possible.
Awesome idea is it not?
I love the way they are trying to not only meet the physical needs but the emotional and spiritual needs as well. And I love that they did it together as a group. Way to go, Gina & group. You can see pics of the group putting them together on Jan’s blog.
how cool is this? when Chris gets back we’re going to do them as a family. i hate the feeling at a street corner when i see someone that needs help and i have little or no time to look for little or no money to give them. this way i’m ready whenever god decides to send me their way:)
Jan, so true. Thanks being the first to make people aware of the idea by blogging about it.
This will be copied and posted if possible to my church newsletter. Too important and a way to witness that is loving and honors our King.
Hi Cheryl! That’s cool. I’d love to hear stories from people at your church who put together homeless bags and distributed them. If you give people a link to where they can post their stories, could you post the link here too so I (and other readers) can see them too?
Or you can tell people to post their stories here if you like.
Paul, Will be most happy to have folk post their experiences directly to you so will provide the link in our newsletter. Hope you hear from bunches of folk!!
Cheryl, sounds good. I hope you have good participation and we hear of some neat stories from folks at your church.
Paul, how do I send this site to someone else? I am new to blog and facebook and all that jazz so what is simple to everyone else “looks like Greek to me”. I remember saying that a lot when I was in seminary…
Cheryl, to make things easier I created a tiny URL for this page:
http://tiny.cc/homelessbags
You can print that in the newsletter, email it to people, whatever you like.
If you want to post a link in facebook, just click in the “what’s on your mind” box, click the “link” option, copy in the web address above, and click share.
If you have any other questions, let me know.
What an excellent idea Paul!! 🙂
Thanks Anne!
Great stuff! Thanks for the tips, always felt awkward in those “stop light” moments. Now I have a warm-fuzzy solution!
Brenda
Awesome Brenda! I hope you’ll come back and post another comment after you’ve given away your first bag and tell us more about your experience making and sharing it.