My church is part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Is yours? http://www.nihn.org/ihn/ihn.html

We host families for a week, turning our social hall into bedrooms, a community kitchen, and a playzone for the kids. This is part of our effort to help our community families who have lost their housing for a variety of social and economic reasons. Other local churches take turns too. The beds travel to each site along with room dividers and their personal items. A community van transports them to and from the church. During the day, the children are at preschool or school while the parents are able to search for the support and economic puzzle pieces they are missing to put their lives back together. Each family commits to the program. They also gain an address (main center) to use for job searches and as a reference for future housing.

Tonight was my first night as a volunteer. I had a training session with the coordinator to prepare for being as welcoming and sensitive to my guests needs as possible. We served up dinner (lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and mmmmm brownies!) and ate as a family. Our guests were a young couple with two children. The other family was visiting with nearby relatives and were going to come in later. We played games with the children and talked about life and funny things that had happened to us lately. The families make their lunches for the next day. Another volunteer couple arrived to spend the night, in case of emergencies or if help is needed. Yet another volunteer couple will prepare breakfast.

To become involved, check out http://www.nihn.org/ihn/ihn.html

It is a simple committment of a few hours that will change your life and improve the lives of families around you!

Great to hear that some people are caring for the world's unfortunate people. It is very nice news for a change. Sounds like fun too.

It was fun. Just like having people over to your house for dinner, but at your church instead.

People like you are IMO salt of the earth. I don't want to sound patronizing but GOD BLESS YOU.

I don't feel patronized at all. It is always good to recieve a blessing.


But you know what? What would be even better was if people everywhere became actively involved in SOLVING the problems presented in our lives instead of hurrying by and then blaming the system. That is why I try to find groups to become involved with that make a real difference.

My favorites: Habitat for Humanity (affordable housing), Heifer International (sustainable farming and education), Interfaith Hospitatlity Network (homelessness), Doctor's Without Boarders (medical care), and then local endeavors, such as Big Brothers and Sisters and the local blood bank.

I agree with all that, people on the ground working with the less fortunate can make a real difference - as long as they are free to go into such places. I believe, though, that bureaucrats do their best to prevent such things going on. I know of a group of priests and nuns in Tokyo who spend time looking after the homeless, together with other groups doing the same thing. This is part of the Franciscan way of life in the Catholic Church. To go out to the poor and lonely and form communities regardless of their religion. Again, Mother Teresa was a great example of this in action.

But I think there is also a useful job to be done by journalists and even by people like us, to expose the very real conspiracy against the poor. For this we have to be on our toes day (and sometimes night) reading everything from the newspapers to the Bible and doing what Thess II tells us, to expose evil. This may be one reason why in places suffering real oppression like Palestine, Colombia, Iraq, and the Phillipines, journalists have become targets of assassins, groups that go around on motorbikes and gun down activists and humanitarian workers. These are dangerous times for all those who care about the poor and unrepresented among society.