If you saw a stranger,

[Bidin~Time]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

 

[BobBalouski]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

Spent a solid two years hitting the very worst parts of the streets purposely looking for folks in need of some hope/help because of the circumstances they found themselves in. Inviting them back to the Home for the night, feeding them, washing their clothes, offering them a hot shower and a nice, clean, comfortable bed, sharing with them the very Essence of Christmas, massages if they were withdrawing, watching over them all night if they were; whatever was necessary to alleviate their misfortune for even just a short while, no matter how hard the person, was always appreciated, it seems. Tis the season, they say.

https://www.kidzinc.co.nz/images/646/large/d.jpg​

 

[Bidin~Time]

Twice the hubs and I have taken people in. Both involved people traveling with horses who needed a place to stable their animals. The first were a couple traveling across country with 2 horses. He was Syrian, she was French; they had started their ride on the west coast and were traveling to D.C. to support peace in the Middle East. Nice people, those 2. So after we hooked up the horse trailer, met them, loaded their horses to get them off a very crazy busy 2 lane road, we brought them to our home, fed the people and the horses and put them up for a night. The horses got 2 freshly bedded stalls and the couple got the spare bedroom.

The second was a Mennonite lady traveling through, we gave her a bed for the night, and a place to bed her buggy horse down. That was a Saturday evening, the next day was Easter Sunday and she had Easter dinner with my family.

Both those incidents happened in the 80's, but I would probably do it again. I learned a lot from those folks.

 

[Bidin~Time]

Spent a solid two years hitting the very worst parts of the streets purposely looking for folks in need of some hope/help because of the circumstances they found themselves in. Inviting them back to the Home for the night, feeding them, washing their clothes, offering them a hot shower and a nice, clean, comfortable bed, sharing with them the very Essence of Christmas, massages if they were withdrawing, watching over them all night if they were; whatever was necessary to alleviate their misfortune for even just a short while, no matter how hard the person, was always appreciated, it seems. Tis the season, they say.

https://www.kidzinc.co.nz/images/646/large/d.jpg​

Thanks for sharing that.

 

[dolf]

I don't like people in my house. I don't even like family coming over. I wouldn't invite a stranger in. Not even if the horse was really pretty.

 

[Bert Notorius]

sounds like
a good way
to get raped
and murdered.

 

[Bidin~Time]

I don't like people in my house. I don't even like family coming over. I wouldn't invite a stranger in. Not even if the horse was really pretty.

You try to be a hard-ass, but I think you have a heart of gold. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. You'd probably call someone like me and hook them up with sleeping quarters. That'd work out okay.

 

[Bidin~Time]

sounds like
a good way
to get raped
and murdered.

That's what people said at the time.

 

[dolf]

You try to be a hard-ass, but I think you have a heart of gold. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. You'd probably call someone like me and hook them up with sleeping quarters. That'd work out okay.

Unless I car is literally in a ditch, or the granny is on the floor, I don't look at people, I don't talk to people. In an obvious emergency I stop to do the first aid or phone call, but that's honestly it.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

If I had the means to help, like in a Koch Bros. or Jeff Bezos-level bank account kind of means, I'd put them up in a hotel for a night on up to a week.

 

[butters]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

I'd do whatever I was able to at the time - and probably do it safely, as well as trying to make the recipient feel at ease and not embarrassed to be burdening someone.

If that means inviting them home, helping them with accommodation elsewhere, feeding them, helping them out with a little cash to tide them over for a short period, then it's all good and about helping someone in distress. Who knows when we might find ourselves in a position of needing to rely on the kindness of strangers?

 

[Comshaw]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

Probably, but I've never had that opportunity. I did have the opportunity to help a couple a few years ago though. Before retiring I was the Fleet Manager for a municipality. A friend of mine who worked for another department called a week before Christmas and asked if I knew where someone might be able to get a car fixed and then do a payment plan to pay for it. All the dealerships and shops I know want cash up front for a repair and I told her that. I was curious though and asked her why she was looking for that kind of deal. It seems her neighbors car was broken and the estimate from the auto shop was $600.00 to fix it. They were both out of work and only had $350.00 in savings. They also wanted to drive home (about 450 miles away) to be with family for Christmas and that was why they were desperately trying to find a shop that would let them do payments. After some thought I gave my friend $250.00 to give to the couple with the understanding that she never tell them where it came from. She agreed and gave them the money. They got the car fixed and got home for the holidays. They did try to get her to tell them where she got it, but she never did. As far as I know they still don't know where she got it.

Comshaw

 

[thør]

I have no problem letting them sleep in the stable, next to the manger.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I'm more likely to help a critter than a person.

But if I was feeling really charitable and had someone nudge me on I'd probably just hand them a few bones and give them a ride to a hotel.

 

[phrodeau]

I would give them all the help they need, food, clothing, shelter, then once they were comfortable, I’d talk to them about becoming Amway salesmen.

 

[BobBalouski]

I knew a man who grew up hating whites because, he said, (for one reason) they called the Lone Ranger's sidekick, Tonto. He, of course, absolutely despised all the white instruction pervasive in his city's education system at the time, rejecting rebellion which naturally led him to hang out with the infamous wrong crowd. Bullying, theft, robbery, intimidation, car-jacking began, right along with all the fashionable drug abuse of his day, eventually leading to his ultimate downfall: heroin addiction.

He married a lady, they had a son, and then he left her to go back to the streets. Met another lady, she got pregnant, he dropped her off at one of those places and waited for her in his car until she came out with the poor, dead little baby wrapped in newspaper (back then when abortion was illegal, the poor had to take care of the remains). It didn't really affect him at all at that time: he said his gravest concern then was driving around for a couple of hours that night trying to find a good place to bury his aborted child - without getting caught. Years and years later he would break down balling realizing what he'd actually done and dealing with the fact he'd completely forgot where that place was, where his aborted child still lies alone.

Finally isolated by all but the most loving of his own family and that same lady, he accepted a federal government offer to go to a federal government treatment facility for heroin addicts, where he managed to get clean and stay sober for 6 entire months. Graduated from that federal government treatment program as cured, he wasn't even half way home when he finagled some heroin to get high again.

Back on smack and thus still occupied with the same home problems, he and his lady decided to travel the 1,000+ miles to Los Angeles in what he deemed his last hope. After they'd been there a couple of days, bunking with a sister's family, he found himself downtown looking to score again. He saw a guy he recognized from back home, nicely dressed and seemingly doing good, so he figured his former pal would have some good dope on him. The guy greeted him warmly and told him he was no longer doing or dealing drugs, that he had found everything he ever needed, and was always looking for, in Jesus.

[This guy was living in a Home ministry that a preacher named David Wilkerson had made come to life to help people like this guy I knew. Wilkerson was a young preacher in Pennsylvania when he read the New York City newspapers about a gang murder trial going on there. For whatever reasons, God moved him enough that he went to New York City and ended-up being forcefully removed from the courtroom on order of the Judge, so insistent was he about injecting compassion into the proceedings. Pat Boone played David Wilkerson in the movie adaptation of Wilkerson's book, "The Cross and The Switchblade", with Eric Estrada making his big screen debut portraying Nicky Cruz in the film.]

Instead of the sought after smack, the guy gave the guy I knew a card with the Home's address and phone numbers, and told him to call any time of the day or night and they'd come get him, that food, housing, clothes, whatever he needed to detox would be waiting for him at no cost whatsoever. The guy I knew said bye to this old friend, pocketed the business card, went and found some smack, and blasted off.

When he got home, his lady immediately knew what was up, and ordered him out of his own sister's house! Totally broke, no smack left, basically with just the clothes on his back and having absolutely nowhere else to go, he remembered the business card in his pocket, figured he could at least bunk there overnight and figure-out where he'd go from there in the morning. So, he called the Home up and they came and got him.

He ended-up staying there a second night, and a third, and a fourth and more, coming down from his heroin addiction all along. He was miserable; every time the same white guy brought him food, he'd throw the tray to the floor rather than having any appetite to eat. Every time that same white guy pulled out some candy when he'd throw the tray to the floor, he'd take it while calling the white guy every name in the book. And the preaching! Always the preaching! This and that about Jesus and how he loved everyone! After a week in the Home, he found out the only mandatory was everyone had to attend service on Sundays. So he did that first Sunday totally against his will, but did it any way because he felt he owed at least that much to those in the Home for at least caring for him like they had so far. And then the second Sunday and service came around, and he found himself totally disinterested in what Nicky Cruz was preaching.

I can't remember how long he said he'd been in the home when one Sunday service struck him totally different. He said it was like Nicky Cruz was talking directly to his heart. So affected was he that at the end of the service he went to the altar, got down on his knees, and begged God to Please, just give me a break.

He said he INSTANTLY knew something was different, he just knew! His heart felt totally lighter, like a life full of burden had been just as instantly lifted from it. And he confirmed his feeling as valid when the first person he came into contact with after leaving the altar was the white guy who'd been caretaking him all along, the white guy he'd been swearing at all along, the white guy he hated all of his life - who he then grabbed into a bear hug with all his might and, with tears bleeding down his cheeks, kept telling that white guy how much he really, really loved him.



Later that day he telephoned his lady and told her what happened and that he was now a different person. She said, Yeah, right, tell me all about it in another week. He did the next week, and the week after that - all the way up to asking her if she'd marry him and go with him to attend a bible university. A couple of years there and God put into his heart to return to his hometown and do for the addicts and malcontents exactly what the Home had provided him. So he and his lady and their new son loaded up and went home with virtually not a dollar to their name.

He'd later tell how he spent almost two years on the streets of his hometown making absolutely no progress in winning hearts to God. He became despondent, losing hope, but all the while listening to his wife who simply told him to keep listening to God, no matter what. One morning at breakfast he told her that God had told him during his sleep that God wanted him to invite every drug addict and malcontent he found on the street into his home to live with his family as long as necessary. He asked his wife how could possibly God want him to literally do that when their 2-room home was too small for the four of them (now) and many times they had barely enough to eat themselves? His wife answered as she always did: listen to God, no matter what.

And so he did and started inviting the very most destitute into his home, and soon his little abode was housing one, two, three and growing. God told him to also invite wanting women into their home, so he and the guys built an overhanging roof over one side of the small house, put up some walls, and just like that had a separate living space for the guys. As more and more folks found out what he was doing, donated chickens would show up, vegetables would appear, and tortillas! God, yes! All those blessed tortillas!

It wasn't too long before circumstances provided for them all to move to a different locale, a bigger place they could keep self-building on with a little more land to build upon - nothing fancy or luxurious to any degree, just more space for more men and women. By this time, some of the guys had managed to stay clean and sober for years, and they found staying in this guy's ministry to be a blessing, for it allowed them to do exactly what it led him to do: helping others individually. All this time and in all the years to come, this guy I knew never took a penny of local, state, or federal taxpayer $ or assistance.

But in 1990, President G. W. Bush invited this guy I knew to the White House, anyway, and gave him a National Achievement Against the Odds award.

And thirty-five years after he came back home to return the loving favor to his homies that God had blessed to him, local businessmen offered to provide the funding to build a Home more fitting for his ministry. A new Home was built on acreage purchased bordering the old home, a new Home that could easily and quite adequately house, clothe, feed, care for, and minister to 150 men and 50-75 ladies at a time. Always ministering was this guy I knew, not with a socialist's heart, but with the saintly knowledge that there's nothing any man can do for another if the other person refuses to help him- or herself.

Just four years after the new, multi-million dollar Home opened its doors to all, this guy I knew died, his drug and alcohol abused kidneys finally giving out on him.

Who knows how many folks he really helped in his life, for even many of those who'd preach how much he did help them, like those he'd venture to to minister to in jail or prison, he'd accuse of hearsay, because after getting out, getting their lives back together, reconciling with wives and children and family they disenfranchised before, and proclaiming how much God had done for them, Pastor Freddie would never see many of them at Sunday services where it all began.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rmVd68epL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

[LiamAnthony]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

If i felt moved to help, sure.

http://static.skynetblogs.be/media/69477/z7938-thumb.jpg

 

[Dinosaur1]

Is this really about the Atlanta airport power loss thing?

 

[Dinosaur1]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

It depends on the situation. For the most part, yes I would. It's a good way to start a friendship. A crisis situation could bring out the best or worst in all of us.

 

[Calista85]

A friend of mine since high school owns a motel and several times over the years when I've come across someone in a tough spot I've called her and her husband and they've been generous enough to donate a room for free.

We once let a family of four I met back when I was working for the state as a social worker stay with us for four days. It was the right thing to do, but their kids had issues and wow, it was a long four days.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

Because of circumstances beyond their control, they have no where to go. The planes are grounded, car trouble, pick a scenario, but they are short of cash and will be on the street. They need a hand for one night, would you help? How?

nope...

 

[Aglaopheme]

I'd do whatever I was able to at the time - and probably do it safely, as well as trying to make the recipient feel at ease and not embarrassed to be burdening someone.

If that means inviting them home, helping them with accommodation elsewhere, feeding them, helping them out with a little cash to tide them over for a short period, then it's all good and about helping someone in distress. Who knows when we might find ourselves in a position of needing to rely on the kindness of strangers?

I would help in anyway that I could.

Being on the board of a charity that helps people in temporary need, I can tell you that bolded part of butters' quote is an issue. Some of the testimonials we get from clients leave me in a sopping mess of a puddle.

 

[butters]

I would help in anyway that I could.

Being on the board of a charity that helps people in temporary need, I can tell you that bolded part of butters' quote is an issue. Some of the testimonials we get from clients leave me in a sopping mess of a puddle.

loving the tee av, btw

 

[nowisthetime]

Spent a solid two years hitting the very worst parts of the streets purposely looking for folks in need of some hope/help because of the circumstances they found themselves in. Inviting them back to the Home for the night, feeding them, washing their clothes, offering them a hot shower and a nice, clean, comfortable bed, sharing with them the very Essence of Christmas, massages if they were withdrawing, watching over them all night if they were; whatever was necessary to alleviate their misfortune for even just a short while, no matter how hard the person, was always appreciated, it seems. Tis the season, they say.

https://www.kidzinc.co.nz/images/646/large/d.jpg​

There is not a kind bone in your body and you are a liar.

If i felt moved to help, sure.

http://static.skynetblogs.be/media/69477/z7938-thumb.jpg

So you only help people in need if they are "pretty"? How shallow.

 

[LiamAnthony]

So you only help people in need if they are "pretty"? How shallow.

So you only help ugly people? How wallow.