Phone: (727) 545-8282
Fax: (727) 541-6305

10-01-11

Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction:

but he that regardeth reproof [Heb: correction] shall be honoured. (Prov 13:18)

WE ARE INDEED STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND

God bless you dear brothers and sisters. Ah… what to talk about today? Well, the world is certainly in a fine mess, that’s for sure, and we being part of it (temporarily, thank you Lord) hazard being caught up in its twisting cyclonic clouds. The present threat, for both this Rescue Mission and myself, falls under the heading of “compromise.” The citizens of this world would love to have us to dance with them to the pulse and rhythm of their pagan music, and cannot fathom our reluctance to embrace their amoral secular compass.

OUR RESCUE MISSION IS PUBLICIZED

Nevertheless… an excellent well-written front-page article with picture about our Rescue Mission appeared on September 2, 2011 in the Pinellas Park Beacon, and also, I have been told, in the Seminole/Beach Beacon. Any interested person J  might find the article entitled “Haven of Rest struggling financially” located on the Internet at www.TBNweekly.com, wherein it succinctly conveys a comprehensive summation of our financial circumstances.

A FORLORN FAMILY

A polite, late twenties early thirties, couple named John and Sylvia came into the Rescue Mission a few days ago in desperate need of money. As much as possible, we try not to give out cash for several reasons. The first somewhat obvious reason being that we usually don’t have any, the second reason being that we need all the cash we can get in our constant struggle with the overhead to just keep the doors of the Mission open, and the third reason being that it may be used by the recipient, in lieu of his or her stated purpose, to purchase drugs or alcohol. However, this couple was living in a motel room with their 18 months old baby boy, two young daughters ages 7 and 8, and John’s mother. The motel room rent was $45 and John worked a day-labor ticket cleaning up the Ray’s baseball dugout after a game, and was immediately paid after his labors, but there was no Ray’s game scheduled that night and the rent was due (strictly pay or leave). Sylvia called me from their motel room informing me of their problem, and after talking for a while, my compassion for their family’s plight got the best of me, and I relented and told them to come on up to the Rescue Mission (they were 15 minutes away in St. Petersburg) and we would help them. She told me that they also had little to no gas in their car but they were leaving immediately.

Well, I got rather intensely busy with Rescue Mission stuff (just the usual crisis upon crisis sort of thing), placed them in the back of my mind, and an hour or so passed before I stopped for a moment and thought about them again, and then I realized that they must have run out of gas. What to do? At that point I was at a loss, not knowing their route from St. Petersburg, and I dithered for a while. And then, in they walked, and hurriedly settled on my office sofa. We chatted pleasantly for about twenty-five minutes, going over and checking details, learning about them, and we gave them $60 for the motel room and for gas, and a box of groceries. And, at the end of all this, through the expedient use of John 3:3 and Romans 10:9, both John and Sylvia received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and said the prayer in beautiful synchronization together, harmonizing eternally with Father God. Hallelujah! May this event be a wonderful blessing to their family as well. Thank you Lord.   

LAST MONTH

Last month, our Rescue Mission provided approximately 41,488 meals to the poor and hungry residents of Pinellas County and won 39 souls to the Lord. And may I mention that yesterday alone, in addition to all the meals we provided, our Rescue Mission distributed 74 packed to the brim boxes of groceries calculated to last one week to 74 domiciled but low-income marginal (on the brink of becoming homeless) families consisting of approximately 259 men, women, and little children. The size of the box of groceries is proportional to the number of family members. Please consider the fact that we have a total of 11,435 “marginal” (on the brink of becoming homeless) families in our computer database who are registered to receive a free box of groceries once a month. Were all these families to come into our Rescue Mission once during a Monday thru Friday thirty day month, that would amount to 571 hungry families (approximately 1,998 persons) per day, and we could not possibly give them all a box of groceries, not even close, and what do you suppose would happen then? Well, for your consideration, that is one scenario of the not so very far away near future that is becoming more and more likely every day.

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14-16) 

STUFF TO BE AWARE OF

Dear brothers and sisters, may I suggest that by reason of our belief in God and His redeeming Son Jesus Christ, that we have become “strangers in a strange land,” transients in the ever-changing not-so-nice world that surrounds us, and although “not of the world,” we are still living in and relentlessly affected by the world. World conditions are directly relevant to our living conditions so in case you missed it, and for your information, an interesting and pertinent front-page article originally printed in the New York Times entitled “1 in 6 live in poverty in U.S.” was reprinted on 09-14-11 in the St. Petersburg Times, and is located on the Internet at www.tampabay.com should you care to read the complete article. The following are excerpts with my boldface and italics:

Washington - Joblessness drove up the numbers of poor as median income slipped, census says. The percentage of Americans living in poverty last year rose to 15.1 percent – about one in six – the highest level since 1993, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Another 2.6 million people slipped below the poverty line in 2010, meaning 46.2 million people [out of the current 311 million USA population] now live in poverty in the United States, the highest number in the 52 years that the Census Bureau has been tracking it. The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,113.

Joblessness was the driving force pushing more Americans into poverty, economists said. Last year, about 86 million people of working age did not work even one week out of the year, Renwick said, up from 83 million in 2009, a trend of increasing long-term joblessness that economists say puts families at greater risk. “Once you’ve been out of work for a long time, it’s a very difficult road to get back,” Katz said.

The recession continued to push Americans, particularly young people, to double up in households with friends and family. Poverty also swallowed more children, with about 22 percent of all children living below the poverty line, up from 20.7 percent in 2009.

Thank you for your prayers and love offerings. Keep them coming. We are running a steady bloody deficit of minus $3,600 per month, which some of you, thankfully, are endeavoring to heal. God bless you. Please help us if you can in these most troubling of times. Envision, if you will, a tiny bird’s nest full of squealing younglings in the crook of a tree; there are many open mouths to feed.  Thank you. God bless you.

Sincerely,

Rev. Lionel  

                                                                                    J

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;

and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Dan 12:3)