photo by Kevitivity

Cindy pointed out an article to me in the LA Times titled “Here Died A Homeless Person.” It’s about a man named Ian Brennan who had an idea to put a permanent plaque at spots where homeless people died, in order to commemorate them. The markers wouldn’t look like the marker in the photo above–they would look like a bronze human figure lying on the ground. The City of San Francisco board of supervisors approved the idea. This obviously stirred up a lot of controversy. Some argued that it would be bad for business and tourism to do something so morbid. Some argued that the money would be better spent feeding homeless so that they don’t die in the first place.

I personally was shocked. What if I were to walk down the streets and saw basically gravestones on the street? That would be shocking and disturbing. The whole entire idea of this is shocking and disturbing. But I think that’s is exactly Brennan’s point. He wants to shock and disturb the city into paying attention to the homeless people who die on the street without a single soul to care for them or bury them.

Those who are more privileged have the privilege of ignoring those who are less privileged. We who are privileged even have the privilege of not knowing that we are privileged. Being aware of the problem is the beginning. Being aware and caring goes a long way towards solutions. I am still uncomfortable whenever I see a homeless person begging for money. But it’s better to know about a problem and feel uncomfortable than to breeze along in our lives without a thought to those who are cold and dying on the streets.

Worldvision is such an appropriate name for an awesome organization. We received a catalog to buy Christmas gifts for people all over the world. One of the options was to buy a dairy cow. Once we saw the picture and read about the benefit the cow could have to people, we definitely wanted to help! The catalog had a quote from a single mother of 6 who said that after receiving a diary cow, things were finally looking up for her and her family.

Check out www.worldvisiongifts.org if you have not received your catalog.

Think about this:

1) Donate money to the poor!

2) Donate money to people in a specific poor country!

3) Donate money to a particular people group.

4) Donate money to sponsor a specific child whose name you know and picture you can see and whom you can write letters to and receive letters from.

5) Buy a specific gift like a dairy cow, see a picture of it, hear a quote of how the dairy cow helps out.

THAT my friend is vision. Helping people SEE the end goal. From the vague to the specific. Man, what a motivator. We need more leaders in church and society that really have VISION and are able to help people SEE the end goal the way WorldVision is doing.