Multiply Justice

Archive for the tag “homeless”

She offered the homeless guy a biscuit … and they talked

At its most basic, multiplying justice is a matter of obeying the Spirit’s prompts and reaching out in compassion to someone in need. Anna Keller writes at The Alabama Baptist about one woman’s simple gesture that transformed a homeless man’s life — and her own:

helping_benny_2BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Brittney Hanvey says she doesn’t quite know what made her pull over to the side of the road back in January to offer a homeless man a biscuit, but that seemingly small act set off a chain of events that are nothing short of miraculous.

Hanvey, a member of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, is a pharmaceutical sales representative, so she spends a lot of time driving around to various doctors’ offices. Every two weeks she visits the same doctor at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham and recognized the same homeless man on the street visit after visit.

“There was always this same man out there, wearing a raggedy T-shirt and pants,” Hanvey recalled. “I was always told not to stop for people by the side of the road, because you couldn’t tell if they just wanted drugs.”

But, Hanvey said, one frigid January morning she felt compelled to stop and help the man.

“I was taking a doctor some breakfast, so I had some biscuits in my car, and I had a blanket for some reason too,” she said. “So I stopped and offered him a biscuit and the blanket, and he took both and asked me if I minded sitting and talking for a minute.”

As it turned out, the doctor saw Brittney stop and talk with the man that cold January day. He also was moved to reach out — and offered him a job. The rest of the story is amazing!

Read the rest by clicking here.

Loving the (homeless) neighbor

Ricardo Moraes, a Reuters photographer, spent some time among members of O Caminho, or “The Way,” a Franciscan community in Rio de Janeiro that serves the megacity’s homeless people. The Big Picture presents a series of 20 photographs shot by Moraes during his stay, and his comments on O Caminho’s ministry are available at the Reuters photographers blog.

In the marketplace of the  Campo Grande neighborhood, community members groom the homeless. An elderly woman among the curious passersby comments, “It takes the love of God to do something like that.”

shave

Moraes concludes: “What made me happy was seeing how they acted naturally with the poor on their missions. Nothing they do is premeditated, nothing shows they are feeding their egos nor using their religion for personal satisfaction. Their attitudes and daily lives confirmed everything Antonio told me, about how they live ordinary lives and how they need the strength of their faith to continue. But more than that, they live for brotherly love. As it says in the prayer of St. Francis, I can say I met young people who bring joy where there is sadness and above all, want to love more than be loved.”

Click here to view the photo gallery.

A wedding under a bridge

“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:13

bridge-wedding-2

Grace writes at Grace for the Road about a friend who got married April 23 under a bridge in Nashville, Tennessee, after serving a feast for the homeless:

… She’s not homeless. Never has been. Neither has her fiancé.

They just have tasted the grace of God and see people through the eyes of Christ.

As a train whistle echoed under the bridge and Tuesday evening rush hour traffic shook the concrete, Amanda smiled out at a sea of brothers and sisters as the band played and sang …

There are no strangers
There are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but hallelujah
There are no orphans of God.

And then they pledged to love each other for a lifetime as they loved the “outcast” together.

Read this marvelous story by clicking here.

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