The poverty in Memphis homeless shelters has gone up tremendously in the last 10 years. The amount of people who come in and out of the doors each day is so large that they are running out of room and have to send people away. In the economy that we have now, people cannot afford to buy a house or a car and sometimes they cannot even afford to buy clothes to wear or food to eat.
In the US, 3.5 million people a year find themselves homeless and starving. 39% of those people are children between the ages 2 and 17. 60% of the new homeless people are single mothers with young children who have no idea how they are going to take care of them or their children. The people in the homeless shelters have no idea what is going to happen in their lives next and they have no idea what to expect. The homeless shelters are a good way to provide shelter and sometimes a meal but there is a limit on how long someone can stay in one. There is no telling what will happen once they have to leave the shelter. They could go to another one and they could stay there as long as the people would let them or they could be walking to the nearest park and sleeping on a bench covered up with newspapers.
There is also the risk that they could get killed while walking down the street. Memphis is not the best place to be at night, much less downtown at night. There are messed up people who are capable of doing who knows what. In I John, Jesus told us that we should take action to help people instead of just feeling sorry for them. We could go to a soup kitchen and cook food for the less fortunate. We could go downtown and hand out meals or even clothes. Anything we can do to help them will mean the world to them. We should be like Jesus would want us to be and go out and help them. He wants us to do everything possible to help out the other people in this world. We are all lucky enough to have a home that we can go back to at night, clothes to keep us warm and food so we don't starve. I think he would want us to share the things we can share with the people who are not as lucky as we are.
Yes! I completely agree. People should stop talking about how we should all go save the continent of Africa together and actually help those in need right here in Memphis. Often, people use "praying for Africa" as an excuse not to help anyone else around them.
ReplyDeleteWe should take action and stop looking down upon people or feeling sorry for them, I like what you had to say about the homeless and what is said in 1 John.
ReplyDeleteWe are very lucky to have a home. Some people would kill to have a shelter over their heads. But if they have have faith that will protect and take care of them, they will be perfectly fine now, and when they live with him in heaven.
ReplyDeleteI really like this. These people have so little, and we need to help them. It is so sad how many people are homeless. Your paper was very good. And you are right, we should be very thankful for what we have.
ReplyDeleteI like that you said we should take action instead of just watching and feeling sorry for them. I also know I just feel sorry for people instead of acting on it.
ReplyDeleteIt really is said that we have so many "neighbors" that are homeless. Even though we might not be able to provide them with a home of their own, there is still things we can do to help them.
ReplyDeleteI saw the movie "Pursuit of Happiness". Once watching the movie, I realized how many people I think I know, I may not know so well. Many are homeless that I run into everyday because their situations may change to reasons that they may not control.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that every homeless person tries to get out of being homeless because I know that many people take advantage of the homeless shelters because they are a free easy to gain shelters. However, there are many people who hate having to rely on others generosity and even more who are too prideful to ask for help. just keep that in mind when you see a person sitting on the side of a road and those who are rushing off and avoiding you.
I like how you used a verse to tell us that we should help out no matter what just like Jesus did. That was great. And I also like how you said whatever we can do to help will mean the world to them, because that is very true. Great job.
ReplyDeleteJesus talks about loving our neighbors no matter what their reputations are and we should treat them the same. When you said they might be scared in down town Memphis at night, we are too. We should definitely help them, especially if they have kids with them.
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