To your needy in your land

Yesterday we met one woman nearby the little supermarket not far from our home. She looked very poor and needy, cold and dirty. We asked if she was hungry. She said “Yes… I would like to eat some bread”. It smelled a little bit like alcohol from her… but at least she didn’t ask us for money. The people around looked strange at us. Anyway I went to the supermarket and grabbed some bread, meat, cookies, yogurt and water. Nate stayed and talked to her… in Polish:-) He found out her name… Irena. After we gave her the bag with food she asked us to help her to cross the street and get on the bus.
 So, we started to go… People around looked at us. Irena grabbed my arm with her hands… They were dirty and covered by bloody spots. She said: “Now tell what your name is?” and smiled. I said ”Tetyana”… And with excitement she asked: “Oh, are you, kurva (bad word, means “prostitute”), Russian?” It was funny and also not pleasant to hear it… But I just answered: “I’m not kurva!” I don’t know, maybe she didn’t like Russians… But hopefully she will like them from now:-)

At home we prayed for Irena and thought of this kind of people for a while. Why are they the way they are? What’s the solution for them? What should our reaction be like? Is the bag with food an effective way to help them?
Someone can say: “It’s consequences of their unbelief”. But let’s read one of Jesus’ parable in Lk.16:20,21,22 : “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.” That’s how Irena looked like. That’s how many poor people look like today. “Normal” people are even afraid of touching them. “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom…” Lazarus didn’t go to hell but to heaven! So, we can’t say that the reason why he’s poor was unbelief. We can’t judge these people. We don’t know and we don’t understand their hearts.

Here is an interesting thing what God said: “For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’ (De.15:11) So, the only thing we can do is to help them as much as we can. This is the command from God. And this can change our hearts.
At the end of that day we also helped our church to give a nice Christmas meal to 90 homeless people at the church building. It was like a real feast for them. We thank God for the opportunity and ability to help them. This ministry keeps our hearts humble and thankful.
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (Jas.1:27) We are sure that “to visit orphans and widows in their distress” means also “taking part in fulfilling the needs of any poor people rejected by society”.