at the end of the day

On my birthday a few days ago I closed the day by taking dinner to our church. Twice a year the church sponsors families from the consortium, Family Promise. These families are homeless and Family Promise works with churches in Las Vegas to provide sleeping space, food, and companionship to them. Each church sponsors families for a couple of weeks. Family Promise also provides work related support such as resume writing, nutrition counseling, health screening and works with the families to find transitional housing. It is a national organization.

There were two families being sponsored this week at our church...a father with 3 young boys ages 2, 3 and 4 years...and a set of grandparents with three children ages 6 and 8 years, and a teenage girl.After we all had eaten I watched and played with the children -especially the 2 year old. He was clearly able to take care of himself--ate by himself (messy but he got the food in his mouth), able to make his needs known (words not fully formed but clear enough). The 3 year old had significant behavioral problems and dad struggled to manage them. The 4 year old ate hardly a thing. The teenage girl played with the others in her family and looked sweet but sad. What does she tell her friends about where she lives? How does she manage in school?

I left that evening with even more reflection. If we believe Maslow's hierarchy of needs ( and I do)---that the basic needs of all of us are 1. food, shelter, clothing
.                                                       2.  safety and security
                                                        3. love and belonging
                                                        4. self esteem
                                                        5. self actualization
then what chance do the children caught in homelessness have? The children I was with that evening had some of the basics but what is their sense in the uncertainty, the new place every couple of weeks. And these are the fortunate ones!--the ones with some resources!

I was a psychiatric nurse for 30 years. I've seen the outcome of people with unmet basic needs. They struggle to fill those needs their whole lives.
What do we do about income equality? The haves and the have nots?
We reach out in love. At the end of each day we get involved in whatever way we can. We are response-able--responsible. We really are!
 Blessings-Penny