Hungry and Homeless: Take the Challenge

I have started a new blog, not that I need a new blog, given that I have trouble keeping up with the ones I already have. However, God did give me the gift of words and has made it clear that this gift is to be used for Him, so it is not like I have a real choice in this, either, even though nearly everything is a matter of free will and desire. (Personally, where something is clear, I certainly would not want to choose to move in a direction other than the way God points.)

This new blog, H2 Helper (or, Hungry and Homeless Helper), is an outgrowth of my posts on almsgiving and, beyond that, personalized help to the poor (often, in my case, using God's credit card) and is meant as a vehicle to share the results of all those who are willing to take up the challenge to go beyond throwing money at the hungry and homeless. Let's get to know them, to give them dignity, and to provide them with respect. The challenge is the one that St. Francis threw down and took up: to eat together with the outcasts of society (in his case, mostly lepers) and through getting to know them in this manner, treating them as the same children of God that we all are, no less worthy of love and kindness than ourselves.

The challenge: Invite someone who is homeless and hungry to dinner once a month. (More often, if you can afford it, is, of course, wonderfully fine!) Get to know that person one-on-one.

And then, if you are so inclined, report here about the person you got to know and how that person has brought some meaning into your life and contributed to the world in spite of being hungry and homeless. There are two ways of doing that. Send me a post by email (elizabeth.mahlou@gmail.com), and I will add a graphic (or use yours) and post it, linking it to whatever site you wish. Or, simply leave a comment here or at the H2 blog site.

Will you join me in this monthly endeavor? And ask others to help, too? (Those who cannot afford to join in by offering a meal -- it does not have to be fancy: fast food, at home, a picnic in the woods; it all counts -- can help by finding ways to pass along the information about what I hope will become the H2 Helper movement.)

So, forward march! Let's go out and feed a hungry person (emphasis on the word, person), get to know him or her, and let's chat about what happens when God leads us to those who may have nothing today but will some day inherit the earth!