SINES OF THE TIMES CHRISTINE SINE
Give Me Shelter The past year made all of us aware that we live in a very uncertain world in which the financial resources and material possessions we depend on for our security can be swept away in an instant. The tsunami, hurricanes, mudslides, and earthquakes have left millions of people homeless on several continents, highlighting the sharp contrast between those who have an abundance and those who have little. They also brought the plight of homeless people to our attention as never before. I have never been homeless, but I still remember vividly a period in my life when I experienced some of the disorientation and destabilization that many homeless people live with on an ongoing basis. When someone accidentally opened the sprinkler system in my cabin on Mercy Ships’ M/V Anastasis and its entire contents were flooded in black sludge, most of my clothes were ruined and the stench made the cabin uninhabitable. I felt helpless in the face of this disaster. For six months I moved from cabin to cabin while the carpenters slowly renovated it. At the same time Mercy Ships’ home office moved from California to Texas, leaving me with no permanent place to stay during my frequent visits. I never knew where I would be sleeping until I arrived. At one stage I even slept on my office floor for a few nights because no other place was available. Having a moving object in the middle of the sea as my only stable point was hard enough at the best of times, but now I felt like a homeless refugee. My stress levels rose, and I became increasingly irritable and depressed. Fortunately I was able to purchase a home near the Texas office, and I immediately felt better and started to relax.
Homelessness is difficult to cope with even for those of us who have the resources to rapidly rebuild our lives. Imagine what it is like for those who lack the financial and emotional resources to change their situation. Irritability, anger, and self-centeredness are not uncommon among people who have been displaced and lost everything. In their attempt to regain some control over their lives, refugees and displaced people often lash out at the very people who are trying to help them. Unfortunately this can create a vicious cycle of misunderstanding, resentment, and withdrawal. Homelessness, or houselessness as it is now often being called, is a huge and complex challenge throughout our world. The 2005 report from UN-HABITAT, the United Nations’ Human Settlements Programme (www.unhabitat.org), indicates that over 1 billion of the world’s 6 billion residents live in inadequate housing, mostly in the sprawling slums and squatter settlements in developing countries. They estimate that by the year 2050 this figure could rise to over 3 billion. In the United States an estimated 4 to 5 million people go homeless each year, and the numbers were on the increase even before Katrina and Rita hit. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is young women with children. Millions of others live without a safety net and constantly struggle with the knowledge that loss of a job or serious illness could quickly push them onto the streets. People are homeless for a variety of reasons.The lack of adequate and affordable housing is only part of a dynamic problem faced by urban slums in the Third World. Social, political, and economic forces within an entire region of the globe can cause slums to form at an overwhelming rate, requiring regional and national development policy. In 2003 approximately 10.5 million people were classified as refugees, and an additional 10 million were displaced within their own PRISM 2006
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countries as a result of natural disaster, environmental degradation, and political unrest. Unlike the victims of Katrina, many of these refugees go unnoticed by the worldwide community. Some of them sit in refugee camps for years before they are relocated. Others, particularly children, die because their basic needs for food and shelter are unmet. In the U.S., as in most developed countries, hunger and homelessness are due to a number of factors, many of them interrelated. The greatest contributing factors are unemployment, low-paying jobs, high housing costs, high medical and health costs, high utility costs, reduced public benefits, substance abuse, and high childcare costs (from the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Hunger and Homelessness Survey 2004). However, the lack of affordable housing is the main contributing factor with 5 million low-income households experiencing serious housing problems due to high housing costs and substandard housing conditions. As I contemplate the plight of the millions in our world who are without a home, I am reminded that Jesus and his family also knew the uncertainty of homelessness. When he was a child they fled as refugees into Egypt. As an adult he had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58). No wonder he was so sympathetic towards those who were displaced within his society. When he looked at the beggar sitting by the city gate, perhaps he was reminded of his own uncertain childhood. Perhaps as he reached out to embrace the leper and the outcast he was reminded of the times that he, too, was rejected by society. If we can see Jesus in the pained faces and broken lives of those who are despised and rejected by our society, then through God’s grace we, too, can reach out and be enfolded in his love. When we love those who are deemed unlovely, we experience the wonder of Christ’s compassionate embrace. Try to put yourself in the place of
people who are homeless. Sit for a few moments and look around your house. Focus on the things you value most— your family photos, the tablecloth lovingly embroidered by your grandmother, the gifts from your mother and father. How would you feel if these were suddenly lost? Even worse, how would you feel if everything else was stripped away, too—your job, your life savings, your standing in the community? Now imagine that you and your family have been forced to travel hundreds of miles to find safety. You are crowded into a makeshift refugee camp with thousands of others. During the trip your passport and money were stolen. Now you have heard rumors that there is only enough food and water for a small portion of the people in the camp. How would you feel? How would you react? How would you want others to react to you? The problems of homelessness may appear daunting, but they are not insurmountable. The provision of affordable housing, the upgrading of existing facilities, the creation of jobs that pay a livable wage, and the addressing of issues that cause displacement of millions of people from their homes can together work to overcome this tremendous problem. The outpouring of compassion and offers of help from across the world that followed the tsunami, the hurricanes,
the mudslides, and the earthquake made us aware that even our small and seemingly insignificant contributions can make a difference. Bill Horn is a Lutheran pastor in Hawkeye, a tiny town on the prairies of Iowa. Following the devastation of New Orleans, he mobilized others in his church and the local community to offer help for victims of Katrina. The community has offered to house a family rent-free until they are on their feet. Bill’s church is covering utilities and working to help them find jobs in the area.Their community is but one of many who have reached out in this way. How about yours? In his inaugural address in 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” His words still ring true today. Until we commit to “make poverty history” and see the needs of those at the bottom of the economic ladder as a priority we cannot claim to have made any kind of progress in our world. ■ Tom and Christine Sine share this column. Their latest book is Living on Purpose: Finding God’s Best for Your Life (Baker, 2001). Visit their Mustard Seed Associates website at www.msainfo.org.
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity BY RONALD J. SIDER (W Publishing Group)
“One of the Top 100 Religious Books of the Century.” Christianity Today
More than 400,000 copies in print.
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