Domains for Sale » poor

Being counted with the poor

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:47:16 +0000

The Jones Family enjoys a BBQ with friends | Photo via Jonesberries.com

Debbie Jones (aka wife of Tall Skinny Kiwi) shares some of the difficulties their family has encountered in being travelling minimalists.

I’ve mentioned the Jones family once or twice here before, but for those not familiar with the Jones family, they’ve sold the majority of their possessions and are currently exploring Europe and north Africa and meeting with a variety of communities of faith in the back of the family’s truck – the tall skinny expedition mobile.

Debbie writes:

Now, we are counted with the poor.

We are downwardly mobile.

We live in a truck.

We are global nomads.

We are travellers.

This brings about certain problems. My kids don’t need a toilet to go pee. They all prefer to find a nice, private “shrubbery” to pee on. This is fine in Morocco. This is not fine in the United Kingdom. They eat lots of weird food but they are beginning to shun private plates and utensils. What does this mean? Well, for one thing we are having more and more difficulties hanging with the middle classes the more we hang with the poor. Not as someone who goes back to their apartment after but sleep side by side with the poor. It is out of choice, we are counted as poor. But what about our kids. For those that have eyes to see our kids stick out from the norm with their acts of generosity and inclusion. However, their inability and seeming ambivalence to typical social games can make them appear immature and weird. They are flexible and independent but Andrew and I get to bear the judgement of being bad parents when we give our kids freedom and responsibility and a voice that is alien to most kids.

While there are struggles, Debbie definitely highlights the joys that come with their lifestyle in her post.

I’ll let you read it in her words to find out what she says.

I’m curious though – for those of you who are parents, how have others responded to your kids and ultimately your parenting skills? How do the joys compare to the struggles?

Hear more of the Jones story.

Poor Bessie

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:42:46 +0000

An old farmer named Clyde had a car accident. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning Clyde. "Didn’t you say at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine,’?" asked the lawyer.

Clyde responded, "Well, I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule, Bessie, into the……"

"I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, "I’m fine!’?"

Clyde said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and was driving down the road…."

The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Clyde’s answer and said to the lawyer, "I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule, Bessie."

Clyde thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well… as I was sayin’, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was drivin’ her down the highway when this huge semi ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurtin’ real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moanin’ and groanin’. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

Real soon a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moanin’ and groanin’, too. So, he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road, gun in hand, looked at me, and said, ‘How are YOU feeling?’

Now what the heck would you say?"

View full post on The Christian Chat Network

Rich man vs the poor man

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:04:22 +0000

“A poor man can see forward. A rich man becomes blind until he cannot see good and wrong.”

A group of Compassion bloggers are wrapping up their travels through Kenya right now, journaling the great work Compassion International does with each sponsorship they receive for a child.

Just $38 a month sponsors a child.

What could you forgo each month to sponsor a child?

Shaun Groves shares some insight he’s learned from Eluid, an 18 year-old Kenyan man.

An orphan for ten years, he lives alone in a home made of cardboard, wood and corrugated metal. It’s eight feet long, five and a half feet high and five feet deep.

Because of a sponsor named Nick in Northern California, Eliud has enough – but you and I would call him poor.

Eliud prefers it that way.

After an intensely intimate conversation in Eliud’s home…

We walked together through the second largest slum in Kenya. Past the homes of it’s 800,000 residents.

We sloshed through a mixture of mud and garbage. Two new friends talking in the rain about wealth and poverty.

“I’d like to ask you a difficult question,” I warned. “I’ve been waiting a long time to ask someone this and I’ve finally found someone wise enough to answer it. Are you ready?”

He smiled slightly back at me.

“What does it mean to be ‘rich’ or ‘poor’? How much must a man have to be called rich?”

“Well,” he said, “I think it is true that a rich man has great wealth and a poor man does not have his basic needs. A rich man has new cars and a big house. The poor do not have basic needs.”

We passed a small opening in the sea of rusted metal. Inside, pornography played on a television for men with a few shillings. “Cinema” the sign read.

“In my country,” Eliud said, “to be rich requires corruption. I would rather be poor with God than rich with a corrupted life.”

We turned a corner and walked down a driveway onto church property where lunch was being prepared. Brad and I stopped under an awning and drank in Eliud’s last words of wisdom.

“A poor man can see forward. A rich man becomes blind until he cannot see good and wrong.”

There was a long pause.

“You’re right,” I finally confessed. “I am rich. And it makes me blind sometimes. I once thought I was too poor to share more but then I met my first sponsored child. She showed me how much good $38 can do. You are an amazing young man. Nick is helping you by being your sponsor but you are helping him by being his sponsored child. You are helping him see the good God can do when we share.”

His eyes watered just a little. Payback for all the tears these kids in Kenya have wrung out of me this week.

(Read the full post with photos)

Because his family chose to simplify, the Groves family is able to sponsor three children through Compassion International.

It goes back to the root idea behind our site:

Live simply so that others may simply live.

I have to wonder — where else can I simplify to care more for those around me?

Read what the other bloggers have to say:

Brad Ruggles
Kristen Welch
MckMama
Kent Shaffer
LV Hanson
Ryan Detzel

Rich man vs the poor man

Domains for Sale » poor

Being counted with the poor

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Poor Bessie

Rich man vs the poor man

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