Row On, Row On! | No Kings Oct 18

Friends!

The best thing about being home is getting my eating and exercise routines back into the schedule. I love travel, but the structure of exercise in the morning, four meals a day, jelly beans here and there, that feels like home to me. Oh, and Ken is here with me!

Today is part two of how we can care for people who are poor.

-Liz

Advanced Care for Poor People

Many churches are making a much bigger difference than that of small give away programs. All of these examples below are complicated to make happen--and are being done by churches right now.

• Pay as You Can Cafe: This is set-up as a cafe, with a few choices of foods, fancy coffees and teas, and tables and chairs designed for hanging for awhile. The food and drink items might have a set price, or a suggested donation, but the signage makes clear that people can pay more, or less, based on their financial resources. By providing upscale foods, and gluten free, vegetarian, and dairy free options you serve people, rich and poor, with special dietary needs.

• Cook for the Month: These churches cook together once a month. Church kitchens often have large pots and pans perfect for making large quantities. Then everyone present takes home enough servings for their family. Optimally, everyone gets enough to store one or two meals a week in their freezer. People share family recipes, and work together to plan meals. If the church buys the food for the gathering, people with excess can donate to pay for it, and those who can't afford it get extra dinners for the month.

• Sell or Give Away Property: Some churches have provided property for homeless shelters, for homeless service centers, for affordable housing, transitional housing, and more. You can give your parking lot, your building, some of your land. A church I served sold their building to an Arts Center, saving themselves the cost and worry about repairs, and then rent the sanctuary and office space back.

• Sanctuary Church: Provide space in your building to protect an immigrant individual or family. Arrange for legal services for families staying there. Keep records of family and employers to contact if someone in the family is arrested.

• Underground Railroad for Trans families: Provide a temporary place to stay, financial resources, and help with job search for families that need to find safer states (or countries) to live in. No matter their family income, needing to pick up and move elsewhere is financially and emotionally expensive. Church can provide the support for the journey.

• Pay Day Lending: Churches can offer payday loans, or refinance existing ones. Offer 0% interest loans and relational supports to the borrowers. Some churches provide capital to guarantee loans provided by the local credit union. Other churches have raised funds and offered the loans themselves. Churches can also offer "recoverable grants"--money that is to be repaid only if the household gets a sudden influx of other financial resources.

• Tiny Houses: Build a tiny house neighborhood on your property. Build a moveable tiny house to be used in various emergency settings. Provide a tiny house in your parking lot for kids who have been kicked out of their homes for being LGBTQIA+. Work with other community service providers to build tiny houses on government owned lands.

Are you thinking about a bigger program to help others? I'd love to hear about it, or to help! Reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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Row on row on. There's dawn behind the night .... This song of hope is from text written the log book of The Three Brothers, a whaling ship from Nantucket working in the North Atlantic in 1846 (found by Gail Huntington and printed in ‘Songs the Whalemen Sang’, 1964.) The Tune is by Tim Laycock; Sung by Penny Stone.

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The next big No Kings protest is October 18. Find a location near you.

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