|
The Church's New Foundation …Boxer Shorts? by The Rev. Pat Hendrickson Imagine having only $10 per month to spend as you please. You spend your days sitting in a wheelchair that you may not be able to move yourself. Five days a week you are transported by bus to a "day program" where you have little or no choice in what you will be doing. The weekends are spent with the same people you saw all week. No change. You seldom leave the grounds of your home without a whole bus full of people, and you seldom go anywhere besides the day program or the doctor. Now imagine having to make a choice between saving your $10 per month for the new undergarments you need or treating yourself to a movie. I discovered that this is what life is like for more than half the residents of the United Cerebral Palsy homes in Westlake Village. A member of the staff told me that she had used some of her own money to buy new boxer shorts for one of the residents. I was surprised. I knew that several of the older residents did not have families to help out with spending money for them, but I had no idea how little money is left over from their SSI checks each month for spending once they had paid for their room and board. I was touched that a staff member would reach out in that way since I know that they do not make much money themselves. Every time I visit the UCP homes, I see examples of the gospel in action. I see staff members who are already working long hours for not much money, and give of themselves over and above the basic requirements of the job. But I see that financial limitations make it hard for them to do as much as they would like. Back to that $10 per month. What would you do with it? Buy a special lotion for your winter-dry skin? Replace your old hairbrush? Buy a new shirt? Go to the movies? And furthermore, imagine how little discretion you have over the workings of your own life. You have a crippling condition. You live in a group home. Occupational choices don't exist. All these difficulties in life, and hardly an ounce of discretionary income. I have determined that there is a deep need at the UCP homes where I minister for pocket money-for a bag of chips, a new color of nail polish, a Big Mac, or a dinner out at Sizzler. I have been looking for a way to connect the people of St. Augustine's with the work I do at UCP and I think I've found it! I have decided to use a portion of my discretionary account to begin what I will call the "Foundation Fund." I will be devising ways to raise money in order to buy all kinds of new clothing (including "foundation" garments…boxer shorts, for instance!) for those residents of the UCP homes in Westlake Village who are unable to purchase clothes otherwise. This will allow them to spend some of their limited income on the simple things that we take for granted. Please consider making a donation to the "Foundation Fund" by writing your check out to Deacon's Discretionary Fund and putting Foundation Fund on the memo line. You can give it directly to me, put it in the offering plate on Sundays, or leave it in my mailbox in the church office. I promise you, this will make a difference. (Editor's Note: Contributions to all clergy discretionary accounts, because they are church accounts, are tax deductible contributions.)
Copyright © 2005 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
|
