Poverty. . .

I’ve lived in the inner city for almost 14 years.  As a result, poverty is no longer an abstraction for me. 

Poverty feels like a crushing weight. 

Poverty inspires fear. 

Poverty gets personal real fast. 

Poverty sucks the life out of a person one day, one hour, one block at a time. 

Poverty is contagious. 

Like a cancer, poverty can grow wildly, quickly. 

Poverty leads to death, death of hope and spirit. 

Poverty is anti-family. 

Poverty humiliates. 

Poverty breeds hopelessness.

Poverty is unjust—you’ll find no fairness underneath the surface of poverty. 

Poverty inflicts cruelty. 

Poverty is inhumane. 

Poverty wrecks lives here and now. 

Poverty leads the way to generations of suffering and defeat. 

My faith tells me. . .

. . . my experience tells me,

. . . my friendships tell me,

. . . my abundance tells me,

. . . my heart tells me that poverty must not go unchallenged. 

If I am a human being made in God’s image, I must respond to the terrible reality of poverty and the suffering it inflicts. 

Working among the poor is a war. 

Not everyone can be here. 

We are. 

We need your help in the battle that rages around us every day. 

It’s real simple. 

Will you help us today?