Flowing Generosity

Last week I got an email from one of our partnering churches asking if we were going to be able to assist flood victims and if we needed any volunteers to help. Since our core clients are folks that are moving out of homelessness shelters, living with HIV/AIDS and fleeing domestic violence situations we don't have the funding to assist people outside of that so we'd have no need for volunteers.

But if they gave us the money to help them then we could. Well they did!!! Enough money to provide mattresses to most of the people affected by the flood. The generosity of others is often overwhelming, inspiring, contagious.

David, who is constantly mindful of others needs, says "But what about the families who've been waiting on beds for months. We have 33 people who've already visited the Furniture Bank this year, but we didn't have beds for them when they came. There wasn't enough supply to meet the demand. They've been waiting for months and months to get what they need. "What do we do about them," David says? "I just don't feel right meeting this immediate need and ignoring our core clients."

And that's the heart of the issue folks. People need assistance whether it's flood season, hurricane season, fire season or they are facing the regular hardships of life. The Furniture Bank sees people in desperate need daily, families, children, individuals. We are mindful of natural disasters because images of damage are filling our television screens and radio stations constantly. We have to really search for the other horrors of life, like the fact if all of the homeless youth were in one city, it would be the seventh largest in the US (StandUp for Kids).


Let's not wait for a natural disaster to help those in need. They are around us always.