The New Poor
Published by Matt Glover April 12th, 2006 in Questions of FaithDoing what I do gives me glimpses into parts of our community that normally go unnoticed. Mitcham lies smack in the center of middle-class Melbourne and generally paints itself as a community that is welcoming and safe. But not far under the surface is a community that is hurting.
Even though they have been ignored, there has always been some homelessness in Mitcham. We’ve had people sleep in, on and around ‘The Factory’ and the previous property for years. Our welfare account with the local Coles supermarket gets used weekly and I consider it a privilege to be able to spend time talking, praying and sharing life with those that Jesus would have hung out with.
Drugs are an issue. The guy who runs our local methadone clinic has been really great in helping us assist some of our local addicts with their treatment. Chroming raises it’s head every so often too. This, of course, leads to crime and we help the police by providing independant third parties to sit in on interviews when a young person is arrested.
However, something different has been happening over the last year or so. The face of the poor in Mitcham has changed.
Instead of your ’stereo-typical’ poor person, the people I’ve been dealing with of late have all been well dressed, well spoken, free of drugs or other addictions but are simply finding life tough. The price of petrol has devestated tight family budgets, and regardless of what the government says, jobs are still hard to come by if you don’t have the right experience or education.
For instance, this morning a young single mum came asking for help. She couldn’t afford to run her car because of the price of petrol. She couldn’t make phone calls becasue she couldn’t pay her phone bill. She has to put her three year old in child care so she can look for work, but after that and the rent is paid for there’s nothing left for food. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to get off.
But perhaps the worst thing is the isolation and lonliness that comes from being in this situation. This Mum moved to Melbourne from QLD because the rent was cheaper (she packed everything in the car and drove) but it hasn’t all worked out just yet. With no friends, family, job or other support you can imagine that life isn’t looking too promising for this Mum and her three year old.
And she is not an isolated case at all.
It breaks my heart and I feel so helpless, particularly when there are kids involved. But I guess that this is what the ‘new poor’ in Mitcham will look like from now on.
“Whatever you do for the least of these….” rings louder in my ears each day.
I guess the question is, why do we feel helpless? Do we feel helpless because we cannot help, or are we simply helpless because we will not help. There is so much more a church community can, and should be able to do in a situation like this. We may sit and complain about petty decisions - how much does the underlay for our carpet cost - on the same day that we turn away a mum with a hungry 3 year old. Where is Jesus in that?
We get caught up in our own problems so often that we radiate indifference to teh very problems that Jesus slammed others as hypoprites for becomming preoccupied with. Is it possible that we’ve become the pharisees?
Its become easy for comfortable safe Christians to forget about the real problems out there. To wrap themselves up in internal ‘ministry’ and not think about what happens outside the walls of our sanctuary. Sometimes it can be too confronting to think that someone we know may be in prison (”do we associate with people like that”) to deal with people (inlcluding kids) who drink, do drugs, have sex. To be faced with a person who sleeps the night behind a buildig somewhere, huddling for what warmth they can get. To find a young person harming themself because the pressure of school or work, and the lack of a loving family becomes too much for them?
One day, our quiet, safe perceptions are all going to come crashing down. A veil will be lifted from our eyes and we’ll truly see the dangerous, exciting world that God has called each and every one of us to minister in.
I always feel helpless when I can’t ‘fix’ something.
But the question I ask is how did things get to the point that this addict, single parent or whatever are struggling so badly? Could that have been stopped? Not always.
Today we put this Mum in touch with some others in the church and offered to help with some kids stuff and got them some food. She was wrapped, but watching the little girl skip away, I wondered whether much difference was actually made.
Quoting the General, “One day, our quiet, safe perceptions are all going to come crashing down. A veil will be lifted from our eyes and we’ll truly see the dangerous, exciting world that God has called each and every one of us to minister in. ”
Can’t wait for that day. Atually, why should we….?