Effective Charity Systems

Scroll to UPDATE for a summary of my situation.

Scroll to PRAYER for three requests for me that can be prayed for others.

Every day many people are laid off or fired from their jobs.

Many people are injured or become serious ill daily.

Our cities have handicapped and elderly.

All humans have basic needs for food, clothes, shelter, medicine and transportation.

When the cost of living is greater than the income there are troubles.

This gap can be spanned by savings, credit card, gifts from others, nonprofits and government assistance.

Before government programs began in the 1940s most charitable aid came from Christians.

I am not advocating for us to return to only that means of aid.

But in this generation most Christians have lost touch with practical benevolence.

All of that has been turned over to the government agencies and a few nonprofits.

God used me for more than seven years to raise prayer support and money for Shebaa Green.

She was disabled and qualified for several government programs.

She was receiving assistance, discounts and subsidies.

But all of those were not enough to pay for her many medicines and other needs.

She had lots of health challenges.

The hundreds of dollars I raised each month went for medicines, groceries, bus passes and toiletries.

Shebaa and I lived in the same apartment complex.

It was in a rough part of town to get low rent.

She went to many churches over the years and joined several.

They prayed but there was very little help with paying for her basic needs.

Also through Shebaa I met others in much need too.

God used me to help them financially.

I was giving 10 to 20 percent of my paycheck in such practical benevolence.

During this time I noticed repeatedly that there was no system to screen and help them.

These were people in real need due to circumstances beyond their control.

They had asked family and friends for help before.

They had gone to the government agencies and churches.

God used me, a stranger at their time, to pay for bus fare, medicine and simple needs.

Individuals and churches did not have a way to know if the needs were real.

If the needs were real, then were they getting met?

Is this just a short term emergency or part of a long term pattern?

Are they taking action steps to get better?

Do they know of the various agencies and nonprofits that could help?

Have they been abusing the system?

What is their spiritual condition?

What are ways they can get to where they have an income?

I prayed much during those long and painful years.

I studied the Bible and reflected on the verses related to benevolence.

Several times during those years I imagined launching a ministry aid at this niche.

The name I used in my files and in my mind is Effective Charity Systems.

Today here I am in real need of help.

I was fired from my job about a week ago.

God has used a few dear friends to help me get this far.

I have hope that God will make a way for me to get back on my feet.

There were times I could have used little things like a bus pass or some groceries.

Housing was the main expense.

But I needed personal care items like toiletries.

I have bought many bottles of water this week.

One person paid for 2 nights at a motel.

Another person designated 200 dollars for my stay at the missionary housing.

Other funds were not designated.

I kept receipts and made a spread sheet of the incomes and expenses.

This was not required of me but seemed like the right thing to do.

I am facing uncertainty about where I will be living after I leave here.

Many people have been praying and I am grateful for that.

What I envision are systems to bring together the many parts in a whole.

An individual, couple or family enters the system.

They are screened by trained volunteers.

There are screening forms adapted from what agencies and nonprofits use.

The immediate needs would be identified and hopefully met.

The short, medium and long term goals would be sketched out over time.

There would be referrals to others that could help.

A case worker would be assigned to the more complex clients.

Meeting temporal needs would be woven together with spiritual needs.

There would be various fund raising campaigns done year around to pay for this.

This is a small but important part of Our Stewardship Community.

We as Christians will give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ for our stewardship.

I can appeal to donors and volunteers by demonstrating big results over time.

Overall I would structure the budget and services as follows:

10 percent for overhead including administration and case workers

20 percent to help the clients gain income by employment including self employment

30 percent to meet temporal needs like bus passes, medicine, groceries, utilities, rent, etc.

40 percent for spiritual needs like Bibles, New Testaments, evangelism resources, discipleship resources.

I would start with about a dozen screened clients.

They would be the beta testers.

Then as they are helped I would ask them how to make improvements.

Little by little there would be improvements.

The aim from the start is to make this system available for other groups.

Those groups include small groups, local churches, mission agencies and others.

Those who serve the poor like food banks and homeless shelters could use it.

It can be set up using paper based 3 ring binders unto software and cloud based.

There will be much confidential data so security becomes an issue.

When I prayed I told God I am willing to design this and set it up.

But I am not willing to oversee daily operations.

There will be lots of personality conflicts and spiritual warfare.

There will be clients going off psyche medicines.

There will be greed, blaming, complaining, whining and more.

I want God to send me the right person to spear head this after it gets going.

I am in no rush to do this.

But this is the time to share with you a part of what is my calling.

UPDATE

Last night I had a mild case of gas and diarrhea.

I took a laxative.

I am feeling much better.

Please pray for my health now and later.

I connected with the key and ATM card today.

I have been studying the crowd funding platform.

Pray for me to effectively use this tool.

https://www.indiegogo.com/

PRAYER

Here are three prayers for me and you can adapt to pray for others.

May I often come to the Word with a humble and teachable spirit.

May I quickly let go of thoughts and feelings that distract me from simply trusting and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ.

May God remind me of the times and ways He answered my prayers in the past so that I can remain steadfast in my faith in Him.

Shalom