Now- La Posada, San Benito, Texas

Serving At La Posada Is a Grace Gift from God.

Praise God with me for the privilege of serving immigrants and asylum seekers at La Posada, https://lppshelter.org.  If you want to read a personal story from one of the 9000 previous resident, see https://lppshelter.org/la-posada-welcomes-our-9000th-client.  

From their web site, you can sign up for their Tuesday in Texas Newsletter. 

If God stirs your heart, the La Posada web site offers an option for donating. 

  

I have been at La Posada for over one month.  I left home on December 23 spent Christmas with my Son and Daughter-in Law, Ed & Gale, in Howell Mi.  Praise God with me that I was able to leave so that I drove to Texas between snowstorms, I had 1889 miles of clear highways Michigan to Texas!  On my way here, it was a welcome site to see flowers blooming at my motel in Houston.

Methodist teaching includes the concept of Prevenient Grace, the divine Grace that precedes human decision.  Believers, through the things they say and do as God’s children, are privileged by the Holy Spirit to be part of God’s Prevenient Grace in the lives of others. 

Daily I see God’s grace expressed at La Posada.  Sometimes in words.  

  

God is with the immigrants and asylum seekers in their struggles, are we?.  Are we, with undivided resolve, ministering to the needs of immigrants and asylum seekers in our cities, and country?

Every weekday I am in the classroom teaching English.  My small group consists of students from many different countries.  All are working hard to learn English.  For most immigrants and asylum seekers here, English is a second language.  For others, English is their third, fourth or more language.   

The classroom and the variety of other activities make my service at La Posada a daily joy!  

Being here often brings to mind the title of a United Methodist Women’s National Seminar I attended in 2015 titled, Interrupt Indifference Jesus, Justice and Joy. 

Joy is mine as I learn from and with all here. 

Let’s let Grace interrupt us into fervent action!

Please Pray for Immigrants, Asylum Seekers and

Those Who Serve Them.

Then and Now Pondering-Realizing

REALIZE

I chose “Realize” as my pondering word this year.  I continue praying, asking God to show me my blind spots. 

REALIZE CHRISTIAN TRADITION ON FEEDING THE POOR 

I did not realize the Tradition of Christianity on feeding the poor.  Thomas Aquinas, “in case of need all things are common property.  The implication is that there would seem to be no sin in tanking another’s property, for need has made it common… since… there are many who are in need.  While it is impossible for all to be succored by means of the same thing, each one is entrusted with the stewardship of his own things, so that out of them he may come to aid of those who are in need.  He stated, “It is morally permissible for the extremely impoverished person to take what he or she needs for the substance from the person with plenty.  His main point is about the rights, the claim-rights, of the poor.  Going back in our Christian Tradition, Ambrose (340-397):  “Not from your own do you bestow upon the poor man, but you make return from what is his” 

Also Basil of Caesarea (330-379):

Will not one be called a thief who steals the garment of one already clothed, and is one deserving of any other title who will not clothe the naked if he is able to do so ?

The bread that you keep belongs to the hungry; that coat which you preserve in your wardrobe, to the naked; those shoes that are rotting in your possession, to the shoeless; that gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy.  Wherefore as often as you were able to help others, and refused, so often did you do them wrong. 

John Chrysostom stated, “This also is theft, not to share one’s possessions.  Perhaps this statement seems surprising to you, but do not be surprised.  Scriptures say that not only the theft of other’s goods but also the failure to share one’s own goods with others is theft, swindle, and degradation.

The rich man is a kind of steward of the money that is owned for distribution to the poor.  He is directed to distribute it to his fellow servants who are in want.  Therefore, if he spends more on himself than his needs require, he will pay the harshest penalty hereafter.  For his own goods are not his own, but belong to his fellow servants. 

I beg you remember this without fail, that not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth but theirs.

It is not about the moral failure of the rich, but about the moral injury to the poor who do not enjoy that to which they have a right.

What Are We Willing to Sacrifice for Justice?

An article asks this question on the United Methodist Women's Web site.  HTTPS://WWW.UNITEDMETHODISTWOMEN.ORG/NEWS/MLK2015, What Are We Willing to Sacrifice for Justice?  by Janis Rosheuvel and the Rev. Dionne P. Boissière

REALIZE NOW

The statistics are provided on their web site.