A DOLLAR FOR COFFEE
Early in the
morning on this winter day, I was going to the office. It was one of the coldest
mornings of the season. I was in my warmest winter jacket but was still feeling
the frigidity of the cold. Visibility was generally poor because of the snow. It
was somehow windy. Visible steam was coming out of my nostrils like the smoke of
cigarette every time I breathe out. I was striding at a quick pace just to get
to the cozy warmth of office in time. I was in the world of my own, thinking
about my schedules for the day. I was trying to figure out the priorities for
the day. “Brother John should be in the office by now,” I thought, “and as soon
as Sister Vicky comes we shall assemble to have a short prayer.” “Those money
orders must be deposited unfailingly today. I will need some stamps to mail the
Christmas gifts I have in my office. I will also need to mail the holiday
seasons greeting cards. I will need to cancel doctor’s appointment I have today
because of volumes of things I need to do. Oh yes, I have to call Ohio this
morning before I go to the bank! I have …” A shrieking shout cut the train of my
thought. “A DOLLAR FOR COFFEE!” Still on my momentum of fast pace striding I
walked past him. I stopped momentarily to look at the direction where the sound
came from. I saw a man wrapped himself in a discarded carton by the street
corner. He was only depending on the heat leakages coming out of the boiler of
building however, he was still shivering. Then I remember the scripture that
says,
“Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be
heard.” (Proverbs 21:13) “Obviously, you need a hot coffee in this cold
winter,” I thought. I came back to him. I dipped my hand in my pocket to
minister to him.
The poor are
screaming for help in our midst today. They are using all the means of
communication available to them. The cry of the poor is not only “A dollar for
coffee,” it is not only for coins or food remnant. It is also their obvious
deplorable lives; it is the eyesore these once-upon a time beautiful people had
become in our society. It is the stench that is oozing from their undetoxicated
bodies that sometimes forces us to cover our nose with hand-kerchief. Even if
you have an underdeveloped sense smelling like myself, you cannot miss these
beautiful people lying on the subways seats to occupying three seats in the
subway car. This is the only bed they can legitimately lay their aching bodies
on and fall asleep. This is their sitting room and dining room. It is when the
special members of our society cover themselves with paper carton and shivering
in the frigid cold winter and only subsist on the heat leakages from the boilers
of the Con Edison. They are screaming for help when you find them at the street
corner with pan in their hands. The public shelter the government provided for
them does not include the program that will make interaction with other members
of the society possible. Nobody is providing role model for the people
that need counseling and encouragement. This is one of the reasons why
some do not always stay in the government facilities provided for them because
they want to mingle and interact with right-thinking and fortunate people of the
society. They want to have opportunity of seeing the light of the days.
Again the senior
citizens in the public and private nursing homes are some other categories of
poor people in our society. Their grown up children have got married and settled
in different cities and in different states. Their grand children are in the
private and public high school minding their own business. The aged parents have
retired, and no income is coming for them to maintain themselves. Due to their
old age, they cannot run around to maintain themselves in the sophisticated
society. No extended family relationship as it is being operated in other
culture. Loneliness sets in at their old age. None of the children want to
harbor a helpless aged parent and the cost of maintaining them privately is
exorbitant for the children. The children decide to take the easy way out, by
shutting their ears to the cry and needs of their poor parents. They bundle
their fathers and mothers into the nursing homes with intention that the workers
in the homes will be maintaining them and keep them company.
And yet there
are other members of our society that are classified as poor. They are the
people that are naturally incapacitated as a result birth defects, blindness,
diseases like multiple-sclerosis, spinal cords related diseases that permanently
subjected them to the wheel chairs. The deaf and dumb and the people with cases
of psychiatric problems are also in the category. You may not find these people
around in our street corner notwithstanding, nobody can claim lack of knowledge
of their existence. The fact that you possess all the physical abilities that
these precious people lack is enough indication that the hearts of the less
fortunate poor people are crying for help.
Many people in
their self justification may be of the opinion that it is their fault to be
homeless. Perhaps they say it was because of the wrong people they hung on with
in their youthful age that let them to become homeless. Perhaps they thought it
was because of drug related problems they were involved in. Their situations
cannot be narrowed down to these self-inflicted social problems. Some found
themselves in a serious depression. Some are subjected to horrible situation
that permanently alter the course of their life. Some are subjected to
orientation of abject poverty right from their childhood and were unable to find
their feet in life. Some are as a result of psychiatric problems of which after
they were healed, they were unable to fit-in in the society. Some have spent the
best part of their life times in the big house behind the bar, and the good
trend of life had left them behind. The list of the reason why people become
homeless are endless but certainly the mercy of God endures forever.
Pan-handling is
illegal in our society, especially in the mass-transit system and other public
places. But it is equally a violation of the law of God to neglect the poor
among us. God commanded in the book of Deuteronomy, You shall generously give
to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for
this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your
undertakings. "For the poor will never cease {to be} in the land; therefore
I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your
needy and poor in your land.' (Deuteronomy 15:10-11) God reminded the Israelites
and His words comes to us today that, “The poor will never cease to be in our
land and we shall freely open our hands to our brothers and to our needy and
poor people in our land.” These poor ones are living among us in their
uncomfortable state of life to justify the definition of their lives. They are
the integral part of our lives and they are poor in order that we may behold the
glory of God in our affluence. The way we minister to the poor whether
generously or neglect is a test of our faith. They are the missing link to the
path of our breakthroughs because the Lord says, “We shall generously give to
them, without any regret whatsoever or the thought that we have wasted our
resources on people that do not deserve our mercy, because for this thing the
Lord our God will bless us in all our works and in all our undertakings.” Take a
cue today from the exemplary leaders of Israelites in the way they lived
according to the precept of the word of God. “And the men which were
expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all
that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to
eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon
asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren;
then they returned to Samaria.” (II Chronicles 28:15)
Ministering to
the needy and the poor does not stop in doling out few dollars and feeding them
with remnant food. At times by the design of fate, it takes our means of
livelihood to minister to these special people. Many of us are working in the
nursing homes now to clean and dress, and serve the senior citizens and the
disables in our society. The people considered themselves as unfortunate people
that are doing menial jobs for living. Little do they know that it a path to the
spiritual stardom of their lives as it is an opportunity for them to be
ministers to these poor senior citizens. As God had designed it, you replaced
their sons and daughters that have abandon them. And the blessing of God they
abandoned when they abandoned their parents becomes yours and your generations
as you ministers to them. Many times we think one has to operate from the pulpit
before he can be an effective minister. Far from this thought. You are a
minister that is opportuned to love unloveables, to pray for those who never
know that they are being prayed for and keep them company as if they are your
own parent. At the same time you are presented an opportunity to point them to
know Jesus Christ before they see death. Whenever you are in your cozy home in
this winter, remember the important members of our society that are outside in
the cold. Beloved of the Lord, do not depart from the honorable course of
meeting the needs of the needy and the poor for the glory of God.
Michael A.
Eleyinafe
