{"id":6573,"date":"2017-12-19T07:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T12:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=6573"},"modified":"2017-12-13T12:46:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T17:46:04","slug":"december-24-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/december-24-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"December 24, 2017–How Can this Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan Jaster, Winchester, VA
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Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is something surprising you were asked to do in the past week?\u00a0 What did you do in response to being asked?<\/p>\n

How Can This Be?
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Washington, D. C.\u00a0 You likely know it as America\u2019s capital and the place where our national government has its home.\u00a0 Many visit to see the Smithsonian, explore the monuments, and go to plays or sports events.<\/p>\n

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However, not as well known is the large population of people who continue to live in parks, shelters, or moving back and forth between housing and the streets.\u00a0 \u00a0Thankfully, according to the DC Department of Human Services, the number of adults and children who experience homelessness has dropped 34% from 2009 to 2017.\u00a0 One night earlier this year, there were 7,473 people unsheltered in an emergency shelter or in a transitional housing facility.<\/p>\n

Recently youth from our community met two men in Washington D.C. who help lead an organization called Teens Opposing Poverty.\u00a0 They told stories of living on streets for 10-12 years each. A small number of teenagers chose not to ignore them.\u00a0 The teens fed them, brought clean, white socks, and got to know them as human beings.\u00a0 They blessed them and the new homeless friends blessed back.<\/p>\n

One day the teens asked \u201cHow can this be that you have to live on the streets and under benches?\u201d\u00a0 Hearing answers, these youth continued to stick around, offering hope and small steps toward living fuller lives. \u00a0\u00a0As a result of the blessing from teenagers who loved them, these two men are both off the streets. They are employed and have families.\u00a0 They are proud to lead groups of teenagers through Teen Opposing Poverty.\u00a0 Youth get to know others who live on the streets trapped in the cycle of poverty.<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out Teens Opposing Poverty at http:\/\/teensopposingpoverty.org. \u00a0Their mission is to\u00a0empower youth to meet physical needs and offer hope, friendship, opportunity and encouragement to the poor, not just as an annual event, but as a regular part of their lives.\u00a0 They know that teenagers have a unique voice give from God to transform lives!<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n