The Last Year

You sit there thinking about the last year and all of the changes that you have made and have been forced to make.

Just under one year ago you lose your job due to the poor economy. The company that you worked for is heavily reliant on the manufacturing industry. With the cutbacks all over the country companies have not been able to purchase the equipment that the business that I worked for manufactured. Your boss says that your position is gone. Management has decided to split your responsibilities among the other men in the office. This doesn’t bother you too much, as you have been expecting it. The other guys tried to say that they wouldn’t do away with your job as you did all of the administrative work in the office. You knew better; they could easily do it.

During the months before losing your job you had started working with a local church doing work in the community, and had been trying to figure out a way to get more involved. This opened up that door for you.

Over the next few months you work with the existing team at the church trying to bring it together under one vision. While you are at it, you attend a few seminars on the Church’s role in the community and Asset Based Community Development. This work focuses on the skills of the people in the community, not their needs or weaknesses.

It is early in the year. Your wife is worried that you will get into the work so much that you forget about making a living and paying the bills. You also notice that she is afraid that she will lose you to something she doesn’t understand. She isn’t bothered by the work in the community, but the Church’s role disturbs her. She has seen examples of families living in hardship when the husband uses “Faith” as an excuse not to go to work and make a living. In most of those cases, there is no plan, or even mission, just the man’s desire to not work for someone else. You keep this in mind focusing on ways to ease those fears and try to include her in your decisions. While working with the church and denomination you try to build a position at the church so that you have an income when the time and need arise.

 As the summer starts, things get bleak. Most of the team you have been working with gets frustrated as they do not see the vision of community. They decide to leave the team. At the same time, the pastor is going through his own rough patch. He is working too many hours, and trying to help everyone at once who is in crisis. At the same time there are some hurtful things said to him that he takes personally. Being a man who cares for both his congregation and the community, it is hard when things seem to be falling apart.

You start to think that if the pastor, who is the only one who seems to share the vision with you, is about to break down, that it isn’t worth it. Your wife is worried about you and you start to wonder if you are really meant to do the work or if you are deluding yourself and are afraid to look for other work in the poor economy.

While the pastor is on vacation getting recharged for his mission you start thinking of ways to make it work. You realize that your target is too big to start with, that you have to focus on your mission. You start writing articles about community to be published in the local newspapers. When the pastor is back, you work with him to bring the vision to the congregation in small easy to understand chunks.

 As the summer is drawing to a close, you realize that the church and the denomination cannot support a position. You would have to spend more time fund raising than would be productive. As you come to this realization, you get a letter in the mail stating that the President is trying to make it easier to go to school and retrain if you are unemployed. You go to your career advisor and work out a plan to retrain. That fall, for the first time in thirty years you start your first semester in school. You haven’t given up on the work; you are just focusing your mind on learning the skills needed to make it successful.

 You are now coming upon one year without a job. Some of the fears about the community work are still there, but you have a plan. That makes it easier.

A Neighbor’s Reaction to State Budget Cuts

The other day I was watching the news on television when a story on the current budget crisis in Augusta came on. There were a group of people protesting some of the proposed cuts which affected their clients, or family. This group was representing some of our neighbors that have either mental or physical disabilities. The proposed cuts would eliminate services that help these people to survive with some independence and dignity.

I am still learning what it means to be a good neighbor, but if we as a society open our eyes to our neighbors and make an effort to know them as people, we can help to reduce the damages done by this type of cut. How is this possible? As we get involved with our neighbors, we will see that everyone has something to offer to society. You might find that the person next door that is forced to be in a wheel chair is good at woodwork. Once you know that, you may find that he is interested in teaching other people. The next neighbor might have teenagers that do not know what they want to do in the future. You might talk them into visiting the neighbor that likes to do woodwork. As they get to know him, the teenagers might find that they like to work with wood themselves and ask him to teach them. As they learn to work with wood, the teenagers might see another neighbor doing a project like building a shed and offer to help.

We need to forget the labels that society places on people in order to see the real person. Every person has a lot to offer to you, me and society as a whole. It doesn’t matter if they are physically unable to care for themselves or have mental challenges that make it difficult to communicate what is on their mind.

The first thing that our neighbors have to offer is skills. It could be a small skill like the ability and passion to make things with their hands, even small crafts. They can draw out the hospitality found in all of us who care for others. Compassion for others can be fostered when neighbors get to know each other. This may lead to friendship and happiness for both our neighbor and us. The final gift we can get from overlooking physical and mental disabilities in our neighbors is inspiration. As we see how they continue to live and be independent it will inspire us to see our own difficulties in a different light.

How could this help with the current budget crisis? As we get to know each other as neighbors we will work together to overcome any challenges in the neighborhood. Instead of hiring people to be caretakers the neighborhood, as a group we can work out a schedule to visit those in need and help them where needed. At the same time we want to foster any skills or passions that the neighbor might have. We could have that neighbor over to play games with the family, or do crafts with the children. By having the whole neighborhood involved everyone grows and friendships are born.

For those of you who are still skeptical about the skills and offerings that the handicapped can offer, please remember that one of the most brilliant minds in science belonged to a man who was physically handicapped, Stephen Hawking. Yes I know that Stephen was highly motivated and refused to let his handicap stop him. The thing is, as we interact with each other, we inspire each other and foster that same motivation and passion making this one less obstacle in living independently. Please think about this as you think about what it is to be a good neighbor.