Homeless Issues #33

The Sun Shines, our Hearts follow. Good Day;
We hear a lot about our homeless community in and around Placerville but do not know much about those who survive in the out-lying areas of our county and the groups who attempt to care for their needs. Allow me to tell you about one group.

For more than a decade the Pioneer Bible Church has been serving those in need in the communities of Mt. Aukum, Somerset, Fairplay and River Pines. Sometimes their service reaches as far as Pleasant Valley, Grizzly Flat and Omo Ranch. Handing out food and clothing is their normal practice. The homeless often have no transportation. The Pioneer Bible Church volunteers have driven them to all sorts of appointments–often to the hospital when the need arises. The Pioneer Bible Church provides internet service for them so that they can search for employment, file for unemployment, etc. They provide all sorts of counsel that is within their scope of expertise. They try to become friends and celebrate their joys with them. Birthday celebrations, meeting their children and grandchildren are times of encouragement. The pastor has taken care of their funeral needs when it seemed like few people cared.  Every Wednesday bags of food are given out. On the fourth Friday of every month the “Mt Aukum Angles” partnering with Job’s Shelters of the Sierra (JSS), with  Beverly Matson at the helm of JSS, give out food and the necessities of homeless life that JSS is known for. You will find the Red Jeep of JSS at Pioneer Bible Church every fourth Friday of the month.

Homelessness begins at birth in many cases. An unwanted child. A child that was never hugged, nurtured, or sung to by its mother because the mother herself was never hugged, nurtured, or sung to. The progression goes on–reproducing the same results. Can we stop this progression? Can we teach a new mother to hold her child, sing to her child, nurture her child? Many of us take that nurturing for granted. We just think that all mothers know how to nurture a baby. “That was the way I was brought up.” Many never had that beginning, so now we are challenged to take care of these of God’s children who are culturally, emotionally, challenged in this world. Contact WIC Program, ED County Dept. of Human Services, (530)621-6176

JSS has struck up a partnership with Snowline Hospice to provide the pants, T-shirts, shorts, etc. from their overstock as well as the socks, toilet paper, and other necessities that JSS has traditionally provided to our homeless population in this county. John Dutton is out every Friday with shirts and pants as well as other necessities that the homeless need to survive. CN Ministries from Georgetown UMC in the Georgetown area also partners with JSS in the northern part of the county and the Community Resource Center.

One person or one organization can not do everything alone. We can all work together to achieve the same goals, show the same commitments, the same compassion, the same for our brothers and sisters who have the very least in life. Not one of us has the full knowledge to come to grips with all the problems of homelessness. We need to understand that those who have no future, no incentive, no will to change, will always be with us. So we must ask, “Does the stray, lost, starving dog deserve more then the stray, lost, starving person?” We have the county supported SPCA for the dog. What do we have for the person? With no outlay of money by the County government we can provide shelter for the stray, lost, starving person. All we need is support, excess county land or unused buildings so that the community can come together and provide for those who have the least in our community.

“There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not tender and compassionate.”-–South.

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