Blog 13
1440 words by Peter Pham
I started out trying to find a way to improve the world. That feat was too big to handle, so I decided to improve Louisiana first. The way I figured that I would do this is by first finding a huge problem in the state that hasn’t been solved yet. One of these few problems would of course be poverty since the hurricane just bulldozed everything in the state of Louisiana. When I first started the project, my original plan was to contact the other churches around my community, including my own, to start some kind of fund raiser to help out the poor. That plan went down in smokes when I tried talking to it with my church and we couldn’t figure out what to do and how to do it. My other plan was to ask the community to donate things that they don’t need any more that could help out the poor or buy things and donate it to the church, so we could give it out. This plan was working f or a little bit until the community just stopped giving things and the fact that not so many people contributed to the donation. This got me deeply depressed and had to figure out a new plan of action. I finally figured that since the community won’t donate money or things, I need to get their support at least. I mass produced some flyers appealing to the young and the old to see who would like to join my group and help out the poor for this Thanksgiving. To my surprise, many people offered their support. The people who joined up were mostly people my age or just a little older. We did get some parents involved also. I figured that people wouldn’t give me money because of the fact that they don’t know what I’m doing with it and where is it going to. I also assumed people didn’t give me supplies because they didn’t know what to get. I would have to keep these things in mind when I do this the next time. Next time, I would probably have to make a list for people to see what kind of things I’m looking for and to explain my cause of action and what I am hoping to accomplish with this project. If any of this wasn’t the problem then maybe some people are just plain selfish and wouldn’t help out people who are in need.
In the beginning of November, the group and I had our first meeting. We all sat down and discussed some of the things we could do to help. After much deliberation, we all came to an agreement that we would continue one of the original plans to collect supplies from the neighborhood by spreading the word by mouth more and that we should cook a feast for the homeless people on Thanksgiving. I was pleased that we accomplish this much in one day. This wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for my group’s strong determination and passion for the less fortunate. The group turned out better than what I expected because some of the members parents owned or know some people who owned grocery stores. We quickly took advantage of this information and personally asked these stores for a contribution to the feast. The owners were kind enough to donate some things we needed to cook.
A week before Thanksgiving, we were going to end the donation of supplies and begin handing it out. We thought of this as an early Christmas present from society. Before this, we had gone downtown to do a survey of what the homeless people really needed and took that into consideration when we raise some money to buy some of the more expensive supplies. We also made some more flyers and placed the around downtown to get people to show up on the day we were going to hand out some of these supplies. The problem that we were facing at the current time is that we were scared that nobody was going to show up. If this would to happen, we would have to be forced to drive to the more homeless areas and hand these out ourselves. We wanted to avoid this situation because of the ridiculous gas prices.
The day to hand out the supplies finally came and to our hopeful expectations we have a line worthy of black Friday. We were going to start mid-day, but when we got there an hour early to set up, there was already a line of people waiting to receive some things. It’s funny because we thought of ourselves as Santa Claus and we were about to hand out gifts to the kids who were waiting in line to find out if they were naughty or nice. That day turned out to be fantastic. There wasn’t any rushing or mobs forming or anything. The operation flowed exactly as planned. People would line up one by one to receive some things and we took some requests also. If someone needed more blankets than soap then we would give it to them. By the end of the day, we got rid of all the stuff people donated and of course the things we bought. For the people who did come that day, we also told them that we would be back in the same spot on the day of Thanksgiving to hold a feast. The people were ecstatic to hear this and we told them in turn that they have to spread the word for people to come and eat.
On the day of Thanksgiving, everybody who was a member of the group or anyone who just wanted to help woke up early. We designated some houses to go to cook some of the stuff that was going to be served. Of course we had to do this because nobody has a kitchen big enough to hold twenty plus people. We cooked all the food and gathered all the supplies and came out there around nine o’clock to set up tables and such. We got everything ready by noon as planned and the people were there ready to eat. When it was about time, we all got on our aprons and prepared to be the best waiter or waitress possible for these people. The day flowed by nicely and gave us all a great satisfaction of accomplishment. We all gave each other a pat on the back for a job well done and dreaded the fact that we have to clean up afterwards. Cleaning up is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. We sure as heck wouldn’t make the homeless people do it. Everybody thanked us for the meal and we told them we would hope to do the same thing next year if possible.
I guess the main point on how I helped out the world is that I tried to get people to realize what kind of situation the homeless people in Louisiana and possibly the whole world is experiencing. By doing this blog, I also hoped that people read my entries and realize what shape the world is in. I want people to know what we did this year and maybe by next year, we will have more people to join our cause. As the years go by, we hope that this tradition will continue when we, the original group, can no longer continue it ourselves. The generations after us might have the right sense to care for the less fortunate unlike the generations that came before them. This year we might have extended some lives by getting them the things they required to survive. All together, we saved some lives this year.
Jesus was crucified for doing what He believed was the right thing to do. The Romans condemned Jesus to death for just preaching the words of God. The Romans possibly thought of Jesus as a threat to their reign over the people and had to dispose of Him to keep their positions in power. They made a plan to kill Jesus, but God had an original plan for the whole thing. God planned it out so that Jesus would have to die, but by doing so, started the eternal cycle of life after death.
