No this is not a prequel or sequel to any romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock. Although working with her may not be so bad. I don’t think she’s mean or anything.
I’ve heard a few pastors, heard one this weekend, and speakers say that you don’t know you’ve been sleeping until you wake up and it’s over. Sleep is pretty much the only natural thing we do that we can’t really force to happen and can’t realize while we’re doing it. All we know is that we wake up and realize that we’ve been a sleep. Becoming a believer and follower of Christ is similar. People don’t know they’ve been sleeping on life until Christ wakes them up. Shoot, a lot of Christians fall asleep in their faith going through the motions.
I didn’t know about the homeless problem in my county. I mean, it’s a fairly rural area. I assumed there were some homeless people, but I didn’t know that the average homeless person is 9 years old. Yes, 9 years old.
I didn’t know that out of approximately 17000 students in our county there were over 250 kids newly identified as homeless last year. I mentioned this in a previous post, but that number doesn’t include kids that were already known to be homeless or kids who are homeless, but are “undocumented”.
Nearly half of the students, 48%, over 8,000 kids, are classified as “economically disadvantaged”. What people don’t realize is that the last meal a lot of these kids get in a week is at lunch at school on Fridays. Some of them don’t eat ANYTHING until breakfast at school on Monday. I didn’t know that either until I started to hear the cases from first-hand teachers and school social workers. Now, I’m awake.
Want to know where you’re county’s school district stands with some of these statistics? Visit the Georgia DoE site and click on any County or City School and then click on the “facts” tab. For information on homeless children in your area, contact you local homeless shelter. They’ll likely be glad to take you call.
I’ve prayed a lot about having opportunities to serve Him with my abilities, and I have in some capacities, and I can’t sleep through this one. We have to do something to alleviate the struggles for these kids and make this community aware of this seemingly invisible issue. With God’s help, lives will change.
