...I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land...

Poverty--how do you guys deal with it? Both Moses and Jesus tell us that we'll always have the poor with us and of course that's true, but isn't it true at least in part because God's people fall short of doing his will? For example:

⁴ However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, ⁵ if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy 15:4-5

So in what ways are you guys fully obeying God's call to minister to the poor? Trust me I don't intend for that to sound like a challenge, and we can't claim to be getting this right on our end, I am sincerely curious as to what it looks like for you. I want to know what programs you have in place. Do you lean on other community groups? If so which ones are helpful? Do you point folks to DSHS? What sort of things do you help with? Do you have a compassionate fund? If so is it funded, and how? Have you taken any measures to protect yourselves from abuse? Where do you draw the “enabling” line?

In my experience as a church planter I find this a very difficult issue. Money is tight everywhere. By American standards our staff and nearly our entire congregation are among the poor. But it isn't a simple issue, here are some options I'd like to avoid, mostly 'cuz they don't seem to work for us:

1. Leave it undone

2. Give 'em another number to simply alleviate my guilt/burden/commitment

3. Make excuses like, "we do what we can, our congregation is poor"

Okay I’m nearly done. Just one bad pun left: How do we continually pour into the poor?