uTurn vouchers for homeless people

[geraldenek]

One of my friends acutally told me about this - just a pity it is in CT itself. But what a great idea.... in my opinion i do not like to give money to beggers/homeless people i will always rather give food....

It has got to do with rather than giving the people money send them to uturn with a voucher for a meal and help

http://homeless.org.za/apps/wordpress/?page_id=470

[wynn]

You lost me at "share the Gospel"
Can't we just have a meal voucher without conditions?

[Dave A]

I've never begrudged any religious group doing charity work simply because it's associated with a religion or has religious roots.

All power to them, I reckon.

[geraldenek]

I must say I have never even seen these vouchers just heard of it. I also had the same thought as wynn when I read the website But then I started toiling over this idea and this is what I came up with:

Most people are raised with a religion, and a lot of people also choose not to follow. But if something bad happens in your life you will go back and say a prayer etc. even the people that do not follow their religion.


So what I’m trying to say is, I do think the homeless people have hit rock bottom and it is nice to know that there is someone out there who cares about them and something to believe in. So I really do think it is a good thing for them.



Well I guess they don’t need to listen if they want to – I can easily sit in a conversation and go into my “own world” without listening to some utter nonsense some people have to say.

[adrianh]

Many homeless people choose that life and don't want to be uplifted - they simply want to get by. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, not at all, there are people that are down on their luck, I am just saying that there are people who choose to live like that. Like prostitutes, some do it purely to make a living and stay alive an some do it because they are happy in that life. I am all for the idea of helping people who are down on their luck but i am not so keen on supporting a chosen lifestyle!

[mother]

Wow! This looks like an awesome enterprise! Looks like it really makes a difference in the lives of those who wish to get back into mainstream society.

Oh, and just on the religion topic... I once heard something very thought provoking: I'd rather live as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't; than to live as if there isn't a God and die to find out there is.

[adrianh]

@mother - It's called hedging a bet - I'm sure that God is wise to the ploy!

[seanforthehomeless]

u-turn

Hi there

I work at U-turn and thought that I would make a small comment on what has been said regarding helping people and Christianity.

I thought that you might like to know that most of the people who come to the service points at U-turn very much enjoy talking about about religion. In fact if you start talking about Christianity it can sometimes be quite difficult to get them to stop!

I have been working at U-turn now for nearly 4 years and people often ask us if we force people to become Christians or if we won't help them if they don't accept our faith. I am not sure how this misconception about Christian social development arose in our society, but it is disappointing that we judged without checking the evidence.

If you have a look through our website you will see that at least half of us are trained in various science degrees and so we are certainly not irrational people. As Christians the starting point for seeking understanding about the natural world is faith in Jesus Christ as explained in the bible. So our attempts at helping people are very holistic.

I hope that this helps you see that we are not pie-in-the-sky-people and that we are very open to discussion about our faith and the reason behind why we do what do!