The Working Poor. We attended the Victory Health Partners dinner on Tuesday. Several hundred people gather at a convention center in Mobile, Alabama in support of a Christian ministry to the working poor.
Since I worked in a summer camp and learned how difficult it is to cook for several hundred people, I have a soft spot for the problems of cooking and serving a large number of people. My soft spot was tested because the food was not as good as the previous dinners.
The guest speaker was Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty. He was humorous and the story of his father’s change from a bar-owning drunk to the Duck Commander was interesting, but I could tell the audience was not as enthused as they had been with sports speakers in past years –Tim Tebow, John Smoltz and Drew Breeze.
None of that detracted from the fact that several years ago Dr Bill Lightfoot and his wife Tammy realized the great need for health care among the working poor. The very poor have government aid through Medicaid. The people who work jobs but without benefits have serious needs for health care.
They began a ministry to bring health care to those people. Their website writes —“Inspired by Christ’s call to heal the sick, Victory Health Partners provides affordable, quality healthcare to the thousands of adults not covered by health insurance in our Gulf Coast community. Our partnerships are vital to the fulfillment of our mission. With a network of over 160 specialists ranging from cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, dermatologists, etc., the barriers once blocking the path of our patients’ recovery are now removed. Hence, they now have the ability to receive the care they need.”
“Our patients may be the hairdresser who is uninsured and unable to afford insulin for her diabetes, a small business owner who cannot afford the high cost of healthcare for his employees and himself, and single parents who struggle to pay rent and feed their children. Thanks to a generous community of individuals, congregations, corporations, and foundations, Victory Health can respond to those in need today.”
I happily support that mission.
Affordable Health Care. My awareness of the need for affordable health care received another eye-opening moment in a segment on 60 Minutes last Sunday. They were present at a remote area medical (RAM) weekend clinic held on a freezing February weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Several hundred volunteers worked in a vacant warehouse set up with donated equipment. Donations of medicine and other materials vary from $100,000 to a half a million almost every weekend somewhere in America.
The segment centered in two middle-aged people, a female who drove several hundred miles from Huntsville, Alabama and a male construction worker. The female arrived and parked early Wednesday morning and spent Thursday and Friday waiting in her car. The male came on Friday and spent the night in his truck. Both needed dental care.
A dentist who came all the way from New Jersey shared his story of service. Another volunteer, 22-year-old engineer, ran 3-D printers making dentures in around one hour. He worked without sleep through the week-end. He said he did it for the million-dollar mirror moment. The moment you put a mirror in front of someone and they cry when the see their new teeth. 60 Minutes was there when the burly construction worker saw his new teeth … and cried.
The segment is the first fifteen minutes of the full show.
My Privileges. I always used Lent and Easter for reflection. The two experiences with health care for the needy underscored my reflections this year about how privileged my life as been. I have lived over 83 years. On normal days when I was not camping or traveling, I woke up every day in a bed with a roof over my head. I had electricity, clean water and proper sanitation. I had ample food and clothing. I had heating and air conditioning. Transportation was available. Health care was covered by insurance. I was loved.
Contrast my daily situation with a few figures.
In the United States, over 1.5 million children are without a bed. I have a high school classmate who is involved with a ministry in Kansas City making beds for children in poor families. I had a bed every day of my life.
The United States is estimated to have over 750,000 homeless people and 150,000 of those are children. I have had a roof over my head every day of my life.
In the world the estimate is 737 million people are without electricity, 2.1 billion without clean water and 3.4 billion without proper sanitation. Nine million die from hunger and hunger related diseases each year. Among the many advantages I have with health care, one caught my eye — 600,000 die from malaria every year. I have had electricity, clean water, proper sewage, ample food and health care every day of my life.
I do not resent or feel guilty about my privileges, but the privileges do not make me better than other people. I am humbled by them. My privileges make me thankful and more aware of my need to serve the less fortunate.
This and That
I like it when people are critical of their own party:
Carville delivers blunt reasoning for Democratic Party’s unpopularity | Watch
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Peace
Jerry
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