The frigid cold woke me up at 3 am this morning and nothing I could do allowed me to go back to sleep. This has to be the coldest morning this winter, well into the early teens, and my body was aching with uncontrollable shivering. Both dogs were eager to go outside and just as eager to come back and crawl under blankets trying to seek warmth.
14% of the children in New Mexico are homeless. That figure should make us hang our head in shame. 1% should be considered atrocious. When Katrina hit and the southern part of the United States was inundated with the families made homeless by the flooding I offered my 3 bedroom home in Alto to any family with children, because their need was far more important than my need. Those children needed beds, not cots, and they needed family, not sports centers. I felt that if I gave one family a home until they got on their feet it was a logical course of action.
Then something really strange happened. Some of the residents in Lincoln County didn't want people from the Katrina hit region to move here, and a meeting was held because the mere thought that these poor people would land in Ruidoso was causing knickers to get into a twist.
Shortly after I went to Arizona to sell 100 APHA horses, and the short block in my truck cracked en route. So I left the truck at a garage to be repaired, came home and returned to Flagstaff to get my truck via greyhound bus.
At the bus station in Alamogordo I met a gentleman from New Orleans, the father of several children one whom was blind, who had lost his home in the flooding. His conversation was most interesting. And simply infuriated me.
Despite begging for help, despite putting ad's in the Thrifty Nickle seeking the donations of beds for the children, no-one beyond the blind school staff had come forth to help them. We sat and talked for over an hour, his story touching me beyond words. I offered to give him my home, but he needed to be close to the school for the blind his son attended.
Years later I attended a bail hearing for Robert Huckins. Patricia Huckins arrived with a minister from the Ruidoso Episcopal Church. Clearly a new "Father" to the region because while waiting for the hearing to start he was discussing his new "home." I asked him if he had a spare bedroom because it seemed that the Huckins family - the very people he was there in the court room to support - had our building fund safely hidden and unless someone made them reveal where they had hide our $82,000 I was facing a serious dilemma.
Was he going to offer help? Was he going to say anything that showed Christ within? No, he stammered and turned red, but wasn't going to discuss the horrendous consequences of this criminal act with a victim of crime. He was there to support the thieves.
If you think that children miss this apathy, this lack of interest and caring you are sadly mistaken. They see it very clearly. Even those who have no sight.
It makes my blood boil to see so many second and third homes and foreclosed properties sat vacant when I listen to news reports that children are homeless. It angers me no end to see convicted felons who have been raised to have NO moral compass steal life savings yet have their homes protected by the very law makers who can't protect the victims. But I have a right to feel that way because I wake up shivering from cold so I can understand the sheer helplessness a child must feel when the whole world has abandoned them, when they have commit no crime and done no wrong, yet those who claim Christ turn away from their plight. No civilized society should allow 14% of their children to be homeless. Lord have mercy upon our cold heartless souls.
“Then the King will say to those on the right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.' Then these righteous ones will reply, `Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' And the King will tell them, `I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'” (Matthew 25:34-40).
