I gave a talk to some 40 people at the Open Door Community   in Atlanta, Georgia, today.   The gentleman who introduced me, prefaced the talk by reading from Proverbs 30: 7-9.     The crux of the passage was “…let me be neither rich nor poor.”     I, in turn, said that that was the essence of our platform.   That is, many Americans have the wherewithal to cut back lifestyle wise and help much more than they do.   And it’s about tapping into that spirit of sacrifice…   After the talk, our family volunteered helping serve a meal to the homeless here.   I was assigned to the front yard where I picked up coffee cups among those waiting to get in.   I also struck up a number of conversations.   One was with “John” who renovates houses, but had fallen on hard times because of the bursting of the housing bubble.   He hadn’t worked for awhile, lost his own place and was staying in a homeless camp underneath a cloverleaf of highways.   “It’s a way to stay dry,” said John, who sleeps in a sleeping bag below a tarp he turns into the wind…   Then there was James, who was volunteering here this morning.   He grew up in a Black ghetto in Atlanta (“Close to where Martin Luther King Jr. grew up,” he said.) and was a good high school basketball player.   Out of high school (1963), he was drafted.   “Drafted or not,” he said, “the military was one of the few ways out of the ghetto.”   James went to Vietnam where he saw fighting, developed a case of post traumatic stress syndrome, and a drug habit.   Back in Atlanta, there was little work and the drug addiction persisted.   He eventually ended up in prison.   When he got out, there was still little work and he found himself homeless, sort of.   Engineering students at Georgia Tech University here designed and built small 6ft. by 8ft. wooden “huts,” complete with small, vented fireplaces.   James lived in one of a cluster of eight huts.   (He said these hut encampments don’t exist anymore in Atlanta, simply because almost all of the land has been developed now.)   James would often come to the Open Door for help.   Some 11 years ago he got into recovery. And as his life started to straighten out, he began regularly volunteering here.   And he still does…   Note: Another of the volunteers approached me after my talk on everyone having enough.   She said there was an author speaking tonight in nearby Decatur, Georgia, who I might be interested in hearing.   The title of her book:   Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide (‘Cause I need more room for my plasma TV).