twoshirts

And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise."
Luke 3:11

my friend jason coker began this great project called twoshirts.org just a few years ago...

as his mission statement says so eloquently:

"Twoshirts is an attempt to create a community of generosity that will be a transforming presence in society. Many of us have more stuff than we possibly need, while people living right in our own towns go without. Practicing generosity is a way of rejecting the consumer-oriented lifestyle that traps so many in cycles of greed, hoarding, and debt. Even worse, this kind of materialism deepens the problem of poverty.

We tend to think of the poor as simply lazy, but the reality of poverty is far more complicated. Look around your community. People in need aren't just the homeless and destitute. It has been said that the average American household with a credit card is in debt over $9,000. The "working poor" are those stuck in low-paying dead-end jobs, or single-parents struggling to make ends meet, or the injured and ill scraping by on disability, or even the middle-class family hopelessly trapped in a cycle of debt. Often these are the hardest working people in our towns, and many are only a paycheck away from being homeless and destitute."

we must meet the challenge of our age, to not be overwhhelmed to the point of paralyzed despair by extreme poverty in the world, and also to not despise the working poor...

jason just began a quarterly journal called 'The Gift', the first issue of which is free, so check it out (not to mention two of my own thus-far unpublished poems 'an elusive dewpoint' and 'life support' are included in this introductory issue)

[also, jason and his wife jenell are moving to san diego to cultivate a gathering of Jesus followers...so please pray for them, and if you want support them through participation and giving through twoshirts.org!!]

peace