Illustration results for Poverty
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- A barber in a small town was busy cutting hair one day when the local cop walked in to get a haircut. And the barber was feeling a bit generous that day, so he said to the cop... "Since you do such a good job protecting us, and watching over us... today’s haircut is free." The cop said he appreciated that, and the next day when the barber showed up at his shop, there were a dozen donuts waiting for him.
In walks a local florist. The barber tells him how much he appreciates all the work that he has done around town, planting bushes and flowers and making the town look real nice, so he gives him a free haircut. The next day, the barber shows up at his shop and there are a dozen flowers waiting for him.
In walks the local preacher, the barber tells him how he is feeling generous that day, and how much he appreciates all his hard work with the children and taking care of the needs of the people, so the preacher gets a free haircut.
The next the barber shows up at his shop, and there are a dozen preachers waiting there for him.
A man on vacation was strolling along outside his hotel in Acapulco, enjoying the sunny Mexican weather. Suddenly, he was attracted by the screams of a woman kneeling in front of a child. The man knew enough Spanish to determine that the boy had swallowed a coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and an American quarter dropped to the sidewalk. “Oh, thank you sir!” cried the woman. “You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctor?” “No, ma’am,” replied the man. “I’m with the United States Internal Revenue Service.”
A group of well-intentioned people met to discuss ways and means of helping a friend who had been down on his luck recently. Knowing him to be an extremely proud person, who would not accept money, they decided to arrange a bogus raffle. They told him that they would all draw numbered slips of paper from a hat, and the person who drew the number four would win $200. They didn’t tell him that the number “four" was on every slip.
After the drawing, each of the conspirators glanced at their slips and crumbled them up in the manner of disappointed losers. Then they waited to hear their friend announce that he had drawn the winning number. But he didn’t say anything. Finally, one member of the group asked him, knowingly,
"What number did you draw?"
He said "Six and seven-eighths," holding up…the hat-size tag.
That is a fairly good example of a man who is really down on his luck.
A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind and loving as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkept and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister: "You can’t be a very good barber or you wouldn’t permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and a shave."
Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man’s condition? I can’t help it that he is like that. He ...
A couple of weeks ago I was listening as my Dad talked about what it is like to live on a fixed income, now that he is retired. "Fixed income," I said, "I’d love for my income to be fixed, lately I’ve been thinking it was broken."
The pastor of a church that didn’t have the reputation for being very generous with their giving decided that it was time to do something drastic in order to teach the congregation the importance of giving. He contacted an electrician and had all of the pews wired.
The next Sunday which was the first Sunday of the New Year, the time when the church had traditionally taken up pledges from the people the Pastor stood up and made the following announcement. "From now on instead of putting your pledges in sealed envelopes and turning them into the church office all pledges will be made publicly during the worship service." Then he said, so let’s get started. "All of you who will pledge to give ten dollars a week, please stand up." As soon as he said this he pushed a button that the electrician had installed in the pulpit and it sent a jolt of electricity through the wires and into the pews. Immediately about one half of the congregation jumped to their feet. The pastor reached down and adjusted a knob on the podium and then said, "All you who will pledge to give twenty dollars a week please stand." A second stronger volt of electricity caused several more people to rise to their feet. This whole process was repeated several times. Each time the pledge amount was raised along with the voltage. The ushers had to work fast just to record all of the names and pledges.
After the service the pastor and his staff were busy adding up the totals and congratulating themselves on the great success of the annual stewardship campaign—Their enthusiasm ended abruptly however, when one of the Deacons opened the door and announced that four church members had been electrocuted because they refused to stand up.
Owen Bourgaize
Conference after conference is held to discuss the destruction of the Earth’s environment and to solve the poverty of two thirds of the world’s population but very little gets done when the talking is over. Isn’t it essentially a problem of selfishness, greed and exploitation? Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, said famously, “When missionaries came to South Africa, they had the Bible and we (the Africans) had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land!”
Poverty Perspective
In Hollywood there is an exclusive school attended by children of movie stars, producers, and directors. Asked to write a composition on the subject of poverty, one little girl started her literary piece: "Once there was a poor little girl. Her father was poor, her mother was poor, her governess was poor, her chauffeur was poor, her butler was poor. In fact, everybody in t...
There was a man who was in desperate need – all he needed was a little cash and he could get by. So he decided to go from house to house to see if there were any odd jobs he could do. After being turned down by several home owners he came upon a house where an older woman answered the door. He gave his usual pitch and to his surprise the woman said yes should could use some help – it was perfect that he happened to stop by for the painter she hired had just then cancelled on her.
She told the man, I need my porch painted. Walk around to the back of the house and there you’ll see the porch, the paint and all the equipment needed. When your done, come back to the front door and I’ll pay you $500.
This was better than he expected. He walked around to the back and to his surprise and delight, everything he needed was there ready to go. He set to work taping and prepping, then fired up the paint sprayer and in no time was done.
The woman of the house was surprised that the man was so quick, but, she thought, maybe he had a lot of experience as a painter – so she counted him out the cash.
The man pocketed the cash, thanked the women and as he was leaving he hesitated and said, “By the way lady, you need to know, its not a Porsche that you have parked back there, it’s a Mercedes Benz.
I saw a Peanuts cartoon. Charlie Brown and Linus are inside all bundled up and Snoopy’s out in the cold shivering in front of his empty dog dish. Charlie and Linus are having a discussion on how sad it is that Snoopy is hungry and cold. "He’s cold and hungry. We ought to do something about it."
They walk outside and say, "Be of good cheer, Snoopy." And Snoopy just looks at them as if something is missing!
