For We Walk By Faith And Not By Sight

Fictional small town in the middle of nowhere in real country: par for the course in any genre

Fictional major city in real country: standard fair, but it's usually clearly based on a real city

Fictional suburb of real major city in real country: strange but I can see the application

debates i didn't know existed + a very humorous distinction

hostiles = antagonists that Murderbot is worried about 😳

And the kids are like "but they get into our bug traps" and "we didn't catch him he followed us home"

And their parents are like. Please i do not believe that 6 fucking pixies smuggled themselves into our garage on the underside of your bicycle saddle and then set up shop in the old dolls house. These are living beings they're not toys it's not kind to treat them like this

And the kids are like we are NOT treating them like anything you said we're not allowed to trap them and they always get into our traps so we always run away when they see us and then they follow us and get inside our backpacks and stuff

And the parents are like

Stop lying!!!

And then they set up wildlife cams and not only can pixies apparently do all of that and are very desperate to hang out with these human kids (who have fun life-sized toys and are covered in wonderful things like glitter and are a free source of fresh bugs and pop tart crumbs)

But they can also like. Fully just pick locks and shit.

Another story is of my former pastor who had a man walk into church after the service and ask for money for food. The pastor said he’d take him to lunch at the MacDonalds down the block, and they could talk about what was going on in this guy’s life, and how the pastor and church could help. The pastor got a phone call at the door, so he handed the guy a twenty dollar bill and told him he could go order. After his phone call, he went into the restaurant and the man was nowhere to be seen. He’s taken his whole $20 and skedaddled.

Another story of a pastor who invited a man who had come to the church asking for money for food to his house for dinner. Later that night, the man broke into the pastor’s house, stole a bunch of stuff, and stole his car.

We both give to and volunteer at the local food bank. We both give to and volunteer at the local pregnancy center.

I was told first day of the job that I was NEVER to give cash to anyone who asked for help. Multiple secretaries in churches around the area had begun being harassed and even stalked by individuals who had identified the church and these women as likely to give free handouts. In addition, multiple churches had suffered break ins shortly after and it was believed people were asking for cash in order to confirm that money was being kept on sight for them to break in and steal later. I had a panic button that had been installed directly because of incidents like this where previous secretaries had been threatened and needed the pastors to come and help.

Our local churches were not wealthy, and thus decided to pool resources into a singular organization of local churches. Through this organization we paid rent, covered car repairs, handled groceries, babysitting, etc. It allowed churches to cover more ground together than we could apart. We were regularly accused of refusing to help people in need because the aid did not come through our doors, but through the organization's doors. Many churches cannot provide enough resources on their own, but by giving what they have to a specialized organization they can more effectively give to the community. Them telling people to go to ____ organization is not washing their hands of the issue, its helping someone get to the resources the church is helping to make available.

3. This multi-church organization we have was open to anyone in need, and the only barrier to entry was that we would pay directly to whoever needed to be paid and did not directly hand out cash. This quickly weeded out those who genuinely had something they needed help with, and those who just wanted cash. We also used second hand donations when we could to help stretch things. I frequently heard heartbreaking stories about how children would starve and anything would help, only to be cussed out and hung up on when I said we could pay their grocery bill through or organization or I could give them a grocery card, but I didn't have any cash. I had one woman bring her son in without any shoes asking for help, only to get angry and leave when I showed her our second hand shoes that she could grab any of that she needed. The amount of people angry because they didn't get cash was over twice the amount of people who actually took the aid we could offer. In fact, it was so rare for someone to actually accept help, that I remember them distinctly compared to the flood of angry, violent people who just wanted a quick buck.

The unfortunate reality is that it is dangerous and stupid for churches to hand out cash without any boundaries or discretion. It's a disservice to the people donating resources, and it's a cruel injustice to people who genuinely need these things, because they are inevitably outrun and cut off by opportunists who get there first and taken everything they can get. Every other charity operates with this kind of discretion or should be, and there is little to no criticism of them for doing so.

However the drunk guys are also drinking, and eventually she can't afford to buy another pitcher for the table so she can't keep up the ever-full beer glass trick. At this point she has to resort to setting up the pool trick shot that she's never seen anyone but her boyfriend pull off, and says she'll leave with whoever manages the shot first.