On sweating the small stuff

It is a self-help maxim of the privileged to say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But the folks at the bottom have to. (Fr Greg Boyle)

The HFP team won’t be seen ringing a bell in front of your favorite supermarket or department store in this Christmas season. But I want to get the word out that this charitable organization is doing its best to help the folks at the bottom to “sweat the small stuff.”

It was late afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, when Wayne called us. He had just been granted a parole, had just landed in a half-way house only to discover that he had no wardrobe. He had no family or friends to fall back on, but he remembered that HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS had been at his side in the past. He wasn’t next door…he was in the City of Benton Harbor. Yet, within an hour-and-a-half, Wayne had shirts, pants and shoes! 

In June we discovered that Joyce was unable to visit her two sons in prison due to unpaid traffic tickets. Thanks to heroic assistance by Equal Justice Under Law and The Marshall Project, more than $2,000 was raised to help this elderly woman, who is also battling cancer. The last fine was just paid, and Joyce is now working to get her name on the visiting lists for her two sons. When that is accomplished, she will be visiting her sons for the first time in three years!

In March we learned that Tony, a Michigan prisoner suffering from sleep apnea, was struggling through the night without his CPAP breathing device. He had been diagnosed in 2013, one year before his incarceration, and had been using the machine for a year. Then, when he was admitted to the Michigan Prison System, a doctor for the MDOC refused to let him have the CPAP. It took our team of specialists 9 months to work through all of this, present the medical proof to the warden and prison doctor, and make the case. A few days ago came the message from Tony: The CPAP has arrived!

Small stuff?  Ask Wayne. Ask Joyce. Ask Tony.

Some might say people like this are at the bottom. In our office, as followers of Jesus, we put their names at the top.

It’s who we are. It’s what we do. And we can’t do it alone.

Yes, you may count this as ringing our bell for holiday support. Thanks to your year-end gift, we’ll be here, standing by the marginalized, helping them sweat “the small stuff.”




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