Homeless people and the stories they tell

Yesterday while I was walking back to work, a guy in a hoodie and jeans stopped and asked me for money.  He told me that he had been running around trying to get R120 together to stay in a backpackers.  If I had time and wasn't running late to get back from lunch, I would have asked him why he needed R120 for the backpackers and where all of his stuff was.  I wanted to know his story.

As I walked down the road I remembered that he was the same guy who has asked me for money a couple of weeks ago outside my office with the same story.  This got me to thinking.. I think he was homeless and this was a story that he was telling everyone.

This thought lead me to the stories that homeless people tell.  I encounter A LOT of homeless people walking from the station to work every day.  Usually they just ask form money, but then there are some who have given me a long story of how they need money for a taxi to an interview. Then there's the story of having a kid and they need money to staty some where.  There's also the people who show the haven night sheler card and ask for money for that. Every single time a homeless person tells me their story, I want to help them... but I know I can't. I don't have the resources or the money to find them jobs, provide places for them to stay or save them. It's the whole star fish story, BUT that's a whole seperate post.

I often wonder how a homeless person became a homeless person. Where they born into it? Did they do something and their family had enough and cast them out?  Have they spent MONTHS looking for a job and this is the last resort... and then the horrible thought of do they get more money begging?

One day, when I have a storng heart, I want to stop and talk to a few homeless people and hear their story as to why they are homeless and begging.  I hope that they are honest when I do stop and chat and that they don't tell me another sob story. 

I guess I should pray for God to provide a way for me to do this and that he guides the process and opens the doors for honest communication... And then when I meet the next homeless person asking me for money... ask them to tel me their story and how they got there.

xKx