Sleeping with Bread

If you’re like me, your memories of elementary school may be hazy. I do remember bringing yellow roses from the bush outside our kitchen window to my beautiful third grade teacher, Miss Kramer. I also remember being devastated when the handsome, single fifth grade teacher moved to Canada to avoid the draft. And I remember being deprived of a field trip in second grade because a couple of kids in the class were behaving badly. Instead of punishing the instigators, the teacher decided to punish the entire class. Boo hiss! My budding sense of justice was sorely tried that week.

That sense of justice reared its head this week as I read the recent Times-Gazette articles that told of a woman who requested and received services from social service agencies here in Ashland under a false identity, with a fictitious story of an abusive husband and imaginary pregnancies.  I’d read about her in the East Liverpool Review while doing some interim work at the Salvation Army there, and lo and behold, she shows up in my community. It’s a small world.

Larry and I heard our share of shaky stories and met some shady characters over the course of 34 years of Salvation Army ministry, and I can’t quite figure it out. Why would someone fabricate a hard-to-believe story in order to stay in a homeless shelter? Why would someone want to sign up for 5 turkeys at Thanksgiving?

What saddens me most about these types of situations is that, just like those hooligans in my fourth grade class, a small percentage of people cast a shadow on the legitimate needs of individuals and families that seek help from churches and United Way agencies.  I know that good-hearted, hard-working people give, often sacrificially, so that others can have a hot meal or a winter coat. In our community, someone stays up all night – every night – so that those without homes have a warm place to stay through the ACCESS program. I don’t want their generosity of spirit to be abused.

It also saddened me because in my work I found myself listening with one ear to make sure that I wasn’t being scammed, while using the other ear to offer compassionate care. Not a good way to operate. In the end, I had to figure it out – would I be like the teacher and punish the whole class because a few kids were knuckleheads? Would I look at all poor people, all homeless people, all hungry people, as being out to get as much as they could, as being out to beat the system? Or would I see them as my struggling sisters and brothers, some with mental health issues, some working very hard to make ends meet, and some genuinely afraid that tomorrow they won’t have enough to eat or that one day they will lose their home or kids?  

Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn wrote a beautiful book entitled Sleeping with Bread. In it they tell the following story:  “During the bombing raids of World War II, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But, many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, ‘Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.’”

The soup kitchens, pantries, shelters and the committed churches of the ACCESS program provide valuable support to those in our community who need their services. Here’s hoping that we can also offer the employment opportunities, the mental and emotional support, and the spiritual sustenance that will allow all of our neighbors to sleep without fear, to “sleep with bread” tonight.