Belle Glade

Today, I had the privilege of going to Belle Glade with a friend named Dottie from an organization here in Sarasota called Angel's Attic. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Pastor Morales and some of the mentors and students that he takes care of in the mornings and after school. We brought some clothes and Easter baskets and the kids were more than grateful. Belle Glade is on the southeast side of Lake Okochobee and is a very poor town. People used to work in the sugar cane fields but now that's all mechanized so it put the people out of work. It really made me think some business people need to come in and start businesses so the people can have work. Even the hospital had to shut down. How sad is that? When no one can afford to pay for their medical care, they have to shut down the hospital. All of the people we came into contact with today were either from Haiti or their parents were from Haiti so that was pretty cool. Haiti has been on my heart a lot lately and I hope to do a lot there this summer and in the future. There is so much incredible need there. I've been reading up on international development and it seems to me the backbone of any economy is small business. They account for a large percentage of the jobs here in the USA as well as any economy that is off the ground and running, although our's seems to be running into the ground here lately. For some odd and unknown reason, I've gained an interest in the subject of economics over the last couple years and just absorb anything related to the subject that I can get my hands on. I'm definitely a novice and have a long way to go, but I really enjoy learning about the basis for it and how an economy works. Plus I love to read about personal financial stuff too; like how to budget and get out of debt and save for the future, those types of things. I'm hopefully going to start a class in the fall for my church on Financial Peace University; a class offered by Dave Ramsey that seems rock solid. My goal is two-fold with that. I want to help people get out of debt but I also really want them to get out of debt so they can put more of their resources towards the kingdom of God. What would it look like to put 10% of everyone's gross income towards the kingdom? A lot of people don't give because they don't have the money, when in reality it's usually a budgeting problem. I got back on a budget finally this month so that's kind of fun to look at and see just where my money is going. It also tells me I need a job. I'm going to start substitute tutoring for my after school program at my school but I'm also going to need to do something else to make more income. I'm going to see if I can also substitute teach at my school and possibly others but mainly at my school so I can be there for the after school program when I need to do that. Otherwise it wouldn't really work if I had to come from a different school afterwards and try to make it in time for my after school program. Thankfully, God has blessed me with income from a couple different sources but after that I really need to get out there and get a job. Tomorrow, I go to Chicago for 5 days so I'm planning on hitting the job trail when I return from that. If I can substitute teach as well as substitute tutor theoretically that should be enough to carry me through and help me pay for a couple trips to Haiti this summer like I'm hoping to do. One I want to go with some members from my church and the other one I want to go and help Pastor Morales with just on my own since he will be there for 2 weeks. Obviously, most people can't take off work for 2 weeks but I can so I hope to take advantage of that fact. This year I'll need to support raise which is always a humbling experience but I recently asked God for humility so maybe this is His way of answering that prayer. Well, that's all I can think of for now and it's getting rather late so I'm going to sign off here.