They never ask for prayer or wisdom . . . just money

I answer a lot of random phone calls working at a church . . . lots of what are your service times, what do you offer kids, the elderly, women? . . .and on and on. Probably once or more a week I get calls from anonymous people asking for money for various things . . . rent, hotel fees, car repairs, food, clothes, etc. These are random people who have probably never attended our church. They usually will not give their names (It's hard to cut checks to anonymous people). They're always calling from a hotel room, totally desperate. Nine out of ten times, they'll tell me they have not been in the area long and they have no friends or family to call on. I'll ask what made them think to call our church. They usually tell me that they are going down the list of churches in the phone book . . . our church starts with the letter "W," so it's probably been a long day for them. As it probably is with most churches, I can't as a secretary tell an anonymous person calling for money from a hotel room, "yes, stop by and I'll cut you a check." (I don't have the power to cut anybody a check from our church bank account.) Does any church work that way? We do offer emergency boxes of groceries . . . anybody can stop by and we'll stock their kitchen cabinets for a few weeks. But we just don't hand out cash to anonymous people. (One man one time did admit he had only been out of prison for about 12 hours . . . and could he stop by for money and food.) I've had people get irate with me, they can't believe there's not a church in town that won't give them money . . today.

This afternoon I had one one of those calls. She was so hoarse and talking so fast I could barely understand her. She told me her name, but changed it in the middle of the call. Heather is what we landed on. She told me she had been coming to our church for some time, but a few breaths later told me she had been in town only a few days. I asked where she was calling from . . . a hotel. She had already called a community help line who offered her some money, but she would have to "go all the way down there" to pick up the check. And she was without a car.
She kept asking me, "What am I supposed to do?"

It's just so strange to me . . . why do they call us for money? They never ask for prayer or wisdom. (I have offered to pray with people . . . they don't always accept.) Why does "random church" come to mind when they have maybe never called on God their entire life. If they really want to know something about the Savior, I can do that. But I generally I'm just getting the "need some cash immediately vibe." I'm quite certain many of these phone calls are not legitimate . . . just a feeling I get. But I know I have talked to people who are desperate, who need to feed their families, etc. (If someone we know comes to us with a need like this, we have a process in place to meet those needs. And I think our church is generous in meeting the needs of people we know or people we get to know in the process of them finding help.)

It's shakes me up so bad after these phone calls. It's so hard to tell someone, who says they are in need, that you're not going to be the one to help them. I sort of wonder all day, "I am a Christ follower . . . wasn't I supposed to do more to help these people?" It's just hard. There have been a few people who I thought about all week after I talked to them . . .prayed for them.

I just don't know.

That's all.