One of our wonderful ministry partners provides us with donations to give away: bags of food, blankets, hygiene products. The donations are to be given with listening conversation, humble kindness, and open sharing about the Christian faith. The vision is that the gift will open a relationship with the recipient, and that relationship might lead to the recipient to fullness of life. There is a hotel near New Life-Humboldt Park, which also happens to be near my home. The hotel is a home for transients, frequently-homeless folk, persons with disabilities, and recovering addicts. The corner near this hotel is so fraught with prostitution that any woman simply crossing the street there is frequently thought to be "working." We know dear ones with disabilities who have chosen to live in an abandoned house rather than stay in this hotel. That said, the hotel looks like a Jesus-place to me: the place where Christ would have eaten and preached and perhaps stayed the night. It looked like a perfect place to serve a warm breakfast, deliver gifts of warmth and hygiene, and meet people who could become new friends. Tonight, my neighbor approached the innkeeper for me to inquire about renting a hall to fix breakfast and deliver gifts to her residents. She turned us down on all counts, asserting that she limited donations or giveaways as "dehumanizing." She wanted to have her residents keep their dignity. The Christian Community Development Association espouses this same principle, which I believe holds merit. CCDA states: "All people have inherited dignity by being created in the image of God. Oftentimes, charity demeans a person and strips him or her of dignity. The last principle of empowerment affirms a person's God-given dignity" (http://www.ccda.org/philosophy). Relief, CCDA asserts, is overused. What is needed is development: equipping individuals to provide for and lead themselves. While I believe this concept at a CCDA conference, applying it to this particular hotel is giving me pause. What is more dehumanizing than prostitution? What is more humanizing than sitting down to have breakfast alongside another person? How could a breakfast full of love and giving possibly make life as a hotel resident worse? Can't a kind breakfast be the start of a life of empowerment? I leave you with www.ccda.org, the book When Helping Hurts, and your own experiences. When you come to an answer, don't keep it to yourself.