Sanford & son (& daughter & son & Mexican boyfriend)

I've discovered that poor people can be some of the most generous folks around. It's always assumed they would be desperately grasping the little they have.

My next door neighbors, the Sanfords, are part of the poverty class. Their house and belongings always 'look' rundown but their family rarely goes 'without'. The mom, Frieda, lives on some sort of government funded disability check. Her boyfriend, Manuel, moved here from Mexico a few years ago. He only speaks Spanish and he works real hard clearing fields of mesquite trees somewhere near Cisco, TX. Sometimes he works 6, even 7 days a week. He has to use his own chainsaw and use his own truck to haul the wood he chops. But he gets paid cash daily.

Frieda has 3 teenagers: a daughter Jessie who graduated high school last year (the first ever in her family - we're proud of her), and 2 sons, the Bulldog and the Tiger. During the summers the boys work construction or with Manuel to help support the house as well as earn their own spending money. I'm amazed at how they gladly offer their mom about $50 from each paycheck for household bills. That's far from anything I did with money as a teen.

Another major form of income is garage sales & flea markets. Frieda and her kids have become quite the entreprenuers in the poverty culture as they buy stuff one weekend then sell it in their front yard the following week. And they're always thinking of me and my family. Today she gave us 2 fancy dress-up outfits for my offspring that she found at a garage sale. And I lost my pocket knife a while back so they gave me one of several new knives she bought and planned to sell for $2 each. I didn't ask for it. They just offered. Plus, everything in their possesion is for sale. They hang on to nothing. Imagine that: having no long term possession of anything! There's gotta be a Jesus message in there somewhere.

Although the Sanfords are poor and get food from various pantries around town, free clothing, have meals-on-wheels delivered daily, and a house that's mickey-moused together, they have more financial resources than the average person in the poverty culture. But I'm convinced that their income is NOT the reason they avoid 'lack'. The book tells us over and over that you reap what you sow. It's a spiritual law that cannot be broken (like the non-spiritual law of gravity) regardless if you are a Christian or not. And the Sanfords sow generously so they reap generously. They host BBQs almost twice a month. They always invite us and various neighbors and send a plate to the home-bound Obi-Wan. They even invited in a homeless woman who somehow migrated to our street which is off the beaten path for our homeless friends.

My favorite part about the Sanfords...Jessie, the Bulldog, and the Tiger grew up going to church food pantries to get free food, clothes, etc. When asked what is church about they reply, "a place that has people who give stuff". That's their only view of church.