Fishing Poles

My son Darius has a friend who stays with us a lot, since the beginning of summer. I know his home situation is not good. The other night I saw jsut how bad it really was. He has five siblings, ages 2 - 14. The mom is only 26. They live in a dangerous apartment complex, the mom hangs outside smoking pot. The apartment is completely filthy, with cigarette butts everywhere. Five kids in one room with not even one piece of furniture.
My initial response was to help them. Yesterday, I woke up with the desire to buy all of their school clothes and supplies and my mind was just whirling with what I needed to do for these kids. I quickly emailed some friend to see if they wanted to help.
I figured out that I was flying in the completly wrong direction. It was soon pointed out that my ideas were not the best. My eyes were opened to the fact that the mom has money for pot, for hair and nails, and for cigarettes. Also, the fact that I should probably call DCF.
I felt terrible all day. Really bad. I really felt like I had to do something, but couldn't pinpoint my place in this situation. I prayed about it. I went to sleep. And I woke up this morning still feeling terrible. I didnt even wont to get out of bed. This was so so heavy on my shoulders.
I did go to work and started talking about this with my co-workers. And thats when I got my answer...............
.........................Amy, you cant give someone a fish, you have to give the a fishing pole.

It makes so much sense to me! And its like a missing piece of the puzzle of what God has been doing in my life.
I've been trying to find my place in ministry and I've been having a hard time to narrow it down.

Now, I'm sure it has something to do with fishing poles. Sounds odd, I have so much resources at my hands. I have been through many things in my life and have overcame much. I can direct a single mom to any direction she wants to go - for sure.

I'm thinking I have many fishing poles to offer people, many fishing poles, all colors, all shapes, and any size that they want.

For now I will offer a fishing pole to this mom. Tommorrow, I will give her a print out of every school supply event that I can find. So much easier than buying 5 kids school supplies and clothes. And it feels like what God wants me to do. Maybe she will use the fishing pole to fish and ask for more or maybe it will be just a planted seed or maybe she will throw it in the garbage. Thats up to God!!!