The 99ers

One of the stories on 60 Minutes tonight was about people in the Silicon Valley (the high tech area in the San Francisco Bay Area of California) who have lost their jobs to the current recession. Most of the story revolved around a type of town hall meeting for people who were unemployed. It was part support group, part 12 Step type meeting and part revival meeting. They called themselves the 99ers. (Unemployment benefits were extended by Congress to 99 weeks. Because of the huge cost, Congress will probably not extend the benefits again.) The 60 Minutes commentator interviewed several people. Most of them were high level professionals who made everywhere from $70,000 a year to well over $200,000. In many cases they had exhausted their unemployment insurance, cashed out their retirement accounts and gone through all of their savings. These were single and married people in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

The comments were almost nearly the same. Most people said something like "I can't believe this has happened to me", or "I never believed it would take 2 years, 3 years to find another job". One single lady who had exhausted all of her resources finally moved into an attic space in a friend of a friends house in exchange for cooking and cleaning. This single lady in her 50s was virtually at the end of the financial line. Another family had used all of their savings, they had used their children's college savings accounts and were trying to sell their home. The man, who lost his $200,000 a year job, had exhausted his unemployment insurance and had taken all of his 401K account to buy a franchise business that cleans home heating and AC vents. Sadly, because of the recession there wasn't enough work to make any money. They were at the end of their financial rope.

The story ended without any answers, just an overall sense of hopelessness. You wonder how people in this situation cope? Many Christians are in this same situation. Without the promises of God, and the family of God that these people belong to, it would be hopeless. If this recession continues to improve at the very slow pace it is, I think we as the family of God will need to stretch ourselves as we help fellow believers who are caught in this almost unbelievable situation. We may need to figure out ways to give major help; financial, spiritual and practical. We also need to find ways to reach out to people who don't know the Lord, who are panicked and have no where to turn. God help us make a difference. Help us to be so thankful for what you have blessed us with and be willing to give a lot of your blessings away.