A letter writer of May 16 suggest that preachers and churches needed to be doing more to serve the poor and love our neighbors as Christ asks us to do. He is right in that there is never enough money, never enough hands and hearts to meet all the needs.

But in fact, preachers and churches all over Gainesville and Hall County are doing lots of good work, here and in countries where they serve the poorest of the poor.

Locally, Gainesville Action Ministries is the effort I know best. GAM is a joint effort of 19 churches dedicated to helping the working poor.

Our aim is to help people, especially families, who have suffered a temporary setback that puts them in danger of being evicted from wherever they are living or of having vital utilities shut off. This could be the loss of a job, an illness or an injury.

Our aim is to help them stay in their small houses or apartments, to help them through the trouble and get them back on their feet. We might pay an electric bill; we might pay rent or part of it; we might buy food -- anything we can do to keep them living in the same place until they can become self-supporting again. (The price of gasoline is hurting the working poor tremendously as they look for jobs or commute back and forth).

Holding a family together this way might well be as transforming experience for the family. Or learning English as a second language can be a transforming experience.

We could not do this without the help of all these churches and their members.

And of course, the truly lasting transforming power in these services offered by these churches is the love of Christ; the people we help see this love in the love and care extended to them. The churches do much more in our area, in feeding people, in helping them with medical care, in helping them break the bonds of alcohol and drug addiction, and so on.

We can always use more help.

Sue Lane
director, Gainesville Action Ministries