Phillips County Ministerial Alliance Inc

I have trouble ALL the time getting help from the ministerial alliance in Phillipsburg. We are NOT career poor people and are in need of some assistance to pay for medications for my elderly father and myself on occasion. We used to utilize the food pantry however I was treated with a great deal of disrespect by the individual who took over managing it so I don't want to go back. I put up with her condescending attitude from the first day she began her new duties. while I never pursued a formal complaint, she forwarded a private message I sent her on facebook to one of her superiors AFTER she responded with a nasty reply of her own telling me off. I've heard others don't want to use the pantry for similar reasons. This week we needed some help paying for my father's medications so I called the Care phone and someone actually answered it! I've called in the past and left messages with no return call. I've had some of the MA members either be nasty, dismissive, or just make it more difficult than it should be to get a LITTLE help. This time I got a pastor I thought had a sparkling reputation...one I've known since I was in high school. He said the MA would pay for dad's medications. So I called and got the cost then tried to call him back with the cost the next day so he could arrange payment...yes, being in need is a lot of work and you must go through a degrading process just to get those who claim they are doing it out of "Christian" love and duty to actually do what they say they will do. I felt long ago that this "Care Phone" was the could care or could care less phone because it depends on who has the phone as to how you will be treated. For the past TWO days I've called FIVE times and left a message every time for this pastor to call me back and included the price of the meds. Tonight my cell phone completely died so I had to call the number on this site which I thought was the CP only to find out it's the number of the business where the lady who writes the checks for the MA who was rather curt with me and it was obvious she was irritated to have to deal with me when I asked if this was the CP. She rudely told me it wasn't and almost unwillingly provided the number for the CP before hanging up. I was polite the entire time just like when we have utilized the pantry I ALWAYS thank the new manager and her helpers and let them know how much it means to have this help until we can get dad's pension. You see this isn't a permanent situation...AND THANK BLOODY GAWD IT'S NOT because being in need is not what anyone ever has in mind in life even if you are what I like to call "career poor". So back to the call...when I called the CP number she provided, it said the number was out of order so I called her back and she was even ruder and more dismissive than the first time when I asked if there was another way to contact the pastor who currently has the CP because I'm finding it hard to believe he would treat me or anyone with such disregard. She nastily told me that was the number I have to call and hung up on me before I could ask her for it again since I hadn't written it down the first time. SO I called a third time to get the number again and she wouldn't answer. My query here is why would a group of "Christian" people who claim to "love Jesus" and proclaim Him as their Lord and Savior form such a pitiful excuse for helping the poor, elderly, and needy if they are only going to treat us as if we don't matter? What is the point of not only having a "Care Phone", but using that word "care" to describe it if that is not your true intention? I grew up in this community. I was a young Christian who was not only involved in my church, but I also walked the walk. Over the years, I've struggled to be involved in church for these very reasons I've stated about the local MA. I never could have imagined I or any of my family who have worked hard and were taught by my parents to pay your own way...they NEVER took charity, government assistance, or any hand outs whatsoever and raised seven children as well as did some very amazing things with very little income over the years. It has not been easy for me or my father to be in a position to need assistance. It is hard enough to have to swallow your pride and realize it's ok to ask for help. But when those who are OFFERING it...nobody is holding a gun to their head making them do it, they OFFER it out of some supposed belief that they should because it must make them and their kind better "Christians"...when they treat the very people they claim they are helping in God's name the way we have been treated (and others...we are not the first and I've heard similar stories from others in our community who have been in need over the years) in this way, what does that say about their particular brand of faith or who they really are not only as a "Christian", but as a person and in this situation as a group of "Christians" and people. My father has Alzheimer's disease. I'm trying to keep him in his home. He lost the last of the retirement he and my mother worked hard to invest when the executives of a local investment firm made a conscience decision to rip off their investors leaving my father with only a meager social security income which I've been attempting to manage for us both while I try to bring in a little extra money each month by substitute teaching to make ends meet until I can get a pension he didn't know he qualified for from the VA which should put us in a position where we won't need assistance. This is our situation, but it shouldn't matter should it? If you are going to have this kind of attitude about the very people you claim to be helping, then SHAME ON YOU...NOT THEM! I am PROUD to be doing the right thing for my father. If you don't want to help people when they are in need, then don't do it. Nobody is forcing you, but don't treat us like we are less than you because you never know when you may be the very one in need, and I highly doubt it's WJWD.