You've got so-called “poor” people all across America who have color TV, video games and always have a pack of cigarettes on them. They are not truly poor. When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, you're poor.

Dr. Jack Hyles (1926-2001) was poor when he grew up in west Texas during The Great Depression. His mother used to send him to the butcher to ask for a soup-bone for the dog. The butcher knew that they were poor and would regularly give them a soup-bone with a little extra meat on it, and then his mother would prepare dinner for them with that soup-bone. Dr. Hyles didn't have a bicycle until his sister got a job and bought him one when he was age 13. He didn't eat an egg, use a flushable toilet or eat a hamburger until he turned 15. That's poverty! Brother Hyles' childhood poverty was the driving force behind his passion to send hundreds of church buses every Sunday for decades throughout the Chicagoland area to reach poor boys and girls for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today's spoiled Americans think they're poor if they can't afford a second car or a pair of expensive Jordan sneakers. Do you want to hear some really tragic statistics? It makes me cry. It was reported this week by TIME magazine that Americans spend $56,000,000,000 each year on their pets. $56 BILLION A YEAR!!! The cost to support a missionary and his family is $50,000 a year. For $56,000,000,000 a year Americans could send out and support 1,200,000 Christian missionaries with that money we spend on some stupid animals (sorry, I mean beloved pets).