"They treated me with dignity."

The homeless population of Austin, Texas, jumped 20% last year, so a local nonprofit called Mobile Loaves and Fishes opened an unusual housing project. Only homeless individuals are eligible to apply for one of the 140 micro-homes in a 27-acre RV park in eastern Travis County. Mobile Loaves and Fishes is Christian-based, but welcomes homeless folks of any faith or no faith.

Rents begin at $225 a month, and most "homes" are really only bedrooms with decks. Residents share kitchens, laundry and bathrooms. The rent includes access to two case managers, a food pantry, a chapel, a dog park, garden spaces, a medical center and an amphitheater where outdoor movies are shown. Perhaps most important, each resident gets his or her own postal address. Residents do jobs to keep the community running smoothly. Bonnie is a good example. She is a blind, veteran amputee who lived on the streets of Austin for years. Today, as a resident, she works as a tour guide and gardener. "I was embarrassed, wet and dirty," she said, "but they helped me clean up; gave me dry clothes, fed me and prayed with me. They treated me with dignity."

Nine-year-old reporter scoops "grown-up" journalists

Selinsgrove, PA, has about 5,000 residents. Their only local paper is the Orange Street News, which Hilde Kate Lysiak (pictured below) started two years ago when she was seven, using crayons. At first it was a family paper, and her first exclusive story featured the birth of her baby sister, but within a year she was covering borough council meetings. That's when the Columbia Journalism Review featured her in an article which asked, "Is this 8-year-old's newspaper better than yours?" Her Orange Street News now has a Web site, Facebook page and YouTube channel, where her 12-year-old sister handles photos and videos.

                                                                                                             Isabel Rose Lysiak via AP
People in Selinsgrove know Hilde, and that's why someone gave her a tip last weekend which she was able to confirm with law enforcement. Under the headline EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET! she wrote that a man allegedly murdered his wife with a hammer and police were not yet releasing details. When she posted the story and video clip on the Orange Street News Web site (hours before other media reached the scene), her Facebook page and YouTube channel quickly clogged with negative comments. "Nine-year-old girls should be playing with dolls, not trying to be reporters," one person wrote. "Whatever happened to tea parties?" asked another. But the criticism did not discourage her. Will she write a follow-up story about the murder. "You'll have to see the next issue of the Orange Street News," she says. To do that, click on http://orangestreetnews.com/

Policeman cheers up homeless child

It happened on Wednesday, March 16. Huntington Beach, CA, police officer Scott Marsh spotted what appeared to be a suspicious car parked in a lot at Cross Park. Investigating, he discovered the car was "home" to a young homeless mother and her 11-year-old daughter. As Marsh interviewed the mother to help arrange housing for her, Officer Zach Pricer focused on the homeless child. He knew a police officer can seem scary to an 11-year-old, so he decided to gain her trust by teaching her to play hopscotch, or as he calls it, copscotch. She had never played it before.

                                                                                 Huntington Beach Police Department
Pricer's partner shot a video of the encounter and uploaded it to the police department Facebook page where it's been viewed nearly a million times, receiving thousands of positive comments. "I had to check the child's welfare, so I had to earn her trust and get her comfortable with me first," Pricer said. Once he got her to open up, he was amazed by her happy-go-lucky attitude. "Despite having nearly nothing, she was offering me everything she had to play with. It was amazing to see how thankful she was for what she did have. She was very gracious."

Father and daughter pray together

Rihanna Tillett, age 6, is growing up in rural Orleans, Indiana, where her Dad, Jeff Tillett, is a reserve police officer. One evening recently, Jeff was suiting up for work when Rihanna put on her own smaller version of a police uniform so she could go with him. She didn't expect to join him on the job, but she just wanted to "be like Dad." Jeff and his wife Korisha have talked with Rihanna about the dangers of police work. The little girl knows bad things can happen, but she understands that if her Dad leaves this world before she does, God promises they will be reunited in heaven. So before he went to work this evening, they prayed together. Korisha snapped their photo and uploaded it to Facebook where it garnered 46,000 shares and 188,000 likes.

                                                                                                                                        Facebook
Jeff Tillett says his family is a praying family. They pray together so that, no matter what happens, Christ will find them worthy to be together eternally. In this picture, he and Rihanna asked the Lord to protect him and everyone he encounters, so that all may go home safe, because all lives matter.

A totally surprising pay-it-forward story

It all began on a cold winter day in 2013 in Dwight, Illinois. Wade Herter was a homeless drifter, freezing in a blizzard when two high school students, Luke Arnold and Ryan Kodat asked if they could help him. Herter said he needed to get to Springfield to see his ill father. Without knowing if he was telling the truth, the teens brought him warm clothes and a train ticket to Springfield. They made sure he got on the train, and then forgot about him.

But Herter never forgot their kindness. When his father passed away, Herter was shocked to learn that he'd left him a $1.2 million estate. This inheritance helped him get back on his feet and move to California where he now does film work and (as pictured here) stand-up comedy.

Last month the principal of Dwight Township High School, Dan Kaiser, received a letter from Herter, recalling the kindness shown him three years ago, and enclosing a check for $10,000. Herter only asked that the school use the money to honor his father.

It was the first time the school was aware what Arnold and Kodat had done, and Principal Kaiser knew immediately how to spend the donation. He created the "Herter Pay It Forward Award." Every year, as long as possible, the donation will award a student in the small town of Dwight a $500 prize....for performing a random act of kindness. And who will judge the nominations each spring? Who else?  Luke Arnold and Ryan Kodat.

A positive side-effect

Church attendance is declining in the United States. Does this mean institution-weary Americans are now praying privately to solve their problems, or to help others? As terrorism becomes a global threat and political compromise a distant memory, nearly a third of Millennials are  now secular, and 20% say they are "not spiritual at all,"making them the least religious generation in the past 50 years. Which begs the question:

"There's a greater willingness now to say, 'I'm not religious,'" says Christian Smith of the University of Notre Dame. But he explains that this trend has a positive side-effect. "For people who do continue to practice religion, (their communities) tend to be made up of the seriously committed, not just those swept along by obligation." In these communities, the answer may still be "yes."

"Does my life really matter?"

That's the question George Bailey asked in the classic Frank Capra film, "Its a Wonderful Life." The movie was so unpopular when released in 1946 that the studio never renewed its copyright, which meant TV stations could soon play it free. After 20 years, it suddenly became a holiday hit, and in 1980 reporters began calling Karolyn Grimes, who is now 75, to ask, "Did you play ZuZu Bailey in that film?" She admitted she was George Bailey's six-year-old with the wilted rose petals. Her part in the movie lasted only six minutes, but her final words, spoken in the scene shown here, became famous. "Look, Daddy. Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!"

                                                                                                                       Hulton Archives/Getty
Grimes' life after the movie was "wonderful" because it taught her tragedy equips us to help others. Her Mom died when she was 14, and her Dad was killed one year later in a car accident. Raised by relatives, she went to college and became a medical technologist. After having two daughters, she and her husband divorced and then he was killed while deer hunting. When she remarried a few years later, she and her second husband had a combined total of six kids, until her 18-year-old son committed suicide. This tragedy deeply affected her husband, who she nursed for a year until he died of cancer. By now, she had retired from medical work and suffered a financial setback in the recession of 2000, so she went on the road as an advocate of "It's a Wonderful Life." Her third husband, psychologist Chris Brunell, has supported her in this role for more than 15 years.

Does she feel her life was worth living? Yes. And why? Because people she meets from coast to coast often cry when telling how much the movie helped them. One man in his 40's said that as a boy he wanted to kill himself. He loaded his Dad's rifle and took it to his bedroom, but he decided not to fire the gun inside the house. As he was leaving the house with the rifle, he noticed "It's a Wonderful Life" playing on TV. He stopped to watch, and when the movie ended, he put his Dad's rifle back on the gun rack and never considered suicide again."

Grimes explains why the movie still heals grief today. "It's not about Christmas, not about Jesus," she says. "It's about how we have to face life with a lot of uncertainty, and even though nobody hears it, most of us ask God to show us the way when things get really hard, and like in the film, it can be in Martini's Bar, not in a church." After you see the 5-minute interview with Karolyn linked here, I bet you'll glance toward the sky and say, "Atta boy, Clarence!"  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGOEahHdE4