Love Your Neighbor

 

            After attending a motivational speech at a conference to which his company sent him, Vladimir began to review his use of time, his use of money, and the type of people with whom he associated. After three weeks of introspection, cogitation, and self-criticism, he came to the conclusion that he needed to make some radical changes to his life, to his social interaction, and the possibility of making a positive impact on the community around him. Instead of watching a movie that Friday evening, he locked himself in his office, began writing down thoughts, ideas, and plans to become a different person.

               Several thoughts came to him at the same time, the first thought was that of how common abortion had become in the city in which he lived, which moved him to start an organization to support these young women and protect the unborn. “No matter how small someone may be, every person deserves the chance to live a life and contribute to society,” he thought.

               The second thought that came to mind was that of buying an abandoned building, starting a restaurant on the first floor, and remodeling the rest of the building into clean, organized, and appropriately sized apartments. “There are a great number of people who I can approach to help me bring this idea to fruition,” he thought. “I can use the profits from the restaurant to fund the use of the apartments for young women who have nowhere else to go. Okay, time to make some phone calls, send some emails, and find a few properties that would allow us to bring this to a good end.”

               Vladimir spent the next thirty minutes searching real estate websites for abandoned buildings inside the city limits, after finding three different properties, he contacted each realtor with several questions, and a plan to view each property. He then placed four phone calls and sent six emails, to happily receive agreement from seven of the ten contacts, with promises of financial support. His mind became a whirlwind of plans, ideas, and numerous people to contact to bring his grand plan to a beautiful conclusion.

               The following weekend, he met a different realtor at the three different properties, he took photos, took notes, and finally decided on one property that had the best layout, the best location, and the best design to accommodate a restaurant and multiple apartments. He assured the realtor that he would be in contact within the next few days to make an offer, after he had the opportunity to speak with his financial supporters. He returned home, did the math to determine how much money he would need from each supporter to purchase the property, remodel the property, and finance the restaurant.

               He then contacted his lawyer to set up the restaurant as a legal business, an adoption agency to protect the many orphans that were in the legal system, and he made several phone calls to multiple contractors to receive bids on the remodel work. He also created a small group of people to begin making contact with young women approaching abortion clinics with the hope that many of them could be persuaded to not follow through with the murder of their pre-born child.

               After contacting his seven financial supporters, he communicated the amount of money he would need to bring the many plans to a positive conclusion. Within forty-eight hours, he saw that all seven of them deposited the promised amount of money into his bank account. He then placed a phone call to the real estate agent to make an offer on the building. She assured him that she would draw up the paperwork, send it to him, which he would need to electronically sign and hopefully the offer would be received by the current owner.

               Within three days, Vladimir received an email from the realtor that the current owner accepted his offer and that he needed to come into her office to sign the final paperwork, receive the keys, and become the actual owner of the property. After completing everything, he began to make contact with several contractors to begin the remodel work, the first step was to be the building of the restaurant. As the restaurant construction was completed, he began to see a great deal of customers coming in every day.

               Work then began on remodeling the rest of the floors into clean, organized, and livable apartments. Six months passed, the restaurant was generating a great deal of income, the plumbing, the electrical work, the framing, and the rest of the work was finally completed. Which gave Vladimir the framework to begin advertising the availability of apartments for single mothers. After meeting with about forty young women, and giving them tours of the apartments, he intentionally kept the rental price very low, after receiving many thank you’s from most of them, he knew that he would need to hire security to keep the building safe and free from trouble.

               The adoption agency took over one space for their office on the first floor near the restaurant. In less than two months, each apartment was occupied by young women with one or two small children, the security team was put in place, and he eventually learned that the adoption agency had been successful in placing almost fifty children into safe and comfortable homes. The small team of people who were watching the activity at local abortion clinics reported that they had been able to convince nearly one hundred young women not to proceed with the murder of their pre-born children.

               Now that everything was being successful, he called a meeting for everyone who had financially supported his efforts, reported the wonderful news and the large number of lives that were saved, and the many young single mothers who now had clean safe homes in which to live. With the small amount of rent he received from the young women, the income from the restaurant covered the financial needs of the building, paid the salary for the security team, the adoption clinic personnel, and most of the electricity bills, the water bills, and free wi-fi available for everyone in the building.

               As the meeting came to a conclusion, he closed it off with a few comments about repeating this process in another building if anyone was interested in offering additional support to do this a second time. Everyone then stood up, left his home, and within two days he received four emails offering further financial support to remodel another building and help their city become a better and safer place. Thrilled and excited to see the first effort with the restaurant, the remodeled apartments, and the adoption clinic, he placed another phone call to make an offer on another of the buildings that he had previously viewed.

               He made an offer on another of the buildings, received confirmation that the previous owner accepted his offer, which moved him to repeat the process in the new building, and after contacting the contractors again, another restaurant was built, the rest of the building was remodeled. Which gave Vladimir the opportunity to show the beautiful new apartments to another group of several dozen young women. Four months came to a close and the building was finished, clean, organized, and staffed by another security team.

               Now that two buildings had been rescued from absolute waste and had been restored, he was contacted by a local newspaper to discuss the work that he and his financial team had accomplished. After a one-hour discussion, he emphasized the importance of those who were wealthy to help those who needed help and not waste their money on comfort, pleasure, and a selfish lifestyle. “It is important to do good when good should be done,” he said in his closing comment.

               Three months after the interview was printed in the local newspaper, Vladimir received eight different offers from other people who wanted to repeat the process of remodeling another building, as they said they were moved and motivated by his words and actions. Thrilled and excited that he took the time to share his thoughts, over the next year, he saw two more buildings remodeled and filled with young women who needed a clean and safe place to live to care for their children.

               As he considered the situation so many of these young women found themselves, Vladimir made the decision to start a daycare in each building, free of charge, so they did not need to spend their money on hiring others to take care of their children. With each interaction, and new jobs created, Vladimir could see the joy in their eyes when he offered them free daycare in the apartment building. The restaurant in each building continued to provide income to support the needs of those who lived therein.

               After giving the situations in each building further thought, he purchased a small bus and a driver for each location, to drive the young women to their jobs, to the grocery store when necessary or anywhere else they needed to go.  Several days after completing and organizing everything at each location, Vladimir sat in his office and created a comprehensive list of what was being accomplished, who was being helped, how many jobs had been created, and the positive impact he and his financial supporters were having on their city.