“We’re alcoholics and drug addicts but we don’t mean nothin by it”
ok… let me explain…
This week has been amazing. On Saturday, 21 middle school kids and 9 adults arrived in Savannah from First Baptist West Palm Beach. They were here on a mission trip with “Power Plant” (a program through the North American Mission Board) it pairs churches from all over the country with church planters in different cities to help them and learn about how we do church. for photos click here and here
Our week was a little hectic. The kids and leaders all stayed at SSU in the dorms and then would meet up with us at 1:30 every afternoon and hang out until 9:30 every night. I had a slew of activities planned…
Monday: We stuffed bags with free chick-fil-a coupons and invites to church and then drove around all over Whitemarsh Island hanging them on doors. It was hot! We walked a lot!
Tuesday: We volunteered our time and man-power to the theatre where we meet. We asked them what we could do and they were not shy to tell us… We cut down trees and raked leaves to clear out a back parking lot that has been neglected for a while. It was HOT! Those guys worked hard!
Wednesday: We went to the Baptist Center in the inner city and helped throw a block party for the church that is meeting there. We setup, made signs played with kids and signed them up for VBS. It was HOT!
Thursday: We built over 200 pb&j sandwiches in my garage then drove to different locations downtown to find hungry/homeless people and just offer them a small meal. I was surprised at how many we gave out. This brings me to my first statement…
My group encountered three homeless men in a park… Richard, Johnny and Jerry. These guys were completely wasted, entertaining but wasted. We gave them each 2 sandwiches and then hung out for a minute. It was the first time some of these kids had ever been that close to the homeless. I talked to them and so did the kids… they weren’t scared at all. One of the guys even made a flower out of grass and the other made up a poem. anyway they said the above statement as we were walking away. We are just there to spread the love of Christ!
Next we went to a mission downtown to donate the rest of the sandwiches and noticed a lot of people standing outside to get in. Some were obviously homeless and were laying in the grass while others just looked hungry.
One lady in particular caught my eye… she looked “normal”. By normal I mean… she was clean and seemed to be wearing a badge from work. I thought she may be volunteering at the shelter. But, no! she was standing in line just like everyone else. This humbled me more than I have been humbled in my life. This lady was different… not that I think the other people were not important… it’s not my place to judge anyone or how they got into their particular situation. It’s just that she had been working and just didn’t have money to eat. Her image has been burned in my mind for the last 24 hours.
One of the discussion questions from journey group this past week was: When was the last time you really suffered for Christ?
I thought I had been suffering all week in the heat. I thought that it was just way too hot to be outside and couldn’t wait to get into the van or back home to the A/C.
That woman left her job to go stand outside in line at a shelter to get a meal in that same heat. She was drenched in sweat and when we gave her the sandwich her eyes were grateful although she didn’t say anything but a simple Thank You…I could tell she needed that sandwich.
When was the last time you really suffered for Christ?
