I Stand Amazed in The Presence...

Tonight, we drove with our 3 children down into the ghetto and handed out spaghetti dinners and birthday cake to those who were hungry.  

But, let me back up and tell you how we got there.

It started by opening a little orange-covered book called, "Radical."    There must be some kind of annointing on this book, because our eyes have been opened as they never have before.   For the first time in our lives, Hubby and I are seeing people in a whole new light.    The hurting, the hungry, the poor, the naked, the thirsty -they're all jumping out at us from amongst the crowds.   Scales have been peeled back off our eyes in a very radical new way.    People that we used to just walk by and feel sorry for, have now become a burden that we cannot help but carry.   It's more painful to do nothing than to step outside our comfort zones and just do something. 

Last night one of our pastor's gave a great illustration of how much religious freedom we have here in our country.  There is a mission trip coming up for a group of our church friends to go to Vietnam.  Because it's a communist country, they cannot openly witness in Vietnam.    They face the risk of being jailed, having the host Vietnamese Christians jailed, harassment, etc.  It's an intimidating thought: pay a great deal of money to fly to a country where you have to stay undercover and try to reach people for Jesus.   But the risk involved if they don't go?   There are souls there that may never know the love of Christ.   

He compared it to an outreach they just did recently in an area near where we live.   They walked door-to-door night after night, handing out Bibles and trying to reach out to over 1,000 people.   Some people were interested, most weren't.  But after knocking on all those doors, they only got one loud, "Nooooo!"    ONE.   One door that refused to open to them, one person who wanted them to go away.  So, leave they did, but not before blatantly leaving a copy of  the Gospel on the front porch anyway!

What a contrast.   Not only can we openly walk around, telling people about the love of Christ, we can also openly hand out Bibles to those who do not have the Word in their homes.   For the most part, we don't have to worry about being imprisoned.  Yet, we rarely breech the barriers of political correctness or perceived "harassment" because we're scared of...what?  Being told no?  

He also asked the group at church last night who had black and white, definite restrictions of sharing the gospel with their co-workers...?   Out of about 40 adults, only 2 people had written rules that they knew of that clearly prevented them from sharing the gospel at work.  (One of those was a Federal Employee, so there's no surprise there, right?)    Now, he didn't do this, but let's suppose he had asked the same group, "Who's actually witnessed to someone while at work?"    Do you think every hand would have been raised?  I'm not sure.    I wonder why it's so hard for us to share the best news anyone will ever hear with the people we're around every day?

So, how has this book started opening our eyes to the plight of those around us?   Let's start with the nursing home that Hubby recently began landscaping.   A short walk around the inside with an employee the other day opened his eyes to the loneliness and pain that is so characteristic of nursing homes.  One elderly man had been there since the Hurricane Ike evacuations in 2008.  Somehow he ended up with this nursing home and thank goodness he did.  Because, if he has family out there, they never came back to get him.  He's been in the nursing home ever since.   Another patient, a 14 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy has lived the past three years of his life without a single visit from his mother.   She exists, she's out there - but she doesn't come to visit him.

With tears in his voice, Hubby explained to me that he'd like to adopt this entire nursing home.  We'll be bringing gifts and all the love we can share to this place.  On Thanksgiving, Christmas morning and as often as we can.   Why?  Because we can.  And we should. 
  
This afternoon, Hubby was handed 10 paid-for tickets to a spaghetti dinner sponsored by a local high school.   We were already planning a birthday party at Chick-Fil-A for Baby Girl, and we are also going out of town tomorrow for a conference in Houston.  The food would do us no good sitting in our fridge for two days.   Hmm, what to do. We thought about it for a few seconds and then quickly forgot about it.    We celebrated her birthday with family, enjoyed opening presents, eating cake and rejoicing in two years with our precious, healthy daughter. 

Then, suddenly at 7:10pm, after the dinner was supposed to already be over, Hubby reached into his pocket and pulled out the tickets.  "Oh man, we forgot to do anything about this," he said.   I looked at him and said, "Why don't we go anyway? We always had lots left over when we did spaghetti dinners at school."    "What are we going to do with them?" he asked.  I shrugged, "We could go find someone who needs one."   

So, we stretched ourselves out of our comfort zones.  Because we had to quickly pack up the kids, the gifts, and the cake and briefly explain to the family what we felt we needed to go do.  Then we hurried to a high school that we do not have children attending, that we don't know anyone at and Hubby went inside to ask them.  Lo and behold, they did have plenty left over and they were more than willing to pack it up for us.     Praise the Lord!  Now what?

We took a few up to Hubby's office and gave them to the guys on night dispatch.  3 dinners down.   Then, as we'd been praying on the way, we both felt like we needed to go drive into the city and hand out the rest of them.   At night?  With all the kids?  But, I'm pregnant...really God?    Show us the hungry, Lord. 

So, drive into the ghetto we did.   At night.  Into an area that I don't like being near during broad daylight.    WAY out of comfort zones.....    The first person we saw was a woman walking down the street by herself.  When I rolled my window down to ask if she could use a free spaghetti dinner, she gave me an emphatic, "No. No thanks!"   Ok, so there's that word No.   Now, what?   "Keep on going."  I felt it in my heart.  So did Hubby.  

We drove further into the neighborhoods.  We ended up near the street where a former employee of ours lives.  "Hey, let's see if they're home," I said.   Sure enough, he was and he eagerly took 4 dinners off our hands.   As Hubby chatted with him in the driveway, we noticed his elderly neighbor sitting on the front porch across the street smoking a cigarette.   Little Man spoke up first and stated, "That man looks like he's waiting for some s'getti Mommy."    Out of the mouths of babes.   When Hubby opened the door to get back in, I told him what Little Man had said, and that he'd asked to go deliver the food with him.   So, we let our 4 year old unbuckle and walk across the street to give someone a free meal.   He was overjoyed to get to take part in this adventure.  He bravely shook hands with the stranger who gladly accepted the dinner and asked if we were with a church.  Sort of sir, more like the Body of Christ.   One more meal gone. 

We drove around for a few more minutes, the streets getting darker as we went.   We finally saw two men standing on a corner near where we had already passed by.  No, they couldn't use the food, but check around the corner maybe.   So, we drove around the corner and saw a group of black men hanging out behind a building.  We rolled down the window and asked, "Could anyone use a free dinner?"   They came running in disbelief towards our car.   We handed out the meals and forks until there was nothing left. 

Then as I realized how little would actually go around between all those men, I called out, "What about some cake too?"   So, out the window went the remainders of Baby Girl's butterfly birthday cake.   Out the window into eager hands and empty bellies.    "God Bless You"s were called out.   Not from us, but from them.  God bless us?  But we're trying to bless you....  

I am so amazed, and I am so ready.  Show us what you want us to do Lord.  Help us to be brave enough to faithfully follow You.