I remember a lot of frustration over the 14 months of my support-raising before I came out here when I realized that I had no Missionary Stories to grab the interest of my hearers and readers, no tales of God's mighty deeds abroad among the heathen and all that.
Eventually you do start to collect those stories, particularly when He sticks you right there on a street corner in the field and makes you visible. Day in and day out, I sit in the entry area of our church, which has a big bright sign and posters in the great big plate-glass windows and interesting-looking pictures on the walls, and people drop in.
read the rest:
A Russian lady wondered if it would be possible to rent out our space for the exercise classes for seniors that she leads. A couple of folks wondered if we knew where a charity grocery service's offices were. Some people are curious about English. Some wonder who we are and what kind of weird church we are. Some remember when this place was a sketchy bar whose proprietor was murdered a decade ago, and how long it sat empty afterward, and they're impressed with the renovations.
And some people have more questions. Another Russian lady said she had never felt comfortable walking into a church with her questions about the basics of Christianity, but she worked up the courage this time. A young father and his little daughter came in because she felt a sudden compulsion to do so; he's an atheist, but somewhat favorably disposed to churches, and he's interested in having his daughter take part in children's programming.
And today - right now, as I write - there is a man who came in saying that he is contemplating suicide, and he's sitting in David's office. Judi and Alex and I prayed for a little while, while the kids here for Kids' Camp ate their snack, while the heating repairman poked around, while all this ministry chaos raged, and I suppose I am still writing this as a prayer that God will show Himself through David right now, that He will save another life, that He will bring this man into the place where he can be healed and know that there is Someone to live for, Someone Who would send His Son to love him and give Himself for him.
Just one little corner of one city of one small continent in this whole world - I try to picture the human experience here, and it's an incomprehensible swirl, a maddening blur of paths crossing and diverging and running parallel, burning passion and dark, cold loneliness, sparks of hope and glow of love, and everywhere need, pushing and pulling them all.
And here we are on one little corner of that little corner, and a lot of paths run by us, and a lot of them run into our home, and we get the stories.
Eventually you do start to collect those stories, particularly when He sticks you right there on a street corner in the field and makes you visible. Day in and day out, I sit in the entry area of our church, which has a big bright sign and posters in the great big plate-glass windows and interesting-looking pictures on the walls, and people drop in.
read the rest:
A Russian lady wondered if it would be possible to rent out our space for the exercise classes for seniors that she leads. A couple of folks wondered if we knew where a charity grocery service's offices were. Some people are curious about English. Some wonder who we are and what kind of weird church we are. Some remember when this place was a sketchy bar whose proprietor was murdered a decade ago, and how long it sat empty afterward, and they're impressed with the renovations.
And some people have more questions. Another Russian lady said she had never felt comfortable walking into a church with her questions about the basics of Christianity, but she worked up the courage this time. A young father and his little daughter came in because she felt a sudden compulsion to do so; he's an atheist, but somewhat favorably disposed to churches, and he's interested in having his daughter take part in children's programming.
And today - right now, as I write - there is a man who came in saying that he is contemplating suicide, and he's sitting in David's office. Judi and Alex and I prayed for a little while, while the kids here for Kids' Camp ate their snack, while the heating repairman poked around, while all this ministry chaos raged, and I suppose I am still writing this as a prayer that God will show Himself through David right now, that He will save another life, that He will bring this man into the place where he can be healed and know that there is Someone to live for, Someone Who would send His Son to love him and give Himself for him.
Just one little corner of one city of one small continent in this whole world - I try to picture the human experience here, and it's an incomprehensible swirl, a maddening blur of paths crossing and diverging and running parallel, burning passion and dark, cold loneliness, sparks of hope and glow of love, and everywhere need, pushing and pulling them all.
And here we are on one little corner of that little corner, and a lot of paths run by us, and a lot of them run into our home, and we get the stories.
