Jesus, not me

“For He will deliver the needy when He cries,
The poor also, and him who has no helper.
He will spare the poor and needy,
And will save the souls of the needy.
He will redeem their life from oppression and violence;
And precious shall be their blood in His sight.” (Ps 72:12-14, NKJV)

The above was part of my Bible reading guide this morning and it spoke volumes due to what we had done yesterday. Yesterday, we had put on a BBQ in probably the roughest neighbourhood in our inner city, a free BBQ to feed the homeless, helpless, and the less fortunate. Why did we do this? Because we love God, and we know He loves these people and street people are of value as well (which the above verse definitely indicates!), and they deserve to be shown the same dignity and respect that we are all accustomed to.

This is the third year this event has been put on, and preparation for it began months ago. There were preparations in the natural, of course, soliciting donations for the event, but there were also preparations in the spiritual realm. Twice we had done prayer walks around the field, just praying that God would do what He does best: meet with people, transform people, that His Spirit would be there in a very real way. As organizers, we had prayed together and individually for this thing for weeks beforehand.

Yesterday morning I was up at six in the morning, preparing to be down at the site for eight in the morning to begin setup. That morning I was reading from the book of Acts, and the works of the early church inspired me for the day. What powerful things the early church had done! What beautiful adoration to God, to His Word, to His divine purpose! What a humbling thing to try and recreate by the work we were doing!

The BBQ was an absolute success. Despite little technical setbacks early on that, in the grand scheme of things, really amounted to nothing, we had an opportunity to feed at least 500-700 people. Local media was out, so we got a few seconds of exposure on the local TV stations (keep reading to see the clips) and there should be an article in the local newspaper regarding it as well. It was a hot day, up to 24C and many of us got sun burnt. We gave away so much, a thousand hot dogs and a thousand hamburgers, brand-new clothes that were donated, pillows, donuts, fruit, chips, pop, bottles of water. Thank you to the many companies that supported us and gave freely to the event, and thank you to the many volunteers that helped. God bless you all!

Now that the natural results have been described, I need to describe the spiritual. And this is what made this day so exciting, so powerful, and so exhausting. As I said, we were praying for weeks before the event and even driving down, the music in the car was off, and I was praying for the BBQ, for the volunteers, for the food, for the people that were coming to the event. And God moved in an absolutely powerful way! Thank You God that You listen to the heart-felt prayers of Your people who are striving to be obedient and do Your will! There is so much to describe, so it may be a bit disjointed — please bear with me.

First and foremost, there was such a sense of joy among the volunteers. There were no arguments, no one complained about having to do more than others, or do something they didn’t like. We were united in one purpose. There were smiles everywhere, people were so welcoming to those coming through the line to be fed, there was a genuine servanthood evident. There was such complete _peace_ in that place. You need to understand that these are people who are accustomed to a life of strife and fighting, that literally fight over scraps of food. Yet it was so peaceful in the field. There was no striving for places in line. They were patient, despite the heat, and they were grateful for the food. They were polite, thankful. To put this in perspective, I drove off-site around 2:30 in order to get some coffee. Not even a block away I saw two men yelling at each other and fighting. When we were loading the left over supplies into the church at 6:00 there were young men and women, right before the doors of the church (which is also right in the middle of downtown) fighting and swearing and arguing. But in that place, at that time, there was complete and utter peace. No fighting, no arguing, no dissension.
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I just felt like I needed to share how God is opening my eyes and growing me. I am most definitely an unfinished work, more coal than diamond, but the Lord is revealing things to me and impressing things upon my heart — particularly the other night. My wife and I are part of a Bible study that for three weeks does a regular Bible study, then on the fourth week go out and do what we’ve been reading about. So we’ve been in Matthew, and as a result we pooled some money and put together some small bags of items for homeless people with the idea that we would wander around downtown and hand them out, witnessing to people.

The bags were quite modest: toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, a comb, shampoo, a pair of socks, some candies and a few other assorted hygiene things, and a business card sized print out of Jeremiah 29:11-13. We chose this because people on the streets need hope (well, we all need hope, but I think they need it in particular), and we wanted to share the fact that God does have good thoughts towards us, and that He wants us to have a future, and hope.

Now, I have to be honest here. I’m not a people person. I’m about as close to an anti-social hermit as you can get while having a family and going to church three times a week. I’m not generally a fan of people — I’m not outgoing, I don’t talk a lot, and I’m quite shy. My appearance probably doesn’t help matters much because I tend to intimidate people (or so I’m told), and my “style” of dress and skin adornments probably doesn’t help either. My wife, on the other hand, is the complete opposite — she talks a lot, she’s bubbly and outgoing, very animated and excited. As you can imagine, this is where God is growing me. Witnessing to street people sounds great, until you actually do it. And, if you’re like me, you’re fervently praying for strength and courage before heading out because this is _WAY_ out of my comfort zone.
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