Quote:
Originally Posted by revrandy
If my green card comes through, we are hoping to move to your area... who knows.
I preach like the Episcopal Priest - my focus is always on equality, love all, do good deeds and make a change in the world.
When I ministered in California, I set up a skid-row ministry, 4 years later it is thriving; multiple churches take part as well as community groups, organizations, businesses etc. Homeless people are fed a hot meal 2x a month, and community is built as those who come to the meal eat side by side with those who have supplied the meal. I would love to continue to establish those ministries all over, wherever the need is, so to should be Christians rising up and giving them a helping hand.
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For a couple of years here 2007-2009, a group of rough looking characters who were part of the Christiam Motorcycle Association (CMA) had a twice a month Sunday afternoon street ministry downtown. They brought food, sometimes they had their own music, and they counseled with many of the homeless. My wife and I heard of it by seeing one of the men in a grocery story and I asked him what CMA was. We became regulars in their meetings. Most folks have no idea what it is like to purchase the food and bread--and then make 300-400 peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, wrap them, put them in coolers and get them ten miles into downtown all before two in the afternoon. That was our Sunday worship. Generally between 150-200 homeless or struggling folks would show up---even in the winter and even with eight inches of snow on the ground.
One particularly cold Sunday, the leader of the CMA group brought in a food truck he had borrowed. He had made chicken noodle soup in anticipation of about 175 showing up. But the line grew long and he began to worry if there was enough to feed everyone, so he paused and got the dozen volunteers together to pray that God would provide food for all. I wasn't there that day because of the snow and the distance to downtown, so I missed my opportunity to see a real miracle. When the last homeless person got to the truck there was just enough soup to fill his bowl to the brim.
We met in the parking lot of an Office Depot, but they asked us to stop after complaints by the good neighbors in the high rise condos. We moved across the street to the gravel parking lot of an old mattress firm. Residents complained about the possibility of crime although not a single crime or any unruliness had occurred. Then a police car arrived each Sunday we met to "keep watch" over activities that had been taking place for nearly two years. Finally the state health authorities came and told us we would have to shut down because of "food safety" concerns. As our leader pointed out, "How dangerous can it be to feed sandwiches made the same day to folks who raid McDonald's trash bins for leftover fries."
But you can be sure that whenever a true church (organized or not) attempts to serve the same people Jesus did, there will be opposition.
Revrandy, I would be happy to go to a church where God's work is proclaimed and practiced. My arthritic back now severely limits my ability to do much but my heart still has a desire to serve in deed, not just words.
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