Last night was wonderful. I had the opportunity to go down to our free store where we give out food and household items to folks living in the low income housing there.
It's cool. The residents are alloted 20 "points" which they use to pick what they need from a "shopping list". We fill the orders and while that is going on we attempt to establish relationships with them. Last night we served just under 100 families and had opportunity to pray with a few of them for various needs. That's always good stuff but last night a couple of other things impressed me.
The first was that in the area I was working, 75% of the volunteers were actually people from the low income housing areas themselves. It occurred to me that these people had caught the vision of preferring others ahead of themselves and more than that, I was able to engage some of them in some spiritual conversation. So not only are we providing some practical help for people but the "spirit" of the the thing is contagious.
My second observation was regarding the room we were in. It had not occurred to me before but the space we were using to store and distribute these items from was given to us by the managers of this government housing area. So not only are the residents positively affected by these efforts but "outsiders" are seeing the church not as a group taking away but as giving and they want to come alongside that. I pray that in doing so they also meet the God behind it all.
Anyway, it was great and certainly a good distraction from the theological (or lower) debating that seems to be pre-occupying much of my time these days.
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