Sunday Morning Ministry

Since we aren't able to have a Sunday morning service, YET...we have decided to minister in the community, as a church. We went to the City Rescue Mission and volunteered to serve food to the homeless and the poor. We are starting out by doing it every other Sunday morning, but I'm fairly certain that it will become an every Sunday morning event for those of us who were present this past Sunday. It was amazing and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I'm a behind the scenes kind of gal, so when asked to help serve food...I had no problem. The rest of our crew were asked to serve water, pickup trays when the people were finished, to have conversations with those who were being fed, to make connections with them...as Brad said, "what we do back here (the serving line) brings them in here, but the real ministry is out there, making connections with those you are helpless and hopeless." It was amazing for me to watch as Brother Rob and his twin girls, Emma and Madison, went around striking up conversations with all kinds of people. For those of you who know Brother Rob, he doesn't meet a stranger and is rarely at a loss for words and it is really cool to see God working through him. My husband tends to stand back and get a feel for the situation, but once he gets started, it is hard to slow him down and before too long, he was striking up conversations all over the place too. The biggest blessing for me, was to see my sister, Kim, who has such a heart to serve, ministering in such simple ways as laying a hand on the shoulder and speaking softly to the people, asking if she could get them more water or take their tray or simply listening when they wanted to talk and to see my very energetic, 7 year old nephew, having the time of his life, offering water to everyone, including those who had water. He was so excited that he could help too. I was blessed to be able to have conversations with those on the serving line and in the kitchen and to hear their testimonies of how God had delivered them from drugs and alchohol and was helping them to raise families in the way they should go and not the way their parents had went.

At the end of our shift, my husband came to me and asked if I would go with Brother Rob to talk to a woman whose family, of 6, had recently ended up in the homeless shelter. Both parents had recently lost their jobs, causing them to lose their homes and they had come to Oklahoma, from California, trying to find new jobs, but were now at the CRM. The wife was frustrated, feeling helpless and had arrived at hopeless and didn't want to live anymore. So, I went with Brother Rob and walked right in to a hornet's nest, due to a situation that was occurring as we were going over to that side of the building. By the time I met the woman, her hopelessness had been replaced by anger and she said to her husband, "So, is the church going to help us or are they JUST going to pray?!" That is why I referred to that meeting as a hornet's nest, because there was no way to walk into it without being stung. In that moment, Brother Rob and I both got a glimpse of the helplessness and frustration these people were feeling, because as a church, with a vision of helping those who have fallen upon hard times, those with addictions, those who are helpless and hopeless, we realized at that moment, all we had to offer them was prayer and the Word of God and while those are two very powerful things, in that moment, it wasn't enough and because we couldn't help them in the physical aspect, the door to minister to them spiritually, was being closed.

I've never been one to beg or plead, especially for money, but the ministry that God has called us to in this city is one that takes money, more money than a few bake sales, doughnut sales or any other kinds of sales can raise. I'm begging, pleading for those who read this blog, if you have a heart for missions...don't just raise money for foreign missions, we are doing our part for October World Missions too, but remember that right here, in the U.S. we are surrounded by mission fields and it takes money to minister to those who are lost, hopeless and helpless. Spread the word that we need help, if you want to help, contact me and I'll send you mailing information, if you can't help financially, PRAY that God will provide the finances needed, PRAY that God will provide workers. If our neighbor knocks on our door and asks for bread and we send them away by saying, "be filled" and do nothing to meet that physical need, then what good have we done. We can give them spiritual food, but if they are struggling to have those physical needs taken care of, they will not accept the spiritual food that we've offered. Help us reach this city of 1.2 million people.