This is a precious neighborhood over around ROP! Extremely diverse in ethnicity! Thank you so much for your prayers and those that volunteered with our Back2School Outreach. Sometimes questions can overshadow our effectiveness and I wanted to share some of my encounters & the questions I answered for volunteers from my own experiences:
Q: Why would I pray with a person whose eyes are glassy and unfocused from drugs?
A: Because there were also tears in those eyes and he said, "I have HIV, and it hurts. I just want to go home to my Father and be in Heaven. I am very special to Him." Just because he's addicted doesn't mean God can't use me and do a great and powerful work in him. I started with too many addictions. Thankfully folks overlooked mine and told me the truth about how Christ sacrificed for me in order that I might also know saving grace and that leads to eternal life with Him!
Q: "Do you speak English?"
Man: <smile>
Q: "Do you speak Spanish?"
Man: <smile>
Q: "Do you speak Burmese?"
Man: <smile>
Q: "Nepali?"
Man: <smile>
Q: (louder) "What language?"
Man: <smile>
Q: <smile>
A: <breathe in> <relax> <abide in Christ> (now we're getting somewhere. . .) He was actually African (a Central Republic) and spoke French. Oooh . . . in English class and I handed him a jobs training program flyer from ODM. He's been here 3 months (if his English was correct) and surely rides the bus.
Q: Why should I give 4 hotdogs to someone so inebriated that he doesn't know how many times he's come through the line or even which direction to go?
A: Because he just wants to feel full, but nothing seems to work. (Jesus answered, "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4) Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) I walked over asked the man his name and wasn't sure he could even understand what I was saying to him. He was crying then eating then listening to the praise music over on the stage and crying again and eating again . . . all in a minute's time, and he answered, Christian." His brain was so fried that his speech was barely intelligible. He looked about 49 years old. I was able to talk to him about why Christ came for him, and why his parents might have chosen his name.
Q: Why did our missionary ask us to cover neighborhoods between 17th and 18th Streets in Denver (quite a bit off of Colfax) where there are mostly attorney's offices and yuppie houses worth a ton of money . . . and send us twice in one week?
A: Because they are right next to a few tear downs that poor people are hanging on to, near an alternative school, homeless are in the alleys, and because they are members of a community in serious need and in a perilous state . . . maybe if they see volunteers "working" in their neighborhood, they also might lend a hand to some important programs. "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." (Galatians 6:3-5) Fellow community members might be able to become answers to some of the prayers we offered during our prayer walk at the beginning of the week. Hopefully we encouraged them to step out in faith, attend a local outreach church like Open Door Fellowship or Restoration Worship Center, pressure local businesses not to take advantage of the poor, or encourage them to partner with a local school and help out the youth even more. The list could go on. I will try to be a better neighbor in my own community at home.
Q: Why was a homeless person hit and killed by a car one night this week . . . another in a long list of hit and run incidents this year? There were 3 people hit earlier in the week as well.
A: Colfax is a dangerous street.
Q: Why is this ministry event organized this way? This would never "fly" in corporate America!
A: Because our urban missionaries know the needs of their communities and pray for their folks all the time. They know how they eat, move, speak, self-medicate, organize, learn, respond, feel, grow, integrate, etc. It really is changing my life . . . learning how to submit to those in authority during mission trips.
Q: Why can't people in the communities just do more of these events and affect change in the lives of the poor? Why does a church group have to necessarily do it? Why not just more social programs?
A: Because when the Holy Spirit is involved . . . much MORE REAL happens.
Lives are transformed from the inside out. People are actually "fed". The cleansing effect actually happens. God increases His kingdom. We become the family of God, not just somebody with another free meal, a new backpack, a new can of food on the shelf, a new house, a new job, etc. They get a new life in Christ where all things are possible. "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7) "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)
Q: Why would I participate as a volunteer next year?
A: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:10-11) His commandment to us to love one another seems to come to mind big time.
Please join us next year again . . . either as a prayer team member or as a short term missionary. We really had a small team this year. Let's see if we can grow a bit for next year! Thank you again for committing to this ministry.
May God bless each of you for helping us.
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