stories: the Trash People
This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)
This story was submitted by Sam, one of my readers. I’ve chosen this “story” as the winner of the contest that I ran during the last month (see “A Contest: Examples of Serving“).
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In November I heard Dino Rizzo speak in a workshop at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego. Dino talked about ways to serve the community. He said that if he were new in a city he would buy some garbage bags and volunteer at a community event to help do cleanup. If there was no community event, he said he would just go up and down the streets in his neighborhood and pick up trash.
I told this story to our little group that is trying to learn how to serve an inner city neighborhood in our city. We decided that we should try it the following Sunday morning, the second Sunday in December, and then do it every other Sunday morning. Our first Sunday out was a cold, windy day, but we met, prayed and then picked up trash in the neighborhood for about eighty to ninety minutes.
We skipped the fourth Sunday in December, since everyone in the group was out of town or occupied with visiting relatives. However, we resumed our trash pickup last Sunday, the second Sunday of January.
We met, prayed and started picking up trash. About two minutes after I started a car pulled up near me.
(Him) “What are you doing?”
(Me) “We’re picking up trash to make the neighborhood look nice”.
(Him) “Who are you people?”
(Me, while pointing to the yellow shirts we all wore that has our group’s name printed on it) “We’re a little group of Christians just trying to help out the neighborhood.”
(Him) “What church are you with?”
(Me) “We’re just a small group that meets here in the neighborhood.”
(Him) “I mean, where’s your church? The building?”
(Me) “We meet in cafes or the park. We don’t use a church building. We try to be out around people.”
(Him) “But are you part of some church, like the Catholic church, or something like that?”
(Me) “No. We’re just followers of Jesus, and every other Sunday morning this is how we do church. We go out in the neighborhood and pick up trash.”
Suddenly I was his good friend.
(Him) “My name is xxxxxxxx. I’m on the planning commission here, and I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m church way back, but I don’t go any more. (He gave me some reasons. He doesn’t think much of “religious people”.) Now this is real religion.”
He told me about the dislike the churches in the neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood have for each other, a story that I have heard several times from the neighborhood. (Most of the churches in the area are attended by people who drive into the neighborhood. The churches and their neighbors regularly complain to the city, the police and whomever will listen about each other.)
As we continued picking up trash, people watched. When cars drove by, I looked up. Several people smiled and waved. Some people came out of their houses and thanked us, after watching us from their windows. When we reached the end of our time, and turned around to go back to our cars, picking up a few bits of trash that we had missed on the first pass, more people came out of their houses and thanked us.
Several weeks earlier I walked these same streets trying to see what I could see, and prayed for the neighborhood. No one stopped to talk to me. No one smiled and waved as they drove by. No one came out of their house to talk to me. A couple of gang members asked me for money. That was it.
Oh yes, we do not hand out tracts or invite people to church. We’re just getting to know them and they’re getting to know us. They’re trying to figure out who we are. When they’ve got that figured out, perhaps, just perhaps, they’ll invite us into the spaces of their lives. That is where we will be allowed to hear each others stories. But for now, they’re just smiling, waving, coming out of their spaces to say hello or thank you or to ask who we are and what we’re doing.
After writing this, I thought about a group that is trying to start a new church. Twice they have walked through our neighborhood, hanging invitations to the new church on people’s doors. I watched them. No one smiled and waved at them as they drove by, no one stopped to talk to them, and no one came out of their house to talk to them. After the group had passed, I did see people open their doors to get the flyers, look at them a second or two and toss them in the trash. Hmmm!
Contest Winner!
I received several very good stories from readers for my contest. (see my post “A Contest: Examples of Serving“) I plan to publish all of those stories on Wednesdays in my weekly series called “stories”. I’ll intersperse the stories of my readers with some stories of my own.
I appreciate everyone’s contest entry. I think that each of the stories gives examples of brothers and sisters in Christ seeking to demonstrate the love of Christ to their communities – especially to “the least” of their communities. I think these stories will be encouraging and challenging examples for all of my readers.
But, who won the contest? I know that everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for this announcement.
I chose the story of S.C.R. which he called “The Trash People” as the contest winner. Congratulations! Originally, I said that I would publish the winning story today, but that was before I decided to publish my “stories” series on Wednesdays. So, I will publish S.C.R.’s story on Wednesday.
And, for winning this contest, I’ll be sending S.C.R. a copy of John Perkins’ book Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development.
stories: 20 years with a missional wife
This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)
Since today is my twentieth wedding anniversary, I thought I would start my “stories” series by talking about my wife. (Yes, I know that its hard to believe that someone would stay married to me for 20 years, but I promise that its true.)
I met Margaret when we were both 10 years old, so we’ve known each other for more than 30 years. In that time, I’ve never heard her use the term “missional”, not even recently when that word seems to be everywhere. But, I have learned more about missional living from her than from anyone else.
She has always been a caring person; the type of person that is deeply affected by other people’s circumstances and emotions. She truly rejoices when others rejoice and weeps when other weep. People notice this about her too, and people love to talk to her – to share their struggles with her.
Another reason that people like to talk to Margaret is that she is very accepting and not judgmental at all. In fact, she finds it easier to accept other people’s faults than to accept her own faults.
These two traits (empathy and acceptance) work together in Margaret to drive her to action. When someone tells her their problems, she wants to serve, comfort, and help. She cannot sit idly by while other people struggle alone. She wants to be part of their struggle. But, she goes beyond “wanting” to help; she actually helps people, giving of herself over and over again.
I’ve seen her comfort someone for hours. She’s made more meals for people than I can count. She’s taken care of people’s children and houses and pets when they could not do it for themselves. She’s given money to people in need – money that she had saved to buy something for herself.
Last fall, Margaret was talking with one of the elderly ladies who lives in government assisted housing development. The lady told Margaret that the housing authority does not rake their leaves. Within a week, Margaret had asked her friends to help her rake leaves. We raked leaves for 6 housing units.
Another time, Margaret was talking with one of the elderly ladies who had been sick. The lady said that she was resting so that she could wash her dishes, because she had not felt like washing them for a few days. Without asking or being asked, Margaret immediately went into the lady’s kitchen and washed her dishes.
These are not out of the ordinary occurrences. She does these kinds of things all the time.
Little things? Yes, these are little things. But, I believe that “missional living” is found more in the little things – the everyday things – the ordinary things – than in the great things. God has taught me how to care for people, how to love them, and how to serve them by watching and imitating Margaret.
I thank God for 20 years with my missional wife. I look forward to many more years.
(Update: I wrote this article several weeks ago. After I wrote it, Margaret’s father had heart problems and underwent bypass surgery. He’s doing well, but he will have a long recovery ahead of him. Margaret once again demonstrated that she’s a servant by staying with her parents for 2-3 weeks to help them through his recovery process. I miss her greatly, but I’m so proud of her decision to serve them.)
"I needed to talk to you"
While our family was still in Alabama, I got a phone call from S. She is one of the residents of the government assisted housing development where we’ve been spending time since last summer.
She was very upset, and asked if Margaret and I could come over to talk to her. I explained that we were out of town, and I asked if she wanted to wait, if she wanted me to find someone else for her to talk to (someone that she was acquainted with), or if she wanted to talk on the phone. She asked if we could talk on the phone.
Apparently, there had been some type of incident in which S. felt she was wrongly accused of something. Because of that accusation, she and her three children might have to move out of the housing development. This would be very difficult for her family because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.
Primarily, she said, “I just wanted to talk to you and Margaret. I needed to get this off of my chest, and I didn’t know anyone else that I could talk to about it.”
For the first time since we’ve known her, S. began talking about her faith. She talked about some of the struggles she’s had in life. She said that she didn’t understand why her life was going wrong while people who were violent or did drugs seemed to have a good life.
When we first met S., she seemed cold and distant. But, through the time we’ve spent with her, we’ve developed a relationship that seemed impossible at the beginning of last summer. Now, when she needed to talk to someone, she thought of us. How amazing!
Once again, God confirmed to me that my responsibility was to love people in his name, and allow him to give me opportunities to help people in their faith. It is not responsibility to force things on people, or to manipulate conversations and relationships in order to disciple people. I must let God lead them to himself.
So, we’ve loved S. and her family. We’ve helped them through various situations. We’ve served them in different ways. In every case, we’ve let them know that the reason that we love them is because God loves us and he loves them.
Please pray for S. and her family. Pray that this situation would be resolved, or that she would find another place to live. Also, please pray that whatever happens, she would allow God to reveal himself to her however he desires.
Finally, as Paul asked, please pray for me and my family, “that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ.”
When the Gospel is Social
In December 2007, I wrote a post called “When the Gospel is Social“. In the last year or so, God has taught my family so much about living out our faith in a way that impacts the lives of other people. The gospel is social. If its not social, then its not the gospel.
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Many evangelicals cringe when they hear the words “gospel” and “social” together in the same sentence. Many times their minds immediately connect the two words into one term: “social gospel”. And from there, of course, they think about terms such as “works salvation”.
Unfortunately, I think these thoughts have caused many evangelicals to give up on helping relieve social problems. In fact, I believe the “social gospel” may exist because those who believe the gospel are not concerned with social work. I’m glad that this is not the case with all evangelicals. Consider the following snippet from my Ph.D. mentor, David Alan Black (from Thursday, December 13 at 9:27 am):
As you know, it has long been our desire to dig wells and thus supply fresh drinking water in Alaba and Burji. There is always a certain tension among missionaries between those who are devoted to personal evangelism and those who are concerned about social issues. We see no problem in bringing both sides together in a joint operation. Once we have trained local church leaders to dig wells on church property, they will have an important preaching point where their evangelists can point non-believers to the Water of Life as they come to draw water for free. It will, no doubt, be very hard work.
I love the connection between the gospel and social work – between recognize the need for spiritual nourishment and physical nourishment.
If I remember correctly, John placed these two concepts (gospel and works) side-by-side:
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18 ESV)
And, James said something similar:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17 ESV)
These are sometimes difficult passages for those of us who believe we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But, of course, that passage doesn’t end there, does it? We see that even Paul associated works with the gospel:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)
What do we do if our heart does not break and we do not take action when we see someone hurting, oppressed, widowed, orphaned, hungry, thirsty? What do we do when our faith does not work? What do we do when it seems that the love of God is not in us because we are not demonstrating the love of God? What if we are not concerned about “the least of these“?
I will leave those questions to you, my readers. How would you respond to someone who asked the questions above? How would respond to someone who said that they have faith, but they rarely if ever demonstrate that faith by caring for others?
Serving through Relationship
Last summer, our family began spending time in a government assisted housing development in our area. This service began after a conversation with a friend who lives in that neighborhood. She had often asked us to pray for and help her neighbors. After talking with her, I asked if she thought it would be a good idea for us to start spending time in her neighborhood. She thought it was a good idea, and she said she would introduce us to her neighbors.
We had a simple plan when we started. We wanted to help the people physically, but we also wanted to begin building relationships with them. So, that first Saturday, we stopped by a local farmer’s market and bought $25 worth of vegetables and fruit and placed the produce in five small bags. As our friend introduced us to some of her neighbors that morning, we would give them a bag of produce, and ask them about themselves.
From the beginning, some of the people were very open to us. Others were suspicious. They are accustomed to nameless and faceless Christian groups and agencies coming in and giving stuff to nameless and faceless “poor people”. Often they are given “stuff” that they do not need – stuff like old bread, rotting produce, or cakes, cookies, and pies. Instead, we brought in fresh produce (only a little) and sat or stood with the people, talked with them, and got to know them.
Again, we did not have any other agenda. We had no plans going forward. Why? Because we did not know the people yet. We did not know what they needed. We did not know what God was going to do.
Over the last few months, other friends and families have started spending time in this neighborhood with us. By the time the farmer’s market closed in November, we were taking produce to 8 families every week. Also, we often took fresh baked (baked that morning) bread (made from freshly ground wheat) to the families.
But, more importantly, we’ve gotten to know many of the people who live in that neighborhood, and they have gotten to know us. They call us to check on us, and we call them to check on them. Even the people who were once suspicious because of past experiences with Christian groups have become good friends. We love each other… we say that we love each other… and we show that we love each other.
Besides visiting with them on Saturdays, we’ve had other opportunities to serve the people in the neighborhood. We sang Christmas carols in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. We had the opportunity to help one lady pay her utility bill. We’ve taken several elderly neighbors to doctor’s appointments, or visited them in the hospital, or even brought them home from the hospital. We tutored a single mother who is finishing her degree from a community college. We’ve provided furniture. We’ve taken meals to people who were sick. We bought toys for the neighborhood children for Christmas. We raked leaves.
We did all of these things because we love the people and we want to demonstrate the love of Christ to them. In fact, the reason that we were able to do these things is because we took the time to get to know them in the first place.
Let me repeat that: THE REASON THAT WE WERE ABLE TO SHOW THIS NEIGHBORHOOD THE LOVE OF CHRIST IS THAT WE TOOK THE TIME TO GET TO KNOW THEM FIRST. I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to shout. But, statements like this are often overlooked.
As I finish this post, I encourage you to start spending time with people – both with people you already “know” and people you do not know. You will find that God gives you opportunities to serve and demonstrate his love through those relationships. It won’t be easy. It will often be messy. But, it will be real.
Angel Tree
I’m proud of our small church family. We’re not very big in number, but we care about people. And, we don’t just say that we love people, we actually demonstrate our love for people.
The most recent demonstration occurred in the last few weeks. Our family and some friends have been spending time in a government assisted housing development. Several families who live in that development have kids – nine children in all. We asked if we could do an “angel tree” for the kids.
If you’re not familiar with an “angel tree” its where you put the name of a child and a gift on a cutout of an angel. You ask people to take an angel and to buy that gift for the child. We made an angel tree for the nine children with two or three gifts for each child – more than twenty gifts total.
This week our little church family (around 60 at most including kids) purchased all of the gifts for these children. We’re so excited to be able to give a little to these families. And, we’re even more excited that we actually KNOW the families that we’re serving and that we will continue to have opportunities to interact with them.
The least
John Santic at “Toward Hope” recently published this in a post called “The Least of Who?“:
I was hungry,
And you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned,
And you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked,
And in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick,
And you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless,
And you preached a sermon on the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely,
And you left me alone to pray for me.
You seem so holy, so close to God
But I am still very hungry – and lonely – and cold.
This reminded me of “Scripture… As We Live It #16” which I wrote a few months ago:
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For
I was hungry and you gave me foodyou made a profession of faith,I was thirsty and you gave me drinkyou were baptized,I was a stranger and you welcomed meyou faithfully attended church meetings,I was naked and you clothed meyou joined a Bible study,I was sick and you visited meyou gave your offerings to the church,I was in prison and you came to meyou even gave to the building fund.’ (Matthew 25:34-36 re-mix)
May God teach us to actually care for the least.
Caroling
As my regular readers know, our family and some friends have been spending time in a government assisted housing project since last Summer. We usually spend time there every week.
Last Wednesday, several of us got together to sing Christmas carols in that neighborhood. It was such an amazing experience! One lady – who is usually very stoic – was grinning from ear to ear. Another lady sang along with us and cried when we had to leave. A family with three kids took a break from their pizza dinner to listen to us sing, the children smiling the whole time.
I think the best moment of the night, though, was when we sang to a family that we do not know very well. They only moved into this neighborhood recently. We first met them when we raked leaves in the neighborhood a few weeks ago (see my post “Bread, Cup, and Leaves“). When one of the children from this family walked outside, he recognized someone – I’m not sure who he recognized, and it doesn’t matter. He pointed and said very excitedly, “I remember you!”
What a great time we had singing Christmas carols! I think that what made it special is that we already have relationships with the neighbors, and we’re building relationships with others. We love them, and they love us. Singing Christmas carols is not the extent of our demonstration of God’s love, but it is one specific demonstration of how much God loves them, and how much we love them.
(By the way, tonight (Saturday night) we’ll be singing Christmas carols in the neighborhood of our friends Maël and Cindy. They’ve also built relationships with their neighbors, and we always look forward to singing to their neighbors.)
Loving with Lionel
Are any of my readers in the Dallas area? If so, why not join Lionel (of “A Better Covenant“) and others on December 21st in demonstrating the love of God to the homeless of Dallas? Lionel tells about his plans in a post called “Downtown Dallas Homeless Outreach: The Starfish Mentality“.
If you’re not in the Dallas area, why not do something in your area that demonstrates the love of God? You know… something like giving food to a hungry person, or giving a cup of water to someone who is thirsty, or spending time with a stranger, or providing clothing for someone who needs clothing, or visiting those who are sick or in prison? Why no do for the “least” who can’t do for you in return.
Or, then again, perhaps Jesus was joking when he said that whoever did for the least did for him, and whoever did not do for the least did not do for him. I can’t remember now… what was the outcome of that story in Matthew 25:31-46? Oh well, I’m sure there was some deeper, spiritual meaning that doesn’t require you to actually care for people.