No Expectations, Only Love

Today, I found myself interviewing people who had come to get food from our food pantry. I love to socialize with people and learn about their lives so I had asked my director if I could do interviews for a day. The people come into our gym and sit in the chairs that we have set up for them to wait on their name to be called at their appointment time. After they have checked in at the main desk then they can be called over to the interview desks. My center's director, Mrs. Dora, AKA one of the sweetest ladies in the WHOLE world! sat at one of these desks and I sat at the other. Mrs. Dora who lived the first couple of decades in Mexico is naturally fluent in Spanish. Over the last thirty years she has perfected her English as well. How valuable it is to be bilingual! So, there I sat for all practical purposes monolingual. I do know a very modest amount of Spanish but not enough to be confident in sharing the Gospel with our beloved community. So as each person checks in at the main desk, I would ask them if they spoke English. Most of them did not and I would tell them to wait for Mrs. Dora so that they could interview in Spanish. Eventually I would come to a person on the list who could either speak English or had one of their children who could translate for them. Often times the Hispanic ladies who told me they could speak English were actually stretching the truth. However, by the grace of God, I was able to recall words and phrases so that we could communicate. 

I think that I will remember one particular interview that I had today for a very long time. I had a upper middle age African American couple at my desk and was talking to them. I was thinking in my head How am I going to be able to bring Jesus into this if they keep being so close lipped? The wife was acting scared to talk about Jesus because her husband was there. The husband was just sitting and looking around. Then, out of nowhere. I have no idea what cued this other than God himself, the husband started into not really a rant but maybe better described as a spiel. He told me about how for a long time he and his wife had been looking for a church. Apparently they had been going to this one church that had brought them food during the week once a month. They would attend on Sunday but didn't feel as if they were fully accepted. He felt that the  rich white people as he described them excluded him and his wife. He had other friends from the streets as well that had felt the same about their reception at the church. I wonder how many times I myself have excluded people that are not the same as me in church. What a travesty! 

However, it was the second part of his impassioned little speech that was most poignant. He said that when the people brought the food to his house, they would say things that made him feel obligated to attend their church. This man said that he didn't like feeling like he was being bought to attend church. 

I don't know what actually happened because I wasn't there. How often though do we do service and mission projects with the thought that if we do this then they might come to our church. If we give them this then they might accept Jesus. This man was simply looking for love. The reason why we should do missions, outreach and service is love. We should not expect anything in return. 

God first loved us and doesn't expect anything in return. He loved just to love and we should too.

Life on the Green side

This summer I am spending nine weeks in the inner city of Houston. Houston is the fourth largest city behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago respectively. We live in some of the sketchiest portions of the city, but right in the middle of the compound where we live and also where the mission center that I work is located, there can be found the Gano Mission Community Garden. It is somewhat out of place against the other surroundings. This summer I have been looking over the little plants as they grow. It is so exciting to see the new growth that happens everyday and when the plants perk up after a long sprinkler's drench. I know that this may be mundane to many people. I cannot take offense to such opinions because the fact of the matter is that the Lord has blessed me with this interest and passion. I love the things that I love because my Father has placed them on my heart. 

So, because of such things, I have chosen to study plants. This includes food plants, ornamental plants, and mostly any other type of plant. I have been fortunate this past few weeks to realize in a practical hands on way how my interests, knowledge and experience could be used in ministry kind of way. I had secretly been wondering how I could use that for the cause of Christ. I had known it would be a fantastic humanitarian thing to help give people the ability to put food on their table, but I wanted more. I wanted to impart Jesus Christ into their lives.  Then I realized through work in the garden here at Gano or other work opportunities around Houston that I can talk about God as we work. To that point though God can be revealed through much of creation. It is simply awesome the things that He is able to do and create every day. 

I am glad that I have been able to be around and so close to much of His creation every day. 

Sometimes I feel weird talking about what I love because it is usually much different than many people that I come into contact with. I many times feel in the minority or at the subject of stereotype. However, I am glad that God gives me increasing certainty in my abilities but I am always reminded that everything I have even my knowledge and abilities come from Him. Without God I cannot do anything.

So, through my involvement with plants and playing in the dirt on a regular basis, I have been living life on the green side.