What’s the Difference?

I find myself asking that question often these days. What is the difference?

I was so angry this morning as we were heading downtown. I’ve wanted to take a camera down with us for the past few weeks. The trees in the park are really changing colors right now and the scenery is pretty spectacular right now. Now, it’s not North Carolina spectacular where the trees are an absolute painted canopy, but it is still beautiful in its own way. Its own Omaha, Nebraska way! So as we were pulling on to the freeway this morning to go downtown, I realized that I’d forgotten the camera once again. So we called mom. To the rescue once again! How many times in my life has mom come to my rescue? Well, obviously too many to count. What a rock in my life she has been. So I call her and ask her to bring her camera. She says something about batteries and such, but she’ll bring it. Cool.

So we get down there and we start our deal. Our homeless friends are always waiting to help unload. And in a matter of minutes, we are in business. Mom gets the camera to me, which within those short 10 -15 minutes that it took us to get into the downtown area, I forgot again that she was even bringing it! Imagine that! She had to remind me that she had it! Good grief! And then she mentioned the batteries. Now you have to know my mom. I love you mom!! But I may need to invest in some Energizers! So I give the camera to one of the young fellows who was there to do some community service work and ask him to take as many pictures as he could. Well, a few minutes later I see Robin with the camera. Huh? Seems I forgot one important aspect of what it is we do on that corner. Respect. We’ve attempted to be very respectful of all the people on that corner. All the people we share that community time with. We never want to take advantage or make it seem like this is some sort of project. Why are we taking pictures? Several reasons to be honest. I love to be able to put faces to names. One of the things I really strive for is to remember names. Some are easier than others for whatever reason. Pictures help in that regard. Another reason is I just think it’s important to occasionally capture some of these moments in some format or another. Video. Still pictures. Whatever. Just a little reminder of where we’ve been and where He’s leading us. So when he started taking pictures, someone called him on it and he gave the camera to Robin. She then gave it to me and I started asking and receiving permission to snap pictures pretty much at will. One of the most interesting things to me as I came home and started looking at the pictures? Smiles. All around. Smiles.

As I look around on the corner on Sundays, I’m reminded of a song that I really love these days. It’s called the Table of Grace and it’s on a Phillips, Craig and Dean CD – Restoration. The song speaks to God’s amazing Grace. Uses metaphors to describe the awesome Grace that flows so freely…the cup’s always full…the plate’s never empty…everyone’s welcome…at the Table of Grace. Every time I hear this song, it reminds me of our corner. God’s corner. Where the literal cup never seems to run out. We always seem to have enough. Now I’m certainly not equating what we do to God’s Grace. Just that the imagery of the song puts me there. And when we are there, such as today, the mood is always one of cheerfulness and fellowship. And smiles. We prayed together today. Before we serve our Sunday meal, we always pray. Or at least I usually say a prayer offering thanks for all the blessings He sends us with each week. But today we said the Lord’s Prayer. All of us. It was moving to me, to say the least. I can’t describe it. I woke up yesterday morning at 4:00 a.m., which isn’t so unusual for me these days, but the first thing that popped into my feeble brain was to say the Lord’s Prayer with our friends. At 4:00 in the morning. Can’t those kinds of things come at say noon? Anyway, we prayed together and it was very cool.

So what’s the difference? Between an older fellow and a bunch of us from suburbia? What is it that makes our lives so different? I took a bunch of pictures today. But one fellow seemed to show up in several of them. Harry. Great guy. Interesting stories. Tells me he loves the Lord. I have no doubt. Has a drinking problem. Of that I have no doubt either. So what makes us different? Or are we really that different? I mean, I have my issues for sure. I don’t run in the same crowds as Harry obviously, but there was a time when I might have. So what is the difference. Harry is the guy in the picture. With my beautiful little Erin. Is he any different to her? Or is it just my view? And is he really any different? The camera doesn’t lie. Harry is the same kind of different as us. I borrowed that from a book I read recently. But it’s true. He’s got his issues to be sure, but he’s no different. None of these guys are. They might make choices that are obviously not good ones, but haven’t we all done that from time to time? I talked with a young lady today whose story absolutely blew me away. Beautiful, long, red hair. Very pretty. Early 30s maybe? First time I’ve ever seen her. As we talked, and she told me more of her story, it got more and more interesting. She asked for blankets for her boarding room. But only if the guys that lived in the park didn’t need them. Starting to get cold here in Nebraska. Going to be brutally cold on that corner in the coming months. So as she told me more of her story in the approximate 5 minutes we shared, she told me of an abusive relationship…a much publicized trial…a sentencing…involuntary manslaughter…a prison term. Now? Trying to get it back together. So what’s the difference? Is that what it takes to make it to our corner? But she knows the Lord. Praise God. She struck me as someone who will get out of her situation. Harry? Not so much, but who knows? We’re not naïve enough to think that all of these guys will somehow get out of the situations they are in. But some of them will. Of that I am sure. Just want to be there to see it and hear about it.

I guess that’s the difference. We get to be there to hear of the failures and the successes. We get to be a small, small part of it all. Of God’s plan for our friends. We get to go to Tuesday Bible studies with any of them that want to go. We are blessed with the wisdom that comes in droves from some of our friends. Life’s wisdom. God’s wisdom. Occasionally someone will say something to me on that corner that blows my mind. Usually something really simple. But almost always very profound. That’s the difference. I am so in awe that we are getting into deeper fellowship with our new friends and we are so blessed to be the recipients of their love and His love. So in the end? There is no difference. We just take our troubles to different resting places. Us to our quaint little suburb. Harry to his tent down by the river. Physically? Way different. But I look at the picture and I see the two worlds colliding. And I realize that there really is no difference. And Erin will tell you so.

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)

A 700 Pound Gorilla?

Another great day today. It was an interesting day for us as a family. Our normal Sunday routine involves Robin cooking something on Sunday mornings for our meal with our friends in the downtown homeless community. This week? Not so much. No cooking in the Laney household today. Our great friend Clark offered to cook the entire main course. It was because of his generosity that we were able to alter our normal Sunday morning just a bit. And here’s why. You see, when we began this adventure almost a year ago, I’m not sure we ever went so far as to think we’d never be in a church again. We just knew at the time that God was steering us in a bit of a different direction. In His time. And He still most certainly is. But after a year of God selling His vision to people, His vision of getting out in the world and taking His love and His message to our friends in the park downtown, we have gained quite a few folks that are willing to show up with us on Sundays and help do the work that He first led us to do. So because of this, our family has been able to miss a Sunday here and there and have someone cover for us and it’s worked like a charm so far. One of the things we strived to do in the beginning was make this thing we do so easily duplicated, if we missed a Sunday or ever felt led in a different direction, someone or a group of someones could easily pick the ball up and carry on. It’s certainly not rocket science. Anyone can do it. Just takes a little initiative I suppose and the desire to fulfill what we believe to be God’s plan for us. So this morning? Since Clark offered to do the main meal and we had no cooking to do this morning, we did all the other prep work yesterday and finished up early this morning. Around 10:00 this morning we headed out to the downtown area. Now we normally leave our house around 11:30ish. Not this morning. Our destination? Church. Yep. We darkened the door of a church this morning.

We’ve been meeting with a group of folks on Tuesdays for a few months now. God’s plan for sure. Bible study…missional community…small group. Call it what you will, but we get together and talk about God stuff. Life application of God stuff. It’s a great group of people and a great time for discussion. It’s a pretty eclectic group of people. Drug addicts, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics, recovering alcoholics, some of our homeless friends from the shelter, a pastor and his family, and just about everything in between. The Vine. That’s the name of our Tuesday group. It’s definitely an interesting mix of individuals, couples, etc. But they are a community that comes from the church community we visited this morning. For the most part. And they’ve completely accepted us into the group which is very cool. So we decided to visit their church community this morning. As we were pulling up to the chapel where they meet, one of the kids said “Hey, there’s Peter”! Peter was a fellow who went to our church in Charlotte. Young, extremely talented, with a fresh look on life and the world, and driven by Gods’ vision. In fact, there were a bunch of Peters. And KBs. And Mats. And Roberts. You could have taken any one of them out of this church and dropped them into our church in Charlotte and they would have fit right in. The point is this was familiar to us. It was good. And because of the way God has blessed us lately with people willing to jump in and help out, we were able to join in with these guys and have a great morning of worship. So maybe we can do this once or twice a month. Who knows? We just had to get to a point where God would send enough folks to help out so we could keep this thing rolling and maybe find ourselves in community again.

EDIT ADDED 10-22-07

Disclaimer...What I meant to say and should have said...

As I read through this blog again this morning, something struck me. When I mentioned us being in a church and being in community "again", I guess what I meant to convey was it was just nice to be involved in more and different community. You see we definitely have a community. That community meets every Sunday at noon in the park. And that is definitely what I would call our primary community. Those we serve and those we serve with. Because there are people who give of their time and effort tirelessly and it is such an immense blessing to be in community with these great people. And they know who they are. I could certainly go through and name them all, but they know. And more importantly, He knows. The church we visited was simply an opportunity to fellowship a little more with folks we've been meeting with on Tuesdays. Our schedule allowed us the time to do it, so we did. The building is just that. A building. The community can meet anywhere. Our wonderfully devoted community just happens to meet without a building. In a park. So maybe in the future, we can do a little of both. If we can make it work, we surely will.

So I just wanted to say what I meant to say and what I should have said...

END OF EDIT :)

So we were able to go to church this morning and do our other gig with our friends downtown. What a great day. My aunt and uncle and a couple of cousins joined us from Iowa. The usual suspects were there. Serving. Being served. Ugu was back and again telling me how we were there in God’s image. We are now bringing music to add a little of God’s atmosphere to the corner. Something about music that just brings that corner to life for me. In fact a couple of guys were asking if they could rent our equipment for a night. I told them they could rent it for free every Sunday from noon to 2:00. More people from the county doing community service hours. And that is so cool to me. Most of these people that come jump right in and get at it. And most of them are younger kids. I also met a lady from Arkansas named Lorraine who had the most beautiful smile. Not homeless, just there for the opportunity. I talked to a lot of different people. Saw guys shaking in the wind because they didn’t have coats. Winter is coming. Right around the corner. People need winter gear. It’s heartbreaking to see someone who is just cold to the bone. Know that feeling? I’ve been pretty cold before, but I’ve always had a place to go warm up. Some of these guys are out in the elements all day and it breaks my heart to think some of them spend their nights out there also. It’s tough. I had a lengthy conversation with a young couple who need rent assistance. They stay in a weekly boarding room and have fallen behind. Needed help by Monday. Lots of help. Broke my heart to tell them I didn’t know how we could help them. I can certainly pray for them and will. May never know the outcome of that one. Angie and Bobby. That’s who I’ll be praying for, along with a host of others.

The gorilla? 700 pounds? Well, as I was talking to a fellow I’ve really grown drawn to, he mentioned this very thing. Said he had a gorilla on his back. Not a monkey, he said. A gorilla. 700 pounder. Alcoholism. I know that demon. And he wants it off his back. As I look around down there on Sundays, that has to be the overwhelming factor that gets most of these guys to this point. Whatever the addiction is, that would seem to be the most significant factor that contributes to these situations. Seems that way to me anyway. How in the world will these guys ever be able to conquer these demons? Many probably never will. Surely some of them can. By the grace of God. And that’s where we come in. We obviously can’t do anything to “help” most of these guys. But we can certainly be there to try to offer what we know. And what we know is God is waiting for them. With wide open arms. We simply have to be there to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em all about His amazing love …forgiveness…grace…restoration. It’s all there for the taking. We just have to be there to let ‘em know about it. And we will be there. Every Sunday. Noon. Till whenever. And if any of the guys want to “rent” our equipment for the night? Well….

I could go on and on with these weekly journals. I simply try and capture a moment in time for what it looked like from my perspective. That’s all. So much happens on a given Sunday. I could not possibly recount all the things that happen. The conversations that take place. The fellowship that is shared. To think that God took a chance on a family such as ours to be involved in a mission as great as this? Unbelievable. Another fellow, Menelik, was telling me how he walked from the Open Door Mission to meet with us today. That’s a good hours worth of walking. What a deal. What a community. And they are great people to be in community with. Some are a mess. Aren’t we all. I certainly am. Give me a mess any day. That’s where I believe some of God’s most amazing work takes place. Right in the middle of the mess. Yeah…give me the mess.

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)

God’s Window of Opportunity

As we geared up to make our 15-20 minute drive to our downtown meeting spot this morning, the rains fell off and on. More on than off actually. In fact, about 3:00 a.m. this morning, the rains came down pretty hard. My Cornhuskers have been losing in pretty impressive fashion the past few weeks and yesterday they experienced their worst home loss since 1958 , so it was only fitting to wake up to rain this morning. Now last week I mentioned how blessed we've been in this regard. Rain is good. But not when you are trying to serve a nice Sunday dinner to 150 or 200 folks on a given Sunday afternoon. And not when you are trying to meet those folks where they hang out most days. Outside. In a park. In downtown Omaha. That's when rain is not good. So today? Looked like it was going to be not good. As we loaded up and prepared to head out, the rain started to come down a little steadier. As we got about halfway to our normal spot? The rains picked up. As I looked out and around at the skies? Didn't look good. At all. We were pretty socked in and had some fairly ominous skies pretty much as far as we could see in most directions. And we have no protection for the serving tables. No type of canopy or anything of that nature. Each time I think about going out and getting one, I ask myself why? Do we not have faith that we can do this thing without cover? Does God not have us covered? Have we been rained out yet? Nope. Sure haven't. So would today be the day?

As we continued making our way downtown, the skies were really not on our side. But strangely enough, as we pulled up to our corner a funny thing happened. Now I'm telling you that if I were to ever question God on this whole outdoor ministry thing as far as weather was concerned, this would be the day. For sure. But as we pulled up? We get out of the van and it's still spitting a little. But then it broke. And stopped. For about an hour and a half, the rain stopped. It was overcast, a little chilly and definitely damp. But the rain stopped. God put out a cover for us. We prayed all the way down that he would let us get in and out and have a Sunday to remember. Of course He did. Doesn't he always?

And today was another birthday Sunday. We were able to celebrate birthdays in the park for those having October birthdays. May seem like not so big of a deal, but the folks on that corner sure seem to like it a lot. Heidi is a lady that we've known for a while now. Turned 49 on October 9th. Today she got to celebrate her birthday with a piece of cake and lots of friends. And lots of love. Because God was there. Blessing us with cover and love. Amazin'!

I was talking to another friend today. Ugu is his name. We've only known Ugu for a few months now. Shorter fellow, from Nigeria I believe. Thick accent. Always smiling. Just a great guy to chat with. After we put out the clothing and things, he came over with a pink stocking cap on. Getting a little colder here with each passing day. I kind of smiled and still do at the thought of him with that pink stocking cap on. Lots of these guys make me smile. In fact as I made my way through the line today greeting all of our friends, I was reminded of how these folks are generally in good spirits on Sundays. And they certainly have reason to not be. Lord knows they have reason. By choice or by circumstance, they have reason. But for the most part, as I have the luxury of making my way through the line and greeting each and every one of them, I almost invariably get a great handshake, a warm hug and a smile. And with the weather today and the possibility that we might get rained on, I wasn't even sure how many people would be there. All of 'em I guess. That line was long! And that was a good thing.

Back to Ugu. As he approached me in his pink stocking cap, he thanked me for all we do. All of us. As he was talking to me, I looked to the area where people are getting plates of food and I see people on the serving side of the table, shoulder to shoulder. It was so weird. It's like they compete to get a spot to serve. And most of them are there to serve because God told 'em, to. He's amazing like that. So as Ugu is talking to me, he thanks me repeatedly. As I always try to do, I tell him not to thank me, but offer thanks to God. Without Him, none of what we do is possible. None of it. And his response to me? I have to paraphrase here and I wish I didn't have to, because Ugu said it so eloquently. He said to me "Dave, you are Him. Because He created you in His image, you are Him. And you are here serving us. You are an image of God in what you do and how you show up every week and serve us, the poor and homeless." What do you do when someone says something like that to you? Besides being humbled? Beyond your imagination? I just smiled really, really big inside and thanked him. Because that is what it is all about. That someone could see God, through one of us, even on a cold, overcast, rainy and dreary afternoon. Even in the midst of what I imagine to be one of the more trying times in Ugu's life? That for a moment on a downtown corner, there would be a bit of brightness that would shine through one of the many people that serve in His name. And there was enough light to brighten that corner from about noon until around 1:30.

And then God said pack it up boys and girls. And the rains started up again slowly. We got our wonderful trailer packed up and I thank God for blessing us with that. What a blessing! And as we stood in the rain chatting with our friend Bill, who always makes sure to show up and hang around until the end, I was reminded once again how blessed we are to fellowship with our friends each Sunday. I am reminded of this often, but when we are standing on a corner and the rain is coming down and we're in no big hurry to leave? He's got us covered. He gave us an hour and a half to do His work today. I wanted more. Don't we always want more? He gives us just what we need. Always. People might think I'm crazy. But I know that He stopped the rain today so we could do His work. The look in Bill's eyes was priceless. We told him it rained on us all the way from our house to the downtown area. It stopped when we got there. It started up again when His work was completed. At least for this day, for us. What an amazing God we serve. Let me say that again. What an amazing God we serve. Thanks God for that window of opportunity today. It would have been easy to half step it. But not when we are serving You. No way. Thanks God.

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)

Community…

I am constantly and continually amazed at the happenings on our downtown corner each week. This morning we pulled up to that corner and it hit me just as it always does what is happening. Each week we have a brand new opportunity for fellowship with people who are ready and willing to hang out with a bunch of suburbanites. It's really strange if you think about it. Robin wrote something this week that explained it so well. 11 months ago? We knew none of these people. In fact, back then, if I would go out for a walk in the afternoon from my office, I would usually avoid them just so I didn't have to deal with the situations that would inevitably arise. You know...got a dollar? Got any change? I'd just as soon avoid the park in those days because I was always confronted with the inevitable. So what was I doing to make a difference for Christ? What was I doing from my nice warm, comfortable home in the United States of Suburbia to really go somewhere and tell people about a love like no other? What was I doing period? Nothing. In fact, I was avoiding the very people that Christ would probably seek out first. The least of those. The poor. The less fortunate. Created in the image of God. Such different circumstances than us, yet so unbelievably just like us. So what was I going to do about it? Well, 11 months later I'm still not sure we can answer that question and that’s probably ok. The beauty of it is that now when I go for a walk on a given afternoon, I go in the direction I avoided just last year. And what a community of individuals we've come to know in just under one short year. It doesn't seem possible that this has been happening for almost a year now. And you know what? I probably shouldn't say this so as to avoid jinxing our weekly outing, but we've not been rained out yet. We even had one of the guys call, give us a weather report of rain all day on Sunday, and ask if we were still coming? Huh? C’mon man. We’ve not missed one yet have we? Now that may not seem like a big deal, but it is amazing to me that not one time in the last year have we been shutout due to weather. We’ve seen blistering heat, arctic cold, blizzards and everything in between. But God has seen fit to allow us to get down there each and every week to fellowship with a community of people that continually amazes me. Now next week we’ll probably have torrential rainstorms, but I don’t think God believes in jinxes. :) And today? No rain. Just great community fellowship.

For instance, today I chatted with a young lady who is going in for surgery tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30. Tumor. Now this young lady was scared. I sat on a wall with her for a bit this afternoon and she was visibly scared. Playing with a plate of food as if she were a child. Pushing her food around and telling me about her situation and all the while, I’m thanking God for placing us in this position. Placing us in the position of sometimes simply being there to listen. Later on before she left, Robin and I prayed with her. The power of that moment is undeniable. The fact that we were blessed to be in a place to pray for this young lady is simply amazing to me.

I stand on that corner sometimes on Sundays and I look across the street at the office building I spend one third of my time in and I wonder if we can do more. Not necessarily from a physical standpoint. That’s important stuff. But from a spiritual standpoint. From an eternal standpoint. I mean, obviously we can do nothing in that regard except offer the window of opportunity. Be there to listen and pray. Offer a Bible to a fellow if the desire is there. I spoke with a friend today who is continuing to read a Bible that he got recently. He’s finished John and Galatians. He’s now reading Matthew. I asked him if that was something he would have been doing maybe a year ago. He looked at me for a minute and shook his head. Now what does that mean? I have no idea. Except that he’s now seeking a little more maybe. And if we can be there to listen occasionally and gently prod some folks in these situations, then you better believe we will. And this in no way diminishes the rash of issues that permeate that park. That corner. It’s almost like walking into a different world sometimes. Crazy. God’s world. Each of them and us created in his image. How amazing is that?!

One thing that I talked about last week with a couple of the guys was the growth that we’ve experienced. One of the fellows that come down on a pretty regular basis was asking how many people help each week. How many people do we bring down? You know what? We never count. Don’t have to. We make sure that the food preparation is taken care of and then we wing it. Every week. And every week we have at least enough people to make it work. If not more. This guy was reminiscing back to the first time we came down and I mentioned that seemed like a lifetime ago. And they were amazed at what it’s grown into. A community. Now the community was always there. Loosely. God just had a way of pulling it together for a couple of hours each Sunday. All we had to do was be available. Be the runners as my friend Bill says. While the park and that corner may have been new to us that day last November, this was where lots of these folks spent lots of their time. Lots and lots. When we showed up, word began to spread. God has a way of doing that. There’s no other way to say it. And now we have some of the most amazing people showing up for community fellowship and I am in awe of the things that are taking place. We are picking friends up at the shelters for group discussions and Bible studies. People that we didn’t know a year ago. Friends that we met on a corner in a park in downtown Omaha. We are attempting to share the love of Christ with our friends in a different type of community setting than I’ve ever been involved in. Yet somehow it works. Again, God has a way of making this work. Just needs vehicles. Runners. Legs. Hands and feet.

And now we are also involved with another community of people who God hooked us up with in a big way. Our Tuesday group at the Vine. A great group of people who seem to be on the very same tracks that we are on. Where will it lead? Who knows? But we’re on for the ride and it has been an amazing journey so far. Best thing we can do? Buckle up because it seems seat belts will be a community necessity for this trip. :)

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)