Paying it forward….

What a crazy day!! The weather must bring out craziness this time of year. We had a great day of weather today and lots of craziness! Must have been all the way up in the 40s!! Heat wave for us! :) And muddy. Nick and some of his buddies were playing football on the corner in the mud. The snow was melting today just in time to make one big fat mess and just in time for a new, fresh coat that has been forecast for tomorrow. Nick and his buddy John were a complete mess by the time we left that corner today. It’s tough for me because I have to balance being a dad and trying to make sure that it all goes off without a hitch. The dad in me wants him to stop getting so darned muddy every week, but the kid in me remembers the fun. And our friends seem to love watching the kids play. Now we have lots of help when it comes to pulling this thing off every week. Most especially from God Himself, and also from all the great people that give up their Sunday afternoons to come and help. What an amazing group of people. What I’m finding anymore is if I just stay out of the way, things go pretty well! :) Great group of people all the way around.

This morning, Channel 6, the local NBC station, came to our house to do a story. A few weeks back, they ran an event in which 6 people or groups would receive $1000 grants to do their part to make the community a better place. Paying it forward, they called it. So Robin put together a voice over for one of our current videos, minus the music and she and the kids stated our case. People helping People, they called it. Well the day of judgment came and went and it looked like we would fall into the also-ran category. But a simple email told a different story. They had indeed selected our group as one of the six to receive the grant. The idea? How can you take the money, make it grow, and in turn, use it for the good of the community? So lots of people have come up with great ideas to grow the money. The next few months should be interesting. We have our work cut out for us. But the good thing is we have the Lord on our side. And with that? All things are possible. What an awesome opportunity!

So this morning, Tracy Madden and her photographer show up to see what happens at our house on a Sunday morning. It was pretty cool having them here. They got footage of the kids doing their thing, asked lots of questions and captured our activities for, I believe, the Tuesday (2-26-08) 10:00 p.m. newscast. The other cool thing is they came down and filmed our activities on the corner of 14th and Douglas. Several interviews later, they were gone. Should be interesting to see how it comes out. The idea, from my perspective is to once again raise a little awareness. Anyone that wants to come and help is always welcome. Anyone that wants to come and serve, be served, whatever, all are welcome.

Today’s cast of characters, in regards to other memorable happenings, once again from my perspective, were Tom and Mary, Mustafa and one other fellow whose name escapes me. The one thing that the temporary break in the weather did was bring out some of our friends who had been hibernating for the winter. People we hadn’t seen in weeks showed up today. Andrew, Courtney, Johnny D, and lots of others. Haven’t seen Johnny in months and here he was today. And shocked that I remembered his name. That always cracks me up. Some of the guys that we’ve come to know are funny that way. Remember a guy’s name? Man, that’s almost instant street credibility with some of these guys. So Johnny was shocked that I remembered him after all this time. The thing he fails to remember is I went to grade school with his niece. That kind of connection makes it a little easier to remember a guy’s name.

So at one point, as things were winding down, a fellow shows up with a split lip. I mean a nasty, split lip. He wasn’t feeling too much pain anyway, but it was a pretty bad gash. Someone had just clocked him and he was bleeding pretty nicely. Now we’ve never had a fight on our corner (yet) but this guy was as close as we’ve come. It actually happened a couple of blocks away. So we’re trying to help him get cleaned up a bit. Right about that time, Mustafa wanders up. I’ve seen him before, but this was the first time I’ve talked to him. And a first happened for me today. Stay with me here. Mustafa and the other fellow almost got into it and I’m once again running interference. Minor skirmish. No harm, no foul. So Mustafa is from Africa. Older fellow, probably in his late 50s? As the dust settles, he grabs my hand and say come on. In a bit of a hurried walk down the sidewalk, he’s leading me somewhere. I stop him after about a half block and ask him where we are going? He says he has a bottle down around the corner and he’s going to give me a drink!! At thing point I’m laughing pretty well. No thanks Mustafa. No drink for me. And it was almost like he caught himself and immediately starting calling me pastor. He speaks with a very thick accent and very fast. Have to really focus to catch what he’s saying. So he looks back toward the van and trailer and it dawns on him that we probably aren’t going to be having a drink on this Sunday afternoon. Not the two of us anyway. And he must have said the word pastor 20 times. And I laughed with him and told him 20 times no. Not the pastor. Just the messenger my friend. In his mind, we were going to knock one back. I’ll pray for him instead.

I got a chance to pray with Tom and Mary today. Now that was an opportunity. Tom is a guy I’ve mentioned before. Was in an auto accident and lost his family and his eye. Wanted to show me his glass eye once. I declined. So they are having a tough time, but they want to change. Mary told me she “loves her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ”. If she said it once, she said it 5 times. Tom seems to have a pretty severe problem with alcohol. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him sober to be honest. But Mary seems to be one that might be strong enough to kick him square in the rear and get him going. Who knows? We had a great conversation around that and he told me that he wanted to change. It was a chance for me to be intentional and let him know that he had to do it. Not just talk about it. And he needed the Lord. They promised to come to our Bible Study on Tuesday. We prayed about it all. The desperation with some of these folks is so apparent at times. They want out. But how? Obviously not alone. We are getting chances now to be so much more intentional about our faith and our love for Christ with folks. It was an amazing opportunity for me with Tom and Mary. They couldn’t get enough of it. I couldn’t get enough of it. It was good. I pray that they make it out of the shelter and into housing. The road ahead for them is impossibly full of obstacles. The kind of obstacles that deter folks from making it. But with the Lord.? They have a chance. I’ll pray for that.

So are we paying it forward? I certainly hope so. Time will tell. A weird thing had been happening for me as of late. A bit of complacency had crept in. Partly, I think, because of the want to just get through the winter. Winters here are tough. The physical needs increase dramatically. So it seems at times as if lots of or time is spent tending to those physical needs on a Sunday. People seem to want to eat and run, so to speak. I can’t blame ‘em. The relational needs are still there, but they tend to get brushed back a little. The nice thing? They know we are coming. When it’s 10 below zero? Not much relational stuff happening at that temp. When the thermometer gets above freezing? We get lots more opportunities. The cold winter months allow us the chance to be there no matter what. The coming spring and summer months will allow us the time to go deeper. Be more intentional even yet. I look forward to the coming months. Can’t wait to pay it forward a little more. We’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed. Not a week goes by that I don’t realize how blessed I am in a ministry such as this. Profound things are happening in my family and in my life. For that reason alone, I have to pay it forward.

Peace and have a great and blessed week!

…”it matters to that one”… :)