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Serve, Love, and Live... right where you are!

Coming into this summer, I was unsure if I would make much of an impact or learn much at all. However, it is amazing to see how God is working providentially in my life this summer to grow and equip me.

            God has been reinforcing in me the lesson of “Serve, love, and live right where you are.”  Our weekly intern meetings are not the only places I hear this message.  Just this past weekend when I went to an alumni day event in L.A. as part of a conference I went to over 3 years ago called Wheatstone. I was not expecting the theme of the day to coincide so perfectly with what I have been learning. The title and theme of the day conference was “Where are you?” and the main text for discussion was the book of Esther. Though His name is never mentioned, God’s providence is striking in this book.  He places Esther exactly where she needs to be so that she can act to save the people of Israel.

Esther 4:14 “¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
At the day conference we started the day with the Jeremiah 29 emphasizing verses 4-7  “⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  This was the exact passage that I heard David Feiser preach on at Neighborhood Christian Fellowship that Sunday morning.

As someone who has had an eye on the foreign land for some time, this bombardment and repetition of the message of “live well now, right where you are” has been changing my perspective and helping me look at my community with new eyes and has made me recognize further that God has good plans for my life, and even if they don’t line up where I had intended, they will still be the best.

            I thought that this summer could end up being a summer of preparation for this next semester, but I think it is actually a summer of equipping for the rest of my life.

-Heidi Furlong

Waiting

There are these things called wait lists. We hear about them all the time in the homeless services world. There are wait lists for Section 8. Wait lists for permanent supportive housing. Wait lists for new buildings being opened up. The term is as common as is the concept of a homeless neighbor. But today the word wait list sounds different to me. Tony was on a wait list for housing. I met him last fall, when someone from a local health clinic called my work to alert us to the fact that their very sick patient was also homeless. Tony was very polite when I met him, laughing that he couldn’t see his tattered social security card without his glasses. You could tell he was probably handsome when he was younger. He told me his story, and we connected the dots. He was from Downey and regularly attended the homeless breakfasts at Calvary Bellflower. He had participated in the folk lift certification classes at Kingdom Causes, so he knew the office where I worked. He explained that he’d been homeless for the last two years, and that he was suffering from poor health; he had heart disease and cancer – specifically, brain tumors. The timing of our conversation was perfect. We had just received word that we were going to be able to receive a limited number of housing vouchers for homeless individuals who were also currently struggling with health issues. My meeting with Tony seemed providential. We immediately helped him to apply for housing, submitting his application within the week. We were elated at the possibility of being able to help a neighbor in need by ending his homelessness.  But then that dreaded word surfaced: wait list. These vouchers were supposed to materialize quickly, we were told, but likely as a result of sequestration, the process slowed. We counted Tony as one of the lucky ones; his application was submitted just before the door slammed shut. The answer for him, unlike so many others for whom we submitted, wasn’t “no”; it was “wait.” And waiting is better than nothing. …right? And so, Tony waited. He checked in with his case manager faithfully every week, to which we responded that we were still waiting. The excitement at the possibility of housing diminished, as we sent emails, made phone calls, and pushed on systems that did not give way. On August 8^th, 2013, while sleeping next to a friend, Tony died on the street of natural causes. He passed away quietly, resting on concrete. He was 51 years old. He was homeless. He was sick. He was on a wait list.

Waiting is an interesting thing. Sometimes we wait patiently, without perhaps even realizing we’re waiting – waiting for a change of luck, waiting for the seasons to change, waiting for life to perhaps get better. Mostly, I think, we wait impatiently. When will I lose that weight? When will I get that raise? When will I meet that special someone? My boss recently commented that perhaps we do not wait with enough anticipation, enough almost anguish for the arrival of what’s hoped for. He was referring to the stance of the church, waiting for its bridegroom Jesus to return. What should our waiting look like, he pondered? What would it look like to wait with hopeful anticipation, deeply desiring the arrival of something good for which we long? The conversation makes me reflect: what are the things that we are too impatient for – the fruits of change to be realized, things to be more comfortable for ourselves – and what things should we be more impatient to see come to fruition -  the arrival of justice in our cities, the realization of compassion in ourselves. Tony died waiting. I don’t know if he waited with patience, with hope, with dejection. And while he waited, we waited also. But did we wait in the right way? Did we pursue help for the helpless, to extent that we were able? I believe that we did. But what then, do we say, when all of our waiting, and all of his waiting, produces this result?

The only thing I can think of is a phrase that has never meant much to me before today: “Come Lord Jesus, come.” We are waiting for your Kingdom. And I know that next time I utter the prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” I’ll mean it even more than I did last time that I said it.

"I thought it would be like a soup kitchen"

When we hear the words of the Great Commission, to “go out and make disciples of all nations” Christians often overlook our own communities.

                  But there is a certain glamour attached to helping the homeless. There is a soup kitchen mentality that exists. Many believe that the best way to serve the homeless is to literally serve them.

                   But that is not necessarily what helping a homeless neighbor looks like. Any time we have an idea in our head of how helping someone will turn out, God will often remind us of how awfully small we are in comparison to the wonderful world he designed.

                  At my second community barbecue of the summer, the first one ever held in Downey, there was a picture in my head of what it would look like, although I knew that the results would be unpredictable.

                  But there were plenty of volunteers and the tables were lined with fresh, yummy food. So if I have volunteers, and if I have food, the homeless would just HAVE to come, right??

                  After 5:00 rolled around and people started to pack up and leave, a handful of homeless neighbors had come by. But the last thing I felt was disappointment.  Amazing things had happened in two hours. A group of people who would not normally spend a Friday afternoon together were able to enjoy each other’s company. A man who was struggling to get an ID who had never heard of Kingdom Causes Bellflower was interested in learning more about the opportunities that were available to him. People, both neighbors and volunteers, were able to reach out, build relationships with one another, and get a glimpse of God’s Kingdom in action.

I heard a group of volunteers discussing their disappointment by their less than warm and fuzzy hearts.

One muttered, “I thought it would be like a soup kitchen.”

The other day a friend of mine was at an event where samples were being given, and when he had more free samples than he could bear, he offered a homeless man on the street a bag of pretzels. The man turned the pretzels down, and my friend recalled he felt insulted that the man would not take his free pretzels, “when he didn’t know where his next meal would come from.”

We have this stereotype of homelessness. Hungry. Dirty. Drunkards and Druggies. And we have preconceptions of what “helping” them looks like.

Like any stereotype, these characteristics do at times apply, but there is no reason to justify mistreatment, judgment, or complete apathy because someone seems to fit into a certain group of people. Nor does it validate our self-righteous attitudes when we set out to help those who are homeless.

                  The volunteers at the barbecue and my friend at the street event exhibit this mentality that they are doing those who are homeless a favor through hand outs and pity.

                  When our “good deeds” don’t turn out the way we expect, we often feel disappointed and discouraged. But oftentimes our good deeds are not what are needed by the community.  It might take creativity and good listening to truly understand what is needed of you to build God’s Kingdom, but when we listen and are aware of one another through building relationships first to even begin to understand a need, amazing things can happen in a community.

It is crucial to remain not only humble and selfless but to remain flexible, and understand that God has a plan for the Kingdom that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

 -Shannon Turner