Another vintage post from 2009. This blog turns 3 years old one week from today!!!
I woke up the morning of July 13, 1985 feeling awful, so I called in sick to my job at Color Tile. It was the best sick day ever! I sat and watched for hours as the greatest recording artists in the world came together in Philadelphia and London to raise money to fight world hunger at an event called Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldolf of the Boomtown Rats. During this day I saw The Who reunite; I discovered U2 for the first time; I saw Queen at the pinnacle of their performing power; and I saw many of the greatest rock stars of the past and present join in the finale in London. It was a great day. I couldn't help but wonder as I watched why these stars could put aside their massive egos and do this to fight hunger, while we in the church cannot even get past our petty denominational differences to follow the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 25. They made an attempt to feed the world while we argued about which soup kitchens were theologically and politically correct. They stirred people with their music to the point of fanaticism; why could we not do the same in the name of Jesus? Many of the artists that day were not Christians- in fact many were far from it. But the words of Do They Know It's Christmastime? are in some part the story of Jesus: "At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade... Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime!" Many years have passed, but the passion and compassion exhibited that day have never left me, and the finale still brings the goose bumps and reminds me that "all good things work for the glory of God." I have posted the video below for you to enjoy. Help feed the world by clicking here.
Showing posts with label Hunger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunger. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Yolanda & Richard
I have mentioned several times that during the Springfield years we became involved in a ministry called Our Fathers Table (OFT). OFT was the feeding program of High Point Urban Ministries, a coalition of faith-based organizations and churches that provided outreach to the homeless and under-resourced of our community. Beginning in 1988, we would take a group of five or six students and myself across town to work in the soup kitchen and serve lunch. A couple of summers we went every Friday; after that, we went every other Friday. Eventually Springfield Friends Meeting as a whole took up the ministry and started taking groups of adults on a regular basis. We would arrive a few hours before opening, make soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, set up the tables, wrap the plastic utensils, and then serve the meal when the patrons would arrive. We would also clean-up afterwards. I may not seem like much, but it was always very important to me that the students in our ministry learn to serve.
The director of OFT at the time was a fireball of a woman named Yolanda Jackson. A short, attractive Hispanic woman, Yolanda loved that ministry. She poured her life into the hundreds of people who passed through each week, often taking care of much more than just their hunger. She was a deeply spiritual woman who did what she did because she felt Jesus had called her to that work. She also ruled the place with an iron fist. People seldom got rowdy at OFT, because if they did, they knew they had to deal with Yolanda- and that was never pretty!
We often had interaction with the clients who would share lunch with us, learning their stories and sharing with them our faith and our lives. There was one particular individual who we all fell in love with, and for whom OFT had become both a home and a ministry. Richard would be there every Friday when we arrived, usually inside sweeping and cleaning the kitchen and taking out the trash. He was the only patron allowed in before the doors officially opened, because he would come in and work until it was time to eat. Richard was homeless, although he sometimes got to sleep at the house of a relative; he had some mild mental issues and a major speech impediment. You had to listen very closely to understand anything Richard was saying, and if he got excited you had no chance. Yet we spent hours talking and listening to Richard. We often gave him a ride after lunch to wherever he needed to go. We would bring him clothing and other things when we could. For us, Richard became the official "mascot" of OFT. Through him we could relate to many of the issues that faced everyone who stopped in for lunch. For those few years, Richard made a major difference in our lives and in the ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting.
Today on my Lenten devotional blog, The 40 Day Adventure, I challenge us all to live out Matthew 25:31-46; to reach out to those who are hungry, naked and sick, and to do so in the name of Jesus. Every time I donate a can of tuna or some used clothing, I remember Yolanda and Richard and the impact they had on my life. As so often happens in ministry, I am sure they influenced us much more that we did them...
Because of Jesus,
The director of OFT at the time was a fireball of a woman named Yolanda Jackson. A short, attractive Hispanic woman, Yolanda loved that ministry. She poured her life into the hundreds of people who passed through each week, often taking care of much more than just their hunger. She was a deeply spiritual woman who did what she did because she felt Jesus had called her to that work. She also ruled the place with an iron fist. People seldom got rowdy at OFT, because if they did, they knew they had to deal with Yolanda- and that was never pretty!
We often had interaction with the clients who would share lunch with us, learning their stories and sharing with them our faith and our lives. There was one particular individual who we all fell in love with, and for whom OFT had become both a home and a ministry. Richard would be there every Friday when we arrived, usually inside sweeping and cleaning the kitchen and taking out the trash. He was the only patron allowed in before the doors officially opened, because he would come in and work until it was time to eat. Richard was homeless, although he sometimes got to sleep at the house of a relative; he had some mild mental issues and a major speech impediment. You had to listen very closely to understand anything Richard was saying, and if he got excited you had no chance. Yet we spent hours talking and listening to Richard. We often gave him a ride after lunch to wherever he needed to go. We would bring him clothing and other things when we could. For us, Richard became the official "mascot" of OFT. Through him we could relate to many of the issues that faced everyone who stopped in for lunch. For those few years, Richard made a major difference in our lives and in the ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting.
Today on my Lenten devotional blog, The 40 Day Adventure, I challenge us all to live out Matthew 25:31-46; to reach out to those who are hungry, naked and sick, and to do so in the name of Jesus. Every time I donate a can of tuna or some used clothing, I remember Yolanda and Richard and the impact they had on my life. As so often happens in ministry, I am sure they influenced us much more that we did them...
Because of Jesus,
Thursday, October 29, 2009
July 13, 1985
I woke up the morning of July 13, 1985 feeling awful, so I called in sick to Color Tile. It was the best sick day ever! I sat and watched for hours as the greatest recording artists in the world came together in Philadelphia and London to raise money to fight world hunger at an event called Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldolf of the Boomtown Rats. During this day I saw The Who reunite; I discovered U2 for the first time; I saw Queen at the pinnacle of their performing power; and I saw many of the greatest rock stars of the past and present join in the finale in London. It was a great day. I couldn't help but wonder as I watched why these stars could put aside their massive egos and do this to fight hunger, while we in the church could not even get past our petty denominational differences to follow the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 25. They made an attempt to feed the world while we argued about which soup kitchens were theologically and politically correct. They stirred people with their music to the point of fanaticism; why could we not do the same in the name of Jesus? Many of the artists that day were not Christians- in fact many were far from it. But the words of Do They Know It's Christmastime? are in some part the story of Jesus: "At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade... Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime!" Many years have passed, but the passion and compassion exhibited that day have never left me, and the finale still brings the goose bumps and reminds me that "all good things work for the glory of God." I have posted the video below for you to enjoy. Help feed the world by clicking here.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tony Campolo Stories, Part 1
I have mentioned the name Tony Campolo several times already over the course of this blog, and it is a name you will hear several more times. Tony is a preacher, speaker, professor of sociology and story teller supreme, and I came to know him through my participation in the National Youth Workers Convention. His stories are legendary, and often a bit hard to believe. In more recent years his adult son Bart was asked if his dad's stories were true, and Bart famously responded "Yes, they are true- it's just that dad remembers BIG!" The story you are about to hear, however, I witnessed in person. And it is still hard to believe...
After hearing Tony in Dallas in 1982 I began to push to have him as a speaker for our Young Friends Yearly Meeting sessions. This surprised a number of people,as Tony was well known as a strongly evangelical speaker and this went against type for me at the time. Having heard him in person, however, I knew he spoke of Jesus in real terms and challenged you to follow Him in real ways, not simply by responding to an altar call. He once described altar calls by saying "people walk down the aisle to Just As I Am; they kneel just as they are; and they go back to their pew just as they were!" They booked him for August, 1984, by which time I was no longer working at QLC or at New Garden, but I attended a few sessions just to hear Tony speak. One particular night a crowd of youth and adults flooded Sternberger Auditorum on the campus of Guilford College to hear him. What he said that night he had said before, in other places. But for anyone who was there, it was unforgettable!
He spoke of God's love and grace, and he spoke of how only Jesus can bridge the gap between our sins and God's love. He spoke of our responsibilities to feed the hungry, take care of the homeless and to be peacemakers. He spoke of how he felt the church was too busy "majoring in the minors" and not busy enough doing the work of Jesus in our world. And then he drove it all home! As the crowd gave him "amens" and "yes, brothers" he stopped, and then started again with the following words: "But we don't really care about our brothers and sisters around the world, do we? Over 3000 (number is not exact) children starved to death in the world last night, and you people don't give a sh*t!" He paused again, and the air simply left the room as people gasped upon hearing such a word in such a place. And then he nailed us all. "And what's worse is that you are more upset that I just said sh*t than you are that 3000 children starved to death last night..." Half the audience roared their approval as the other half sat in stunned silence. It was a moment that helped define my faith and the direction of my ministry in the years to come. I was determined not to "major in the minors." Pointing students to Jesus was really all that mattered; language and politics and everything else simply were not important. What many people don't know is that the following day Tony did a youth ministry workshop which featured a section in which he taught us "if you can't hear the word sh*t without throwing a fit, you have no business working with teenagers!" All in all it was an adventurous few days.
My life was about to take some major twists and turns, and I would not be doing any actual youth ministry until December, 1985. God had lots for me to learn in the meantime, and my education had begun with Tony. I was always so proud of the fact that I was the instigator who brought him to NCYM for those sessions; he has since been back a couple of times. And Tony was not nearly done with my life- he would later dance on a table while I sang- but you'll have to keep reading to get to that story! It was time for me to take my twin passions of Jesus and social justice and see where God would lead me- and the journey was about to get weird...
Because of Jesus,
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