One Sunday not too long ago, I made a decision to get more involved in my church and put myself out there in a way that I have not been in a long time. As a kid and in my youth (not that I am old now) I was heavily involved in several ministries at the church I attended but for the past couple of years I have basically been a back seat driver. Fast forward to 2012 and I have joined two ministries, one of which is more or less along the lines of a greeter, the other was the missions and outreach team. Yesterday was my first outing with the group, which I really enjoyed because it gave me a chance to experience something new. I am used to doing outreach and service on my own but to not with such a huge group of people. The purpose of the outreach was to pass out toiletries, blankets, hats, gloves and bags to those in need in the city. I was not quite sure what to expect from the whole experience, so I bought a couple of my friends along with me.
We took the metro to McPherson Square, arrived at the site of the outreach and waited with the group of Zion folks who were standing around waiting for further instructions. When we got to the park to set up, we noticed that we were at the site of Occupy DC. Interestingly enough neither one of my friends were quite sure what the whole phenomenon was all about, so I gave them my interpretation of the protest. The groups that are occupying different cities across the U.S.A are protesting against various injustices that are being committed against the American people. In particular, the 99% of the American public that can't defend itself from these crimes that affect their lives (i.e- the poor, the dwindling middle class, minorities etc). One main bone of contention with the protesters in my view is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at the hands of greedy politicians and corporate America, who are in bed together and seemingly working hand in hand to ensure that we become a nation of "haves and have-nots". In regards to the outreach my friends and I had a million questions. Who are these protesters? Did they have jobs or homes? Well to tell you the truth the group was a mixed bag of people that included the needy, homeless and actual protesters who left their normal lives to occupy D.C and apparently congress as well.
We begin to get the bags and toiletries from the church van and place them on the tables and as the occupants lined up, we passed out the bags. Even though I was more than happy to help the protesters of occupy D.C, my friends and I kept thinking about the various homeless men and women that we passed on the way to the park filled with protester's. Eventually we ended up passing out bags and toiletries to a large congregation of homeless men and women at Franklin Park about a block away from our original location. When we got to Franklin Park the group swarmed us as they reached out for the goods we had. I kind of felt like that is where we should have been in the first place. When we ran out of all the goods we had an interesting thing happened, we got rebuked by one of the homeless women in a wheelchair. When everyone was packing up and getting ready to go she asked "Is that it? "Aren't you going to pray for us or preach to us?" I felt super convicted after that because we all just stood there and had nothing to stay to that lady. As a matter of fact most people bounced on that note. I think at that point I really understood the importance of ministering the gospel and that more people are hungry for the word of God then we realize. I think I get the true importance of reaching souls for Christ first or at least planting a seed and then meeting the needs of the people.
*On a final note the highlight of my day was mistaking one of my fellow Zion helpers for a homeless person, lol.... The guy walked up to our table with three bags already in his possession and asked if he could have another bag. When a member of our team asked asked if we could give out more than one bag, the guy looked at us in utter disgust as he mentioned the fact that he was a member of our church, smh.... He then said "Would a homeless person have diamond earrings in his ears?" Absolutely priceless : ) Check out the pics below.
No comments:
Post a Comment