It's been awhile. Much too long. Maybe this Spring Break was the kick in the pants I needed to get going again. A much needed change to catalyze a transformation. You see, we're always transforming. My goal is to be transforming to be more like Jesus. But I could just as easily (much more easily, actually) be going the opposite direction. Transforming into something less and less like Jesus. Not what I want.
Enter CityLights, a Spring Break (and summer) program in St. Louis structured to show college students God's heart for the poor and His desire to see every people group reached and loved. A program designed to develop relationships. A program designed to make you uncomfortable. If nothing else, it should certainly succeed in the final aim.
We drove down Saturday morning and were introduced to the facilities, staff, and each other. Sunday morning, we went to the church with which CityLights partners. New City Fellowship is, I suspect, unlike any church you've ever been to. When you're at your church, and you look around at the people sitting near you, they probably look like you. Not so at this church. Its goal is to be multicultural. There is a beauty there. The church is trying to emulate the Holy Trinity in its diversity and unity. Of course it's broken. But the effort and desire are there. The worship was led by Africans in Swahili and French. The message was delivered by a man from Congo (or at least that's what sticks in my brain. I could be wrong on that). Later on in the week, we heard from a white pastor and a black pastor. This church has a substantial population of refugees from several countries. It is living out the Great Commission, which we shouldn't forget explicitly states all nations.
After church, we each went home with a family who had prepared lunch for us. The Baum family took us home to a neighborhood from which they could have afforded to move (many in this church choose to live in these neighborhoods). They introduced us to their nine children currently living in their home; seven were adopted (about a quarter of the church adopts). Wow. That's a couple of huge sacrifices. They were fun kids, mostly well-behaved. But you know there are difficult times. No matter how good kids are, they're still kids. And having nine under your roof only multiplies problems. But they do it for the Lord. They love those kids.
Monday through Thursday was focused on work during the day and learning/teaching/worship in the morning and evening. The whole week, I was working on two urban farms in the city of St. Louis. The first farm was a berm farm. We weeded, moved bricks and plastic, cleaned up, and generally prepared the farm to be utilized by refugees from various countries. The refugees take a farming class from our supervisor to learn to grow crops for themselves and to sell them at the market. The second farm (I was only there the last day) was a raised bed farm for the same organization that we were turning into a berm farm.
The second day at the farm, a family from Jordan who had been through the program came to visit. They had made us baklava and wanted so much to give. That was powerful. On the third day, a group traveling to media conferences around the country volunteered with us for an hour or so. This normally wouldn't be especially interesting, but one of the women was from the United Arab Emirates, and one from Estonia. The three men were from England, Iraq, and Bhutan, and one woman was a professor at the University of Iowa. They told me I was too young to get married, but it was interesting to talk to them nonetheless, as I had never previously met anyone from four of those countries.
The service was awesome. The ability to do God's work by helping refugees put their lives back together after having fled their countries was as valuable to me as I assume it will be to them. You can imagine that the preaching we heard each day was powerful as well. God's heart for the poor and oppressed is all over the Bible. Even though many churches avoid this, there is no escaping it. We're called to take down walls that have been built between cultures for millennia and build bridges between them. You can bet there will be people of all nations, tribes, and tongues praising God together in Heaven. Why not start now? The person least like us is also made in God's image. When we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit prisoners, and house the homeless, we are loving Jesus (Matthew 25:34-40).
In Micah 6:8, we are called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Act justly by treating others fairly in every aspect of life. Take an active role when you see injustice. God calls us to pay special attention to the orphan and widow, the poor and the alien (James 1:27, Jeremiah 22:16, Leviticus 19:33-34). Love mercy by showing compassion to all, even those that deserve the opposite and to our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45, Romans 12:17). Walk with humility. We have no use for pride or arrogance. Without God, we can do nothing (John 15:5). We must acknowledge our need for God, and act out of love and awe for His power, not our own. We have the freedom to boast in our weakness because God glorifies himself through our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Let us act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, praising His Holy name when we succeed and crying out for forgiveness through Jesus when we fail.
