The Church needs to stop serving to and start serving with!

Last week Atlee Community Church - Northminster Campus played host to 38 homeless women for a week.

We hosted Caritas (The local homeless shelter) for women.

It happened rather quickly because Caritas had not found a church to partner with for that particular week.

I received an email while on vacation, so there was very little I could do being out of the country.

Gina (my assistant) and Charles (my best friend) stepped up to make it all happen.

I came home mid week to find out how great things were going.

The first night or so the ladies were given the opportunity for the very first time to cook their own meals.

This is somewhat of a foreign concept to most churches. 

We the church want to serve to/for someone, but not with someone.

The church always serves the meals.

New concept; ask the ladies if they want to prepare their meals?

The ladies absolutely loved it!

Volunteers came to participate and I was told they couldn't tell who was who.

That's a beautiful thing.

Another learning point came when circumstances forced us to put the ladies in four separate rooms instead of the usual one large room like the gym.

Guess what?

The ladies loved the rooms.

They felt as if they had some privacy.

That morning Charles and I were planning the next time we would host Caritas.

We figured we would put them all in the gym because it was easier for us.

We were not thinking from the women's prospective.

Guilty as charged.

We need to think from their perspective not ours.

Every evening a few ladies would come back early from their day and help prep the food for that night.

I learned a lot from this experience.

We need to think differently about how we serve one another.

We need to make respect and dignity a part of how we serve.

We need to stop the model of to and for and start with a new model of with.

Tomorrow I will share how one ladies life from last week is now totally different.

She's not in the shelter any more!

My Prayer Annex

I started about a week ago on a new part of my prayer drive. The newest section includes Barton Heights.

The first day of the drive I went down Norh Ave towads Gilpin Court around 6:30am.

I noticed a strange man looking at me as I drove by. He had some personal issues.

I turned on Poe St and drove past Marti and Louis' house. No one seemed to be stirring there!

When I came back around to go back up North Ave I drove past the stranger again.

I then passed by Charles' house as I was looking towards the other side of the street.

It wasn't 10 sec later that my phone rang and I heard that dstinct deep voice. "What are you doing, a drive by in the hood?"

It was my best friend Charles, who was sitting out on his front porch watching some old white dude driving past him!

We joked on the phone and I told him about the guy I saw.

Charles knew him and said to stay away! 

It's a good thing to get local intel from a insider.

Today as I drove through Barton Heights, there was Charles sitting on his front porch!

He yelled across the traffic to me as I came to a stop. He said he had a new toy to show me.

He was very excited about his new phone! He had just gotten an Iphone!

The other phone was very archaic with todays standards, a flip phone.

The funny thing about Charles he said "I threw out the instructions!"

He didn't know how to completely operate the phone. I wasn't much help since I am an Android user.

We lauged alot and then I drove off.

How cool is it that I now have a great frend to talk with in the hood at 6:30 am on my new prayer annex!

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