Tico Tuesday, May 17th

Happy Tuesday to you!

This past Saturday, the young adult ministry partnered with the ministry from church that provides a meal and Christian teaching for the homeless every other weekend. I'd heard a lot about this ministry, but never had participated. It was a really interesting experience. Of the approximately 40 people there, only one was a woman, and she had a little girl with her. All the rest were men, a few young ones, but I suspect most were between the ages of 40 and 60. The vast majority of them, if not all of them are substance abusers. Some were quiet, some almost started throwing punches at each other at one point, some reeked, some looked quite well taken care of for living on the street. We shook all their hands as they came in, and as I watched them while we sang and listened to a woman share how God changed her life and helped her get and stay off the streets for good. And the thought that came to mind was: These are the least of these. These are the ones Jesus would rub shoulders with were he to walk the earth today. Jesus loves these people just as much as he loves me. Jesus died for these people too. The homeless generally don't have much dignity. It's easy to pass them by, ignore them, judge them. But, they have names, personalities, and stories that people in my church are getting to know. And not long ago my church assumed responsibility for a drug rehabilitation center that's about an hour away. The goal is that we can use this biweekly ministry as a bridge to send people to the rehabilitation center. It's really exciting! Please pray for God to transform the lives of these homeless men and women and for them to experience true freedom and love in him--and for me to see and treat them more like Jesus.
May God continue to use us to be his hands and feet!
Carrie