The First Church

On Wednesday night, we had our first shoe shiner church. In a word.... it was incredible! Randy has been growing real friendships with a group of shoe shiner guys for over a year now. Finally, at this point, we have decided to take our relationship to a new level. We had the meeting at the project building where the shoe shiners store their boxes, wash up and eat. This is a great location because of the convenience for the guys, and to meet and invite new people. Eleven of the guys showed up... honestly, much more than we expected. Randy taught out of Acts chapter 2, about the first church. For some of the guys, this is their first glimpse into the bible. For others, religion has been forced into their life, or has simply been a superficial tradition. At the start of the meeting, we asked all to leave whatever preconceptions they have about church at the door. Many have some very negative feelings toward the church. Religion around here has been made into a book of rules and a life of condemnation. From here we began to rebuild the name and the purpose of the church. According to the book of Acts, the church should consist of baptism, devotion to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, miraculous signs, a common interest, provision for all who have need, praise of God, and enjoyment of all the people. We hope to take the next several weeks to explain many of these characteristics. Some seem quite foreign to our little community.... but others seem remarkably familiar. The guys are already, in many ways, a family and a real communtiy. We break bread regularly together, we share common interests, and provide for the needs of the others in our community. We support each other by going to funerals together, by visiting family members in the hospital, and by caring for each other in times of heart ache. We do life together. Our new goal should be to turn this great love outward... to people outside of our community and to God. We also took some time to study a great command of Jesus - "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13) We discussed a real love, a crazy love, a love that is willing to value others as greater than ourselves. This really hit home with a bunch of the guys. Within the small group present, there was some real brokenness. Among the guys were Freddy and Ismael. Freddy has already been introduced to you. He is suffering extreme loss and heart ache. He was incredibly betrayed by his family... the ones closest to him. Now he suffers everyday to find hope in ever being happy again. Another one of our buddies, Ismael, works hard to support himself. His parents died when he was very young. About two weeks ago, his nephew had a tragic fall that caused incredible internal injuries. He spent over a week in the intensive care unit of the hospital. Ismael's sister had absolutely no way of paying the ridiculously expensive hospital bills. We've been able to step in and help them out as much as we can financially. Almost all of the guys have also contributed what they can to cover the bills. The guys truly act like a family when any member of the community is in need. It was truly incredible to see how the guys reacted to the living message of Christ. I can't hardly wait to see how the guys grow and change as they learn more about their creator that loves them so intimately. Wow.