The Lives We Live:

If you haven’t noticed already, many (and probably most future) posts are a touch outdated between authorship and posting. No worries though, as long as it heads out over the wire eventually.

We just finished our second week of lectures, which was focused on mercy ministries and the many ways that it could be displayed. The fella that came to teach has spent most of his recent time in ministry wandering between roughly 40 nations… we’ll just say he wasn’t in short supply of stories to be told.

This last Sunday we actually were asked to help out with one of the local homeless ministries as well (one of the students here actually organizes it). Initially they had asked for 2, but they ended up with 8 of us. I really had no idea what to expect going into it, but it was an incredible experience!

Honestly, it broke my heart in a lot of ways… surprisingly enough they asked if I’d stick around as security. Luckily nothing happened, but I guess they’ve had some issues in the past. The real kicker during the service was when the men (there may have been one woman out of the whole crowd), were asked to tithe!? At first I thought it was absurd, but as I saw each one take his place at the offering box… I was suddenly struck with the reality that this wasn’t just a beautiful example of sacrifice, but also a means to restore the hope and sense of humanity these folks had enjoyed so long ago. It was really sobering to witness the reverence some of those men had for that Sunday evening and what it represented. I may have served only a small role, but I’ll never forget how my heart was touched that day… ha, and I’m supposed to be the one helping!