Miss Smith, through a series of horrible tragedies stretching across the years, lost all but one of her children. Penny is her only remaining child and her daughter is Alice. These two women have struggled with drugs and burned many bridges. Their eviction from Miss Smith's house is indeed a crises. Over the years New City Fellowship has spent hundreds of hours and dollars working with them. Much mercy and grace have been given.
However, on Monday, there were two desparate women who did not remove the things they wanted, and more importantly, did not want to leave. Andrew, acting on Miss Smith's behalf told us that everything had to go and we did. But Penny and Alice were "guarding" three rooms. We did our best to keep pulling as much as we could. There were multiple fridges, clothes, old furniture, and countless other abandoned and neglected items. The basement had, at one time, flooded. The smell was intense in some spots. We steadily filled the better part of the massive dumpster, even with Caleb and Brendon carefully maximizing the space.
In the pitch dark basement room we were cleaning out, Angela found a bag of what appeared to be coke and threw it out. The one light came unplugged and we stood in the darkness feeling not only uncomfortable, but realizing it was a picture of sin unchecked.
As the afternoon progressed Andrew said we needed to pull the air conditioners. I put my hand on it and Princess jumped up and yelled that I was NOT taking them. I called Andrew and he brought over Miss Smith. Things go even more tense as Andrew, Paul (another worker) and Miss Smith continued to make it clear, you are leaving and these are not your AC units.
I watched two desperate women curse out a kind godly woman who had done nothing but show love and care. It sounded like Jerry Springer, but was to me a picture of how humanity receives God's love through Christ. Mind you this woman is recovering from a heart attack she had two weeks ago. Andrew picked up one of the AC units and Penny snatched it out of his hands like it was a basketball. She threw it on the floor and sat on it. Andrew told Tom to shut off the power.
We were able to start emptying the final three rooms, but the hostilities continued. Penny made it clear that this had nothing to do with our group. But she continued to disparage Andrew for not being a Christian and for her mother being brainwashed. It took a while, but she played the race card against her mother. Andrew finally called the police.
They came and helped to de-escalate the situation. The final agreement was that they had to be physically gone after the mail came on Tuesday. The last angry threats I heard from Penny were to the effect that she was going to get power of attorney over her mother.
I asked Miss Smith on Tuesday what she did after the ugly confrontation. She said, "I came home said all my prayers and went to bed." The church's keystone verse is Micah 6:8, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and walk humbly before your God." From everything we see here, New City Fellowship and Restore St. Louis are indeed living out this verse.
It was a physically demanding day. It was hot, hard, and heavy work. But it was worth every sore muscle and nasty smell to be a part of the church truly being the church. In spite of the intensity, there was nothing sensational about this. I don't know where these women will end up. Sunday the pastor preached on how crisis is good, because it is the place where God can get through to us.
John chapter 1 says that when Jesus the Light and hope of the world came into the darkness of the darkness could not understand him. The same goes for every Jesus follower. To quote Andrew's favorite saying, "More Mercy."
However, on Monday, there were two desparate women who did not remove the things they wanted, and more importantly, did not want to leave. Andrew, acting on Miss Smith's behalf told us that everything had to go and we did. But Penny and Alice were "guarding" three rooms. We did our best to keep pulling as much as we could. There were multiple fridges, clothes, old furniture, and countless other abandoned and neglected items. The basement had, at one time, flooded. The smell was intense in some spots. We steadily filled the better part of the massive dumpster, even with Caleb and Brendon carefully maximizing the space.
In the pitch dark basement room we were cleaning out, Angela found a bag of what appeared to be coke and threw it out. The one light came unplugged and we stood in the darkness feeling not only uncomfortable, but realizing it was a picture of sin unchecked.
As the afternoon progressed Andrew said we needed to pull the air conditioners. I put my hand on it and Princess jumped up and yelled that I was NOT taking them. I called Andrew and he brought over Miss Smith. Things go even more tense as Andrew, Paul (another worker) and Miss Smith continued to make it clear, you are leaving and these are not your AC units.
I watched two desperate women curse out a kind godly woman who had done nothing but show love and care. It sounded like Jerry Springer, but was to me a picture of how humanity receives God's love through Christ. Mind you this woman is recovering from a heart attack she had two weeks ago. Andrew picked up one of the AC units and Penny snatched it out of his hands like it was a basketball. She threw it on the floor and sat on it. Andrew told Tom to shut off the power.
We were able to start emptying the final three rooms, but the hostilities continued. Penny made it clear that this had nothing to do with our group. But she continued to disparage Andrew for not being a Christian and for her mother being brainwashed. It took a while, but she played the race card against her mother. Andrew finally called the police.
They came and helped to de-escalate the situation. The final agreement was that they had to be physically gone after the mail came on Tuesday. The last angry threats I heard from Penny were to the effect that she was going to get power of attorney over her mother.
I asked Miss Smith on Tuesday what she did after the ugly confrontation. She said, "I came home said all my prayers and went to bed." The church's keystone verse is Micah 6:8, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and walk humbly before your God." From everything we see here, New City Fellowship and Restore St. Louis are indeed living out this verse.
It was a physically demanding day. It was hot, hard, and heavy work. But it was worth every sore muscle and nasty smell to be a part of the church truly being the church. In spite of the intensity, there was nothing sensational about this. I don't know where these women will end up. Sunday the pastor preached on how crisis is good, because it is the place where God can get through to us.
John chapter 1 says that when Jesus the Light and hope of the world came into the darkness of the darkness could not understand him. The same goes for every Jesus follower. To quote Andrew's favorite saying, "More Mercy."
No comments:
Post a Comment