Thanks Russ Cripps for inspiring me to share our story of hope from just a week ago….

What brought us to the homeless shelter originally stemmed from our small group series where we’ve been discussing the story of Job and suffering. Through the last 7 weeks we’ve talked about suffering and as we ended we decided to step outside our own lives and stories and get into the lives and stories of others who are suffering at a difficult time of the year in the hopes we could have our minds put into perspective.

We arrived at the FFCAU Emergency One Shelter just as the residents were eating their dinner. I was the first to arrive and as I lugged in my guitar and my nervousness in interacting with these people, I saw they kind of sized me up to see what I was there to do. Perhaps some of them thought, ‘great another church group here….what are they going to do to help me?’ As they finished their meal that another church in the area had prepared for them, the rest of our group arrived ready to hopefully be a blessing to these people. We didn’t come with much of a game plan other than to play some games, talk with them, and end the evening with some worship choruses with an acoustic guitar.

It was a tough room at first. I got the feeling they probably were thinking what were we there to do? They shyed away from us, and many of them very strongly chose to not participate in the games. One lady said she’d been walking all day and she was exhausted. I felt kind of shallow and kind of just wanted to move on to something more comfortable. We kind of ditched the other plans we had and just put the chairs in a circle, got the guitar out, and passed out some of the words of the songs we were singing.

Those on the couches sat back and read the words as we sang. We sang songs that spoke about God being a defender of the weak, and comforting those in need. We sang about God being our shelter, our fortress….and we ended singing about how MUCH God loves us and that his grace being like an ocean…deeper than us. One by one I saw every person in that room moved to tears as God’s presence ushered in a glimmer of hope into their lives. One lady in tears spoke about how she has been nobody her entire life, and just now she can say she’s been clean for 2 months, and she’s feeling that there is hope. One man said he could feel the love of God in the room, and another said every word was like a prayer he would pray to God. Another lady who had refused to participate begged us to keep the words with her so she could read them again and again, and one by one they all asked if they could please keep the words to the songs. You would think you had handed them an item of gold as they were so happy when we said, “Of course you can keep them!” The one lady then told us all she loved us and was so thankful we came and sang these songs to them.

Just singing to them about the hope in Christ cracked through the dry deserts of their souls and touched a place that nothing else could. We walked away from there feeling like we didn’t have to bring food, gifts, money, clothes….it wasn’t what they wanted. I think if we had showed up with those things, they probably would have though we were like every other charity, just handing them what we think they needed and then walking back to our own lives. In reality, we walked in there with nothing but hope afraid it wasn’t enough, but it was the very thing that they wanted the most. Hope is something that can keep them warm on a cold night, hope is something that can comfort them when they are all alone, hope is something very tangible - because without it they are they are one minute away from mental breakdown, one needle prick away from an overdose, they are one gunshot away from suicide.

Thanks for letting me share our story. I’m afraid it’s not over though. I feel drawn to go back to that place…and now I feel like I don’t have to have an agenda, schedule, or load of giveaways, I can just take the one thing that God has already given me, the thing I am meant to give to others to point them back to Him - HOPE.

2 Responses to “The BIG gift of….Hope”

1. Margaret Says:
   

   Jenny,
   I just read, re-read, and re-read again this wonderful account of what transpired that night. Please let me know the next time you want to go…I would love to be involved. I was unable to go last time due to my heavy work/school schedule…but I would love to participate in handing out some HOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. » A whole bunch of something (God), from a whole bunch of nothing (me) Says:
   

   […] hand in hand with perspective. Hope is everything. Without hope, there isn’t anything. Read a post I did in December on the subject of […]

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