This past Sunday All Nations served a meal to the homeless of Oakland through City Team Ministries. This is a ministry that we have an excellent relationship with here in the community, and one of the directors attends our church. On every first Sunday of the month a group from the church buys and prepares a meal and puts on a worship service.
There can be anywhere from fifty to one hundred and fifty people in need of a meal on a given night. This last Sunday, in honor of the Superbowl, we made chili for everyone. This was a very special Sunday because not only did we have the priviledge of serving the meal but we also were able to watch the game with the guys. Alyssa, the director of City Team said to me, "This is really great because I have had a number of guys thank me for having a special event for the game. Day in and day out I don't get many thank you's, so this is a time to remember."
Not only does City Team offer meals, chapel services, and shelter to the homeless, but they have a in-house recovery program for those who want to put their life back together. Many of the guys in the program help us in the kitchen, and that in itself is a huge blessing to our church.
During this last meal I was able to me Puri from West Africa. He came up to me and was very upset about people's misconceptions about Africa. While explaining this to me he let me know that he has a masters degree in Chemistry. Needless to say I asked him if he heard anything in the message that night. And he did, he was angry that we would say God offers forgiveness to all these people, in his words they all deserve to die. And I told him that is the point. We all deserve to die, but instead of requiring our death God has given us an alternative. That is to trust in the death of Jesus Christ as the only thing that can make us right with God. He told me that he wishes we would be teaching children of the love of God and not these lost people. And I said to him, that no one is out of God's reach. Those that we may see as hopeless may be more near to God than we know.
Regardless of where we come from or where we are there are those people who we think are outside of God's reach. As a minister I think that I am just wasting my time with them. Thank God He doesn't think of anyone that way. Our job is to tell people about the love of Christ, we cannot change their hearts, but we serve a God who is able to change hearts.