This Sunday was a special time for me in the life of All Nations. I was able to reflect on what a privilege it is to serve our church body. During our service one of the guys who is involved with a recovery program called CityTeam was baptized. This guy and I have developed a great friendship in my time here and it was wonderful to participate in his baptism.

Brad, the guy who was baptized, has been very influential in getting guys from the program at CityTeam to All Nations. Many of the guys end up professing faith for the first time in their life. A few months ago Brad got his roommate Jeff to come. It happen to be on a Sunday I was preaching. After the service the two come up to me giggling like I had never seen. Jeff said to me. Mike I had no idea who you were. I just knew you from CityTeam, I had no idea you were a pastor, I thought you just came down and made meals for us. Brad now laughing, butted in, don't you get it, he knows you from CityTeam, normally people know us as the CityTeam guys and yet he knew you as the CityTeam guy. These two men and I stood there laughing, both of their faces weathered from a life of addiction, yet now they find joy in the pastor who does not fear being associated with addicts. What a great compliment, just by making a meal once a month and enjoying the guys from CityTeam, I now have the privilege of being know as a CityTeam guy.

This past Sunday was our night to do the meal. For a holiday weekend Karin and my schedule was too busy, and this was the last thing to do before I got to rest. I was exhausted, and it was an effort to go buy the food and leave for CityTeam without complaining. All we were doing is making sloppy joes and coleslaw for a bunch of homeless people. Making the meal and hanging out with people from church and the guys in recovery, made me forget my selfish attitude, or maybe it was just because the end was in sight. While we were serving the meal, a young guy named John and I started to talk. He looked at me and was very excited. He said, my favorite meal is sloppy joes, before I got into rehab I had my mother make me sloppy joes because I never thought I would get to have them again. I then asked him how long ago was that. He said four days! I told him to grab a plate and enjoy. What an great God we serve, a God who encourages people with sloppy joes, and reveals our shortsightedness and selfishness in a way that makes us love Him even more.