An Audience of One

Today was the last official outreach of Bridgebuilders 2009 - our outreach to Mechanicsville Christian Center, where we began. As you can probably tell, I now have full internet access and my apologies to all the blog followers for the lack of updates since last Tuesday...but, between having to use my Blackberry and the rigorous schedule God planned for us, there just was not adequate time to post all that has happened.

Since Tuesday, when we were at the farm, the BB team has been part of so many outreaches in Auburn and Syracuse. There was the Mercy Rehab Center, which had family groups come almost every day to dance and talk to residents there. Many of them were in wheel chairs, but our kids were awesome at getting right in there and just being a friendly face and companion. One of our kids actually prayed the salvation prayer with an elderly woman who said she "didn't have any friends." She met the best friend of all that day - Jesus. We shared cupcakes and juice, danced, ministered with puppets and just tried to be the light of Christ.

Then there was the Rescue Mission in Syracuse. My family group went for an entire day, while others went for partial days. We cleared a very long fence of lots of brush and vines - a lot of hard, sweaty work. We showered there (yay for private showers for the boys), ate lunch then worked the rest of the day serving dinner (a few hundred meals) and in their mail room helping them stuff their Christmas mailers. I can still hear the table of boys beat boxing while they stuffed!

A couple of family groups did a work project at Destiny Church - which turned into a 2+ day project to complete, largely due to some very stubborn wallpaper that needed to be removed.

Then there was the day we went out to do homeless ministry with Mr. Bennett. He took the Hart / Fowler group out, armed with pbj sandwiches, water bottles and a map of Syracuse. As we worshipped to music and began praying over this map, one by one our kids got a word from the Lord. "Pickwick Street," followed by "Apple and banana" and then finally "Jim." We took the long way to Pickwick Street by way of a huge park where our first block party was to have been the night before, but it was cancelled due to rain. On this morning, however, it was sunny and there was a group of boys playing hoops. So we "faked lunch" as Mr. B called it - we took our sandwiches and cooler out to the park and just started hanging out. The next thing you know, all the boys are eating, having a cool drink and listening to Mr. Hart share the gospel through his illusion skills. Then Adam and Kendall joined in a game of hoops, while some of us talked with other kids in the park. At the end of it all, a boy named Joey stayed back just to hear a little more about why we were there. Outreach right there in the park.

Finally, it was off to Pickwick Street. Two blocks long, fairly neat houses, not much to get excited about. We went to the cul de sac and got out in two groups to start praying. We were trying so hard to "figure out" what God was speaking to us...did that house look red like a tomato? Should we knock on the door? We spoke to a woman who was peeking from her doorway, but she didn't need prayer. We went further, praying. Brittany Cousins, who had the word for the street, declared "I just want to know why God sent us here!" So we all agreed with her and prayed that God would show us.

A little further, we asked a man sitting in his garage if he needed prayer...nope, he was good, he said. As we neared the front end of the street, where it intersected with the main road, all of us felt we should proceed to a store. In the small strip was a barber shop and an antique store, so we proceeded to the antique store. We buzzed the security button and entered, to find two men behind the counter. Brittany told them we were here to see if they needed prayer. One man, Lou, said "he was good"...a common theme on that street. The other man asked if we would pray because his mom had just died and his dad was not doing so well. "What's your name?" I asked. "Jim," he replied. I cannot really describe our reaction other than to say we suddenly KNEW we were having a very big God moment. As Brittany cried, I explained how we got there through prayer. After we prayed with him, as we were leaving Brittany told us that in the back of his store, on a table, was a plate filled with tomatoes and bananas. At that point, we all began jumping up and down and ran to tell the other group who was around the corner near the barber shop. Brittany grabbed Beth's hand to take her to meet Jim...that was her word from God. She cried, we all cried, and we rejoiced. Jim ended up coming out of the store to the van to talk with us, and he ended up giving us $60 toward whatever we wanted to do. We told him we would give it away and he smiled. When Jack Hart asked him how this affected him, to know God specifically directed a group of young people to his street, his store, himself just to lift up his needs in prayer, Jim said it encouraged him to be bolder in sharing his faith. As we debriefed in the van with Mitch, he reminded us that God chose this moment to show us very specifically that He is in our midst and He wanted to increase our faith.

The next day, our group had a very frustrating day working at the Chapel House, a homeless shelter in Auburn that had just gotten off the ground in January. We were supposed to paint, but nothing was going right. There were no supplies, and the room was too small for all of us to be in. We were impatient and just not getting things done. As we dedicated ourselves to cleaning the room and doing some other odd jobs in lieu of the painting, some of us were struck with the idea to give the $60 from Jim to this shelter. As we were leaving, we presented the $60 to Sandi at the shelter and Brittany told her the story of how we came to have that money. She was so delighted and thankful. I think we all realized that our purpose at the shelter that day was to see their need and give them that money...it wasn't really to paint, but to experience some of their pain and frustration and be a blessing. And the story will go on...we know that.

On Friday, we ended the week with a block party in Syracuse. Some might say it was unsuccessful because there weren't a lot of people there. But I know that there was at least one boy who prayed to accept Jesus for the first time. I know that a young man named Brandon, who I met in Syracuse at the Starbucks the day of the Rescue Mission, brought his small team of youth there to "see what Bridgebuilders was doing"...you see, he is part of a very young church called Missio Church...and they are all about a missional vision. I know for our team, they all got to dance together and experience ministry together as one big family. And I know that we made connections and impact that may only be revealed in Heaven. And we were all reminded that in everything, we have an "audience of One."