I have been involved in “vocational ministry” for thirty four years or so now. I was ordained a priest in Tobora, Tanzania 18 years ago….me, a white kid from West Hartford who grew up out of church, angry, abused, drinking and taking drugs before I was even in high school… This passage from perhaps THE classic devotional came to in the very first year of my ministry and it has guided me ever since. I give it to you.
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. — Luke 18:31
Jerusalem stands in the life of Our Lord as the place where He reached the climax of His Father’s will. “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” That was the one dominating interest all through our Lord’s life, and the things He met with on the way, joy or sorrow, success or failure, never deterred Him from His purpose. “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
The great thing to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfil God’s purpose, not our own. Naturally, our ambitions are our own; in the Christian life we have no aim of our own. There is so much said to-day about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament it is the aspect of God’s compelling that is brought out.
“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”
We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God’s purpose, we are taken up into God’s purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague. God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at. At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is — “I am meant to go here or there”; “God has called me to do this special work”; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big compelling of God. “He took unto Him the twelve,” He takes us all the time. There is more than we have got at as yet.
Oswald Chambers-My Utmost for His Highest
Last Week’s Update…stay connected!
Logistics
Served: 86
Last week's leaders: Ruth, Bryan
Next week's leaders: Kenny, Ruth
Gifts
Last week's: Socks
Next week's: Hygiene
Looking Ahead
Lunches were packed and loading was light. The Chinese Baptist Church had the full Yang family so lunches were packed for next week.
Service
I prayed hard all week for the service for peace. Randall did not show up and there were no distrupitons but there is one man of color who stalks after lunches waiting for seconds and his body language throws off an aggressive spirit. Krisha was having a slightly difficult time as he could not understand what the man was trying to say to him. The whole line was peaceful, no "mrs wonderful", perhaps I prayed her off?
I got down to Uhaul an hour early and there was no line and the system didn't freeze so I was out of the office shortly after 9. I had nothing to do so I slowly loaded half the van when Ruth and the Yang's showed up with Jen's parents. They finished packing and made lunches for next week. I gave the parents hats as it was their second time and told them we would get giving envelopes to them.
We got downtown early and I caught up with folks. I will say it often that I was simply doing a modified Street Church in Ukraine! We did not pass out food and we could not stick around for fear of being hit by drones but the reaching the lost and vulnerable with the costly love of Jesus was palpable.
Ruth led the service and had to leave early to attend a wedding (fair excuse!), but Ed was with us and he does a fantastic job of set up and breakdown and explaining what to do. His voice, height, and passion for the mission and Jesus are beautiful. Curtis was with us so I passed off the loading, Mommy Maria covered the food along with "Rev Kev" from River of Life Fellowship", Hollywood Liz was on Coffee, Micheal helped with the hand sanitizer and the young girl (forget her name) who comes with her mom and always hugs me asked if she could hand out communion.
It seems as if there was an organized scooter ride with a few hundred riders and cars with painful sound systems that went down main a couple of times. It was impossible to preach over so we had to wait and since it happened a few times I simply called folks in close and we could hear through the speakers. Ed read and we felt the Spirit in the words so praise and clapping arouse from the crowd and the Spirit fell on Ed! It was exhilarating! Al read too and two other and I unfortunately forgot.
I shared on my trip and tried to preach on the sending of the apostles and the noise made a mess but it seems as if God spoke. Then the noise.... just.... stopped as we broke into prayer circles, lots of them, deep in prayer. We had communion and lunch and it was a great day. As we were wrapping up a woman named Tracy showed up very quietly. Curtis asked if she was ok and the tears came thick and slow. She admitted she blacked out Friday night and woke up in the hospital being taken there by the police. I lived that story. She lost her keys and phones and needed a ride to her car. Cheryl talked to her and drove her.
a beautiful end to a beautiful day
b
Community Church updates!
No, Hannah did not just begin to crawl, but we did have to say “good bye” to our beloved sister, Brianna, who just moved on from her position at West Hartford Health and Rehabilitation. She was truly committed to the residents and Jesus and will be missed dearly by all.
Life changes when your kids can move! … Staff turnover is high in nursing homes making it difficult to maintain consistency. Please pray for her and for Paul, the new director, and Mary and I as we continue to worship Jesus with our friends.
The Street Church Collective Community
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West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church
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Bryan
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