The risk of ruining darkness
From an email to some friends:
I had an interesting experience yesterday. You see, every year our youth choir does a mission trip in the early summer. They go somewhere and not only do they perform evening concerts, but during the day they hold backyard bible club type gatherings, or sometimes something akin to a school carnival. Next Saturday, we're changing tactics slightly. We're doing it here in our own mission field. One of the Niceville schools has given us permission to use their pavillion on Saturday night. This school is in our most impoverished neighborhood. Trailer parks, tiny old homes with poor upkeep, lots of crime and lots of darkness in that area. We'll do a carnival with games, face painting, balloons, stuff like that. There will be a free meal served. And our kids will do a concert that presents the gospel. This all happens on Saturday.
Yesterday, however, we canvased the neighborhood in small groups and handed out personal invitations to the event. A clear plastic bag with a light bulb (yes, useable!)and a written invite with a fridge magnet stuck on the back. The theme is "Illuminate the Night", which is why the light bulb. I drove a van load of girls to our designated street, coached them, split them into 2 groups of three, and sent them to the doors of two of the nicer-looking houses to start. I stayed on the sidewalk with the box of bulbs where both the girls and the people they were talking to could see me, but where I wouldn't interfere with a direct invitation from the students. I think some of them were surprised that Niceville had neighborhoods as bad as some we found tucked back in alleys and side roads. They're used to it being, well, NICE. We hand-delivered our lightbulbs, leaving them on doorknobs if nobody was home. We couldn't find one area at all, but we did find a small trailor park that wasn't even on the map. We ventured in...I'm not sure anyone spoke English back there. We approached a group of young hispanic men sitting at a table in a trailer yard who were very enthusiastic to see us and had been waving at us. This was one of those rubber-hitting-the-road kind of things. A group of them sitting at a table drinking beer, grinning like a bunch of lechers at my group of teen girls (all of the girls blonde except for one who has a latino background herself and is drop dead gorgeous). One started whipping out his wallet when we approached. I looked at my girls and said ok, you see what this is. I'm right here with you, do not bat an eye at the beer bottles or the bad behavior. Go invite them. And bless their hearts, they did. From 15 feet away, which was wise, but they smiled politely and gave the invite, walked up and handed them a lightbulb package, and gracefully exited the scene. Honestly, I"m not sure Pedro's cousins understood a word they said! But it doesn't matter. Those girls did not let fear stop them from doing what they came to do. I was very proud of them.
Yesterday I was speaking on the phone to one of the friends who received that email. "You know people are going to think you are crazy, taking kids into an environment like that and doing things like that! Typical church women are going to say things like 'Don't you know that's not safe? Someone could get hurt! It's unwise! It's too risky! It's dangerous!' You know this, don't you?" My friend wasn't being unsupportive...she was just reminding me how these things look through a worldly lens.
Yes, I know it. Not that it matters.
Before they went out that afternoon, I spoke to the youth choir as a whole. I talked about how the characteristics of God's personality were in them because that is one of the things the Holy Spirit does for them--He gives them the choice to choose God's personality instead of their fleshly one. God's personality expressed through them would never be one of fear or judgment. I told them that if they walked up to some trailer and the door opened and cigarette smoke rolled out, they were not to bat an eye. If there were beer bottles all over the porch, they were not to bat an eye. The man (or woman) who answers the door is head to toe in tattoos, don't bat an eye. Someone is inside screaming at their kids...someone cusses a blue streak...someone yells at you to go away...do not bat an eye. Be polite and respectful no matter what.
It is not up to us to decide who is fit to hear the gospel. It is not up to us to decide who God wants to reach. The Great Commission says to go into the world. Well, what is it we expect the world to look like? The world is lost, so why should we be offended when they look and act lost?
That table of migrants acted lost. Let's face it--the highlight of their day was a bunch of teen girls coming by their dilapidated trailor park while they sucked down a few cold ones. How sad is that? But their behavior was total proof that this was who we were trying to reach. For a few minutes last Sunday afternoon, light split the darkness in that trailer's yard. Was it worth the risk that something could have happened to one of those girls? Totally. Sharing the gospel always carries a risk in the natural realm. A person could be rejected or outright persecuted. There could be physical harm to an innocent party. But look at the risk of not sharing the gospel. Look at it through spiritual eyes. We're talking about people's eternities, here. This is serious stuff. Life and death...eternal life and eternal torment. Jesus knows all about that physical harm to an innocent party business. He will take care of us, and nothing can happen to us that will thwart His will--even if what happens appears to be bad.
Saturday is the day we do this carnival/concert thing. For a few hours we'll step into a full ambassador role with the goal of showing love to a neighborhood that usually gets its attention through shout-outs in the police blotter section of the paper. I'll be cheerleading like mad, encouraging each student to step out of their false comfort zone to show respect and affection to people who frankly are not used to receiving it. It's going to be interesting.
I had an interesting experience yesterday. You see, every year our youth choir does a mission trip in the early summer. They go somewhere and not only do they perform evening concerts, but during the day they hold backyard bible club type gatherings, or sometimes something akin to a school carnival. Next Saturday, we're changing tactics slightly. We're doing it here in our own mission field. One of the Niceville schools has given us permission to use their pavillion on Saturday night. This school is in our most impoverished neighborhood. Trailer parks, tiny old homes with poor upkeep, lots of crime and lots of darkness in that area. We'll do a carnival with games, face painting, balloons, stuff like that. There will be a free meal served. And our kids will do a concert that presents the gospel. This all happens on Saturday.
Yesterday, however, we canvased the neighborhood in small groups and handed out personal invitations to the event. A clear plastic bag with a light bulb (yes, useable!)and a written invite with a fridge magnet stuck on the back. The theme is "Illuminate the Night", which is why the light bulb. I drove a van load of girls to our designated street, coached them, split them into 2 groups of three, and sent them to the doors of two of the nicer-looking houses to start. I stayed on the sidewalk with the box of bulbs where both the girls and the people they were talking to could see me, but where I wouldn't interfere with a direct invitation from the students. I think some of them were surprised that Niceville had neighborhoods as bad as some we found tucked back in alleys and side roads. They're used to it being, well, NICE. We hand-delivered our lightbulbs, leaving them on doorknobs if nobody was home. We couldn't find one area at all, but we did find a small trailor park that wasn't even on the map. We ventured in...I'm not sure anyone spoke English back there. We approached a group of young hispanic men sitting at a table in a trailer yard who were very enthusiastic to see us and had been waving at us. This was one of those rubber-hitting-the-road kind of things. A group of them sitting at a table drinking beer, grinning like a bunch of lechers at my group of teen girls (all of the girls blonde except for one who has a latino background herself and is drop dead gorgeous). One started whipping out his wallet when we approached. I looked at my girls and said ok, you see what this is. I'm right here with you, do not bat an eye at the beer bottles or the bad behavior. Go invite them. And bless their hearts, they did. From 15 feet away, which was wise, but they smiled politely and gave the invite, walked up and handed them a lightbulb package, and gracefully exited the scene. Honestly, I"m not sure Pedro's cousins understood a word they said! But it doesn't matter. Those girls did not let fear stop them from doing what they came to do. I was very proud of them.
Yesterday I was speaking on the phone to one of the friends who received that email. "You know people are going to think you are crazy, taking kids into an environment like that and doing things like that! Typical church women are going to say things like 'Don't you know that's not safe? Someone could get hurt! It's unwise! It's too risky! It's dangerous!' You know this, don't you?" My friend wasn't being unsupportive...she was just reminding me how these things look through a worldly lens.
Yes, I know it. Not that it matters.
Before they went out that afternoon, I spoke to the youth choir as a whole. I talked about how the characteristics of God's personality were in them because that is one of the things the Holy Spirit does for them--He gives them the choice to choose God's personality instead of their fleshly one. God's personality expressed through them would never be one of fear or judgment. I told them that if they walked up to some trailer and the door opened and cigarette smoke rolled out, they were not to bat an eye. If there were beer bottles all over the porch, they were not to bat an eye. The man (or woman) who answers the door is head to toe in tattoos, don't bat an eye. Someone is inside screaming at their kids...someone cusses a blue streak...someone yells at you to go away...do not bat an eye. Be polite and respectful no matter what.
It is not up to us to decide who is fit to hear the gospel. It is not up to us to decide who God wants to reach. The Great Commission says to go into the world. Well, what is it we expect the world to look like? The world is lost, so why should we be offended when they look and act lost?
That table of migrants acted lost. Let's face it--the highlight of their day was a bunch of teen girls coming by their dilapidated trailor park while they sucked down a few cold ones. How sad is that? But their behavior was total proof that this was who we were trying to reach. For a few minutes last Sunday afternoon, light split the darkness in that trailer's yard. Was it worth the risk that something could have happened to one of those girls? Totally. Sharing the gospel always carries a risk in the natural realm. A person could be rejected or outright persecuted. There could be physical harm to an innocent party. But look at the risk of not sharing the gospel. Look at it through spiritual eyes. We're talking about people's eternities, here. This is serious stuff. Life and death...eternal life and eternal torment. Jesus knows all about that physical harm to an innocent party business. He will take care of us, and nothing can happen to us that will thwart His will--even if what happens appears to be bad.
Saturday is the day we do this carnival/concert thing. For a few hours we'll step into a full ambassador role with the goal of showing love to a neighborhood that usually gets its attention through shout-outs in the police blotter section of the paper. I'll be cheerleading like mad, encouraging each student to step out of their false comfort zone to show respect and affection to people who frankly are not used to receiving it. It's going to be interesting.