Disguised

Happy Sabbath

I had a good day at church and a great week. Today I came in to church planning to stay focused on being ready for the children's Sabbath school..I remember passing a gentleman looking for my son and the person reached up to me and gave me a piece of paper asking if I could help him with clothing. I work in another state and was at a loss of what to do. I told him I'll be back and went to another church member to alert her that we had someone in need. She gave me a beautiful embellished blankey and i gave it to him and told him we will work something out after service and asked him to stay later also for a meal. I then started doing searched and planned to go to my parent's house because the guy appeared to be similar in size to my dad and wanted to see if he had any clothing to spare. I remembered I had a blanket in the back of my vehicle and a large jacket that could fit him in my car back at home but that jacket would be too thin to help on a cold day such as this. I looked for contact info for someone my former church thinking I could see if they had spare items seeing as that they have a shelter on code blue days. Today was one of those days. I thought about going to the store on Sabbath but I also thought about my penny pinching plan for this year because I'm trying to save for a car, pay off student loan debt and my mortgage. I'm not proud of that thought. While I was at the piano for service, I searched for what I could and was determined to head out to get the items once the sermon was to start. I looked at the bulletin and saw the title, Who is my neighbor. I also heard the man introduce himself to the church as Mr. Neighbor. I saw a certain name was listed to speak and saw that his wife and children were present but had no clue where he was. When it was time for the speaker to start I grabbed my car keys and headed down to look for the man intending to ask for his size but then I saw him walking on the other side of the church towards the front. The speaker started to speak and I then realized the speaker was disguised as the homeless man I was looking for.

Turned out the sis who I spoke to found out before hand because she tried to help him when he approached the church but he was suspicious to her so she called the police. She wanted to make sure he got something to eat but wanted to keep the congregants safe because people are out here doing crazy things at churches. He went on about his experiences with various church members. Out of 8 people he gave a card to, 2 only responded to try to help him. One person moved away from him. We have work to do on ourselves.  I'm a social worker now but when this happened before with a real person in another land I was not. A woman had approached asking for help and I wanted so desperately to assist her. I believe I contacted the police trying to arrange for assistance through them. There was one person who identified herself as a social worker in our church and when I went to her I was disappointed that she had no suggestions and washed her hands of the situation.  People didn't want to step out of their comfort zone. I looked online for supports on the spot not knowing what we could do.

I want to be better prepared in any area I'm in. It's not enough to offer a meal and wave them off. I want to take some time to create a resource list for our community so that when the need strikes we will have an answer to give, a number to call or place to send them so they have immediate support and safety.  I do that for my clients every day and at church it should be no different.  Be ready no matter what to serve.

God gave me this verse on Thursday. I wish I had it Sabbath last week when I sent the text that I was stepping down from my departmental role. Even though I made that decision, I still have a job to do for the Lord and I thank Him for His encouragement to continue to press on, no matter my state.

1Corinthians 15:58 says: So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

I felt like decisions I was making and work I was doing was useless, that my leadership was being ignored. It may have been but no matter what, as long as I give the Lord my heart and try to do His will, even if things don't go the way I expect, I know HE is working everything out for our good.

God is good.