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Serving Others

Dec 7, 2010

Last Friday night after a full day of work our team of six people from Emmaus Road Church in Newcastle gathered on the Eastside to pray for our upcoming weekend.

The trip was called Seattle Serve and each of us had canceled our weekend plans to be a part of it. We were excited and nervous all at the same time. After arriving at the church building where we would be sleeping on the floor we headed to Mr. Gyro's for some amazing Mediterranean cuisine. We got our shawarma and falafels and headed to the home of Andrew and Tanya Pack. Andrew is an Acts29 church planter and the church he leads is called Anchor Church. They were gracious enough to invite us to their home for dinner. We all shared our family backgrounds and how we had become Christians. It was cool to see how different our stories were and yet how we all shared a common faith in Jesus.

We headed out and drove around the city praying for the various neighborhoods. We drove over Aurora Bridge and prayed for God to give hope and comfort to people in our city who are lonely or depressed or contemplating suicide this holiday season.

Saturday morning came quick. We went without showers, took some time for prayer and personal time reading God's word, loaded up the car, and headed to 3rd and Yessler. We picked this particular park in Seattle because the service agencies we had talked to, like Lifelong AIDS Alliance, had suggested it. People from Emmaus Road has been kind enough to donate some card tables and a camping stove for the weekend. We began to mix the batter and invite people from around the park to come get breakfast.

Our team was put to the test for the first time when we went to connect the propane to the grill. The connections were not the right kind. We tried and tried to figure it out but it looked like we had bought the wrong propane. There we were at 8:15 in the morning in the middle of the city with a crowd of hungry people already congregating and it looked like we had no way to cook anything. Was there a store nearby that sold propane? Would it be open so early? We were stuck.

Thankfully the Spirit kept us from getting angry at each other or giving up. We kept looking at the connections and then realized that part of it was removable. We removed it and voila the propane now fit. With a big sigh of relief we started cooking. The people who came up to us were not that excited about pancakes though. They kept asking the same question. Do you have coffee??

At first we tried to explain to them how great pancakes would be on this cold brisk morning but the more we listened the more we realized that coffee was the real thing they wanted. So we were flexible. Some of our team headed out to find coffee and come back later with two carafes of fresh coffee. Now we were in business. As we cranked out pancakes we began to talk with the people there and to engage them in conversation. Many of them had recently gotten out of prison. I asked one of them if he had found a good church. He said, "Man I'm just trying to stay warm and get some food in my belly, I'm not looking for a church. I'm looking to survive." Several of the people we talked to let us pray for them and we passed out lots of ESV New Testaments and some Emmaus Road booklights. When it was time to pack up, we had served over 82 people in all including a young homeless girl who was pregnant with her first kid.

We prayed for the city that day with a totally new perspective on the needs and challenges of the homeless. They didn't need just pancakes. They needed stability, love, compassion, prayer, friendship, employment and so many other things as well as coffee.

We grabbed coffee next at Street Bean Espresso in Belltown. A missional business started by Christians who wanted to help homeless youth find employment and get off the street. As we sat and talked we learned a lot about the importance of following the Holy Spirit and listening to people we are called to serve rather than assuming that we know what they need.

For lunch we were expected at the Union Gospel Mission. We bussed tables, cleaned dishes, and passed out fruit, cookies and chips, but we discovered the best way to serve the people was conversation. I was proud to watch as our team sat down and introduced themselves. I had a great conversation with some of the men that live there at the mission in their transitional housing units. Those men loved Jesus and they knew their Bibles very well.

From there we took a culture walk through Pioneer Square and around Fireman's Park. We tried to pay attention to the sculptures and storefronts and what they told us about the values and priorities of our great city. Then we headed over to Bread of Life Mission to work in their clothing bank. The clothing bank was in a very old basement off of 1st Ave. We worked in there for 3 hours sorting donations of clothes and organizing their racks and shelves. In the organizing we discovered some very outdated and very interesting clothing. Our team was not shy about trying on things that they liked. We filled a van with bags of ripped or stained clothing that had been donated but was not fit for the clothing bank shelves. They were so thankful for our hard work.

Dinner on Broadway was at Annapurna a combination of cuisine from Nepal, India, and Tibet. This gave us the fuel we needed for our next mission. We got some pizza from Pizza Hut on Madison and headed to Broadway with clipboards in hand. Our goal was to get into some spiritual conversations with people on Broadway. We came up with four survey questions that we thought were the most appropriate given it was a Saturday night and there people we would be meeting would be complete strangers. Here is what we came up with. Question #1 What do you believe about God? Question #2 What do you think about Jesus? Question #3 How do you feel about Christians? Question #4 What are your thoughts on the church?

We were amazed at the great responses we got. So many people wanted to talk regardless of whether we gave them pizza or not. So many of the people were open to talking. One of the men in particular was really excited to pray together. When I asked him if there was anything I could pray for him about. He said, "Wow! Cool! It's like you asked me if I can have any wish, what would I wish for?!" Another man asked for prayer for his friend who was in to drugs and prostitution and who he was going to be doing an intervention for next week.What a privilege to be able to pray and talk about Jesus' grace. We added a fifth question to our survey that was "If I could explain the Christian message to you in two or three minutes would you want me to?" We were surprised how many people said yes to this and let us explain the gospel.

We ended the night with some time in worship. We prayed for all the people we had met on Broadway by name.

Sunday morning we took a huge box of travel size toiletries to Lifelong AIDS Alliance for them to give out to the people they serve. We went to Third and Yessler again looking for one of the men from the pancake breakfast. He had agreed to come with us to church on Sunday morning and we told him we would come by and pick him up. We drove around and walked through the park but could not find him. Hopefully he had found work or something else that was a good use of his time, but we were bummed he did not show.

We worshiped Jesus with Anchor Church. Andrew is a great preacher and the music was rad. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced. We sang to electronica, techno Christmas carols, celebrated the Lord's supper and learned about JOY. It was good to be with God's people.

For the afternoon we were scheduled to cook and serve lunch to the residents of the United Indian Youth Home. Our afternoon there was quite eventful. We made grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup. We got to play dominoes with the residents and watch the football game. Everything was going well until the dishwasher overflowed. We spent the next two hours mopping and scrubbing that kitchen floor and then doing all the dishes by hand. It was a bonding experience to say the least. It was cool to see the team work together without complaining.

From the Youth Home we headed to Downtown Cornerstone Church for their weekly pre-launch gathering. It was awesome to sit with Pastor Adam and the rest of the team as they studied scripture, sang to Jesus and prayed for their friends. The prayer time at Cornerstone was really great and I think all of our team was inspired. Adam gave a great message about loving our neighbor in word and deed that seemed to really summarize all of our experiences for the weekend.

We ended the trip with a fabulous dinner at Palamino in Seattle. Over dinner we reflected on all that God taught us. We really could sense the Holy Spirit going before us everywhere we went opening doors and giving us unity. We agreed how foolish it would have been to try and do the weekend solo. We really needed each other, and that is also true of our continued mission with Emmaus Road. Attempting to plant Emmaus Road by ourselves would be foolish. but together we can accomplish awesome things. We also recognized the radical importance of listening to the people we are called to reach. Often we think we know what the people around us want or need but often we are clueless. Seattle Serve showed us that it is essential to have a plan, but that we must submit the plan to the leading of the Spirit and to what we learn from the people we are trying to serve.

May God make us good listeners, and faithful servants here at home like we were in the city.

Pictures from the trip will be posted shortly so check back soon.

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