I am not called?

We are riding the rails through beautiful countryside at the moment. Green trees, mountains, meadows and “red dirt.” You can ask Laura why the dirt is red. She knows. Sam thinks the “dirt fairy” came through and sprinkled it all to make it pretty.

Here is a quote from the book we are reading. It has made us think. “Not called!” did you should say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go…” This from William Booth as quoted by BJ in his blog when he was just fifteen years old.

When Christians put their “ear” right down to the Bible to search for God’s heart in His Word they discover God’s heart for the hurting, his compassion for the oppressed and His desire that His followers get active in loving others.

BJ’s story is inspirational. The book, “I Would Die for You” is a quick read. Our hope is that our team members, through reading this book, develop even more of a hunger and thirst for serving others and impacting lives. So often we Christians sit in our padded seats in our brick buildings learning week after week that God really does care for people. Yet, when we interact with people who are enduring trouble, feeling hopeless and dry from thirst, we tend to walk right by without lending a hand or giving a drink. We don’t want to do that anymore.

We’ve had numerous conversations with people already. One man talked tearfully about losing his home to Katrina. But it wasn’t the storm that caused his eyes to well up, it was recounting the fact that a crew of Jesus-like teenagers came to help him in his time of need. He told us that their actions changed his mind about Christ.

On the other hand, one man was lightly teasing us about our matching shirts and asked what we were doing. When we told him that we were bound for NOLA to help rebuild after Katrina, he said matter-of-factly, “You’re too late.” He laughed and went on his way.

With 40,000 families still in FEMA trailers, we know we are not too late. In fact, because fewer and fewer teams are coming to help, the need is becoming more desperate. People think the work is done. The New Orleans Rescue Mission went from 20,000 donors last year to 3,000 this year!

It is interesting that so many people now see the church of Jesus as a place where “hate speech” is taught. That impression will remain until we support our words with actions. It is difficult to dismiss someone who refuses to stop loving and helping you.