Hinderances Happen

2009-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

It was Wednesday morning, November 4th. The men from our LifeChange program had just completed their morning study with one of our biblical studies volunteers. They were curious about the outcome from the previous night's meeting with the city's Planning Commission.

See, Lenawee County Mission has been earnestly seeking to expand, particularly our men's programs. Last year alone we turned away 238 men simply because we did not have room available. This past August we were able to secure a property that would provide us an occupancy twice of that which we currently have. In order to bring this to fruition, a zoning exception was needed from the city Planning Commission. The men were teeming with anticipation to hear whether or not the commission voted in favor of our intentions with this property.

I gathered them together to join me in reading a portion of Paul's first letter to the new Christians in Thessalonica. The reading focused on the second chapter where Paul speaks of his "second" attempt at visiting these newly faithful. I emphasized Paul's recognition that not only had he been hindered in his attempts for visitation, but that he also understood who hindered him.

Hinderances happen.

Like Paul, Lenawee County Mission has had its share of hinderances in its response to be faithful to God's call. And like Paul observed, as I explained to the men, hinderances have a hidden blessing: they reveal that you're in accord with what God desires for you. This should be, like it was with Paul, a great source of encouragement and joy to the Christian.

Our petition for zoning exception was denied the previous night by the Planning Commission, but both our ministry and our men found themselves paradoxically strengthened - richly confident in the concretization that God is in control.

When hinderances happen, and they inevitably will, let the faithful follow Paul's lead and confidently rejoice!

Mission Manna

2009-11-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

There's this book in the Bible titled Exodus.

Four hundred years of slavery, then liberation.

Wanderers they were called. Homeless men, women and children traversing in a wilderness with the God who had heard their cries and had set them free.

It was Exodus and it's a story we all seek, don't we? I mean, freedom from our bondage. We all have some sort of bondage, those attachments that bind us and hold us captive.

In the sixteenth chapter of this story, having been set free from bondage, these liberated people began to complain to a man named Moses. They are hungry. So hungry in fact, they suggest that they were better off in their previous state of bondage than they are currently.

The God who liberated them hears them again. God responds. God provides them with this flaky substance they find one morning covering the surface of the wilderness. They called this substance "manna". It means, What is it?

Perhaps you are inquiring the same regarding the title of this page or about what a pastor of a rescue mission is doing blogging. What is this?

Let me tell you.

Two months from now I will begin my fourth year with Lenawee County Mission. My time with this Christ-centered haven of hospitality has been nothing short of awe inspiring. During this time I have witnessed such hospitality lived out daily in the tradition of the New Testament church. Homeless, hungry men wandering in the wildernesses of life while yearning for hope and healing come together and partake in the multiple thousands of meals served here is but one example.

Wrecked and desperate from wrestling with their bondage they come to us broken and weak. The majority are not in the greatest of health. After a few days with us they speak of the quality of food we provide for them. They come to us hungry and in need of some good "manna". Mission manna we call it. The average weight gain for a man at Lenawee County Mission is 12 pounds.

But good nutritious food and fellowship is not all that is found by those we serve. The good manna they find when they come to us is the love, hope and restoration of Jesus made visible and personal on a daily basis. This manna is the bread of life.

My hope is that this Mission Manna blog will help provide you regular insight into the on-going creative activity of God happening inside Lenawee County Mission. My prayer is that you will not only be informed but moved in the realization that you too are part of God's plan for the poor and homeless.

Is not this the fast that I choose...

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house...

Isaiah 58.6a, 7a