More Favor From The Township!

On Wednesday of this week I met with Tom from the Township, the Leasing Manager (Jeanne) at the North Brunswick Senior Housing building, the Leasing Agent and the head maintenance guy to discuss the Day of Service we are performing on July 25th. Jeanne had not yet heard about the Day of Service happening in her building in exactly 2 weeks! We probably should have approached her first! For this reason our first order of business was to sell Jeanne on the idea.

At the beginning of the meeting Jeanne was showing an unfavorable-ness to what we were proposing. She mentioned a conflict of schedule with that date, was of the opinion that most residents, because they do not know us, “would not be up for having people in their apartments”, and overall seemed distrusting of our efforts. As I sat there I knew we did not have rapport with her yet and were up for a tough sell.

Noticing this aura of distrust exuding from Jeanne as the meeting pressed on, Tom chimed in with some powerful words that truly changed the course of the conversation. He said (paraphrasing here),

“Now I want you to know that the Brunswick Church of Christ has been an exceptional church in this town. We are not talking about allowing someone into the building whom we do not know. Carl the previous Pastor and now Shaun the current Pastor, and I hope you do not mind me bragging on the church a little Shaun, they have done a great deal for this town. The Oak Leaf Village Apartment complex is the eye sore of our town and for that reason many churches have stayed clear of it. But these guys have intentionally been there week in and week out holding Bible studies, getting to know the residents and baptizing people. What they are wanting to do here could have a ripple effect in that other churches might want to serve the residents here as well. For this reason I am of the opinion that we should give Shaun and the Brunswick Church of Christ our full support in this. I would like to see you guys promoting it to residents in the next 2 weeks to ensure that it is a success. It would be a shame to me if only a few residents took advantage of this Day of Service.”

I was taken back by Tom’s words and flattered for sure.

What happened next was transformational. All of a sudden in the next few minutes the skepticism went away. Jeanne made known her faith and involvement in the Presbyterian church and her church’s involvement with Habitat for Humanity. She began to throw out ideas on how to make this day a big deal for the residents. At one point Jeanne even said with excitement, “I got it; why don’t we call it “A Day of Faith” instead of “A Day of Service”? That’s what it is right; a day of sharing our faith through service?” Jeanne offered to print all the fliers on extra large-colored paper for us, distribute them under each person’s door on Friday, gave us her word that she and her staff would be strong promoters of the Day of Service from now till then and even rescheduled the fire inspections that were supposed to happen in the building that day.

What happened last was perhaps the greatest part of the meeting. As we finished up and were about to depart the room with our specific to do lists I asked, “Would you guys mind if we prayed about this opportunity together?” They agreed without hesitation. So there we were, the Leasing Manager, Leasing Agent, Township zoning authority, head of maintenance at NBSH and myself uniting in prayer about the many senior residents we were planning to serve in Jesus name.

Wow. I felt so taken back as we departed the meeting that I whispered to the Lord while chuckling to myself, “Lord, what just happened in there?” I felt so blessed by God! He had given me and His church so much favor. I believe God is teaching me, through incidents like these, that one of the keys to building Christ’s church in today’s day and time is each congregation’s long-term commitment to the physical and spiritual well-being of their community. It requires building rapport with community leaders over time such that people learn to trust you who once looked down on you with skepticism.

“Thank you Lord for Your continued favor upon us in North Brunswick!”

"Daddy, We Should Pray"

This past week I attended a week-long intensive class at Liberty University. Three years ago when I went down for a class the dormitories were open for visiting online students. This time, however, I had to go the hotel route. Since I needed a hotel anyway Marci and I thought it wise to make it a family trip where I would attend class all week and Marci and the kids would use the pool at the hotel, relax and otherwise peruse Lynchburg all day until I was finished in the evenings.

When we arrived at our hotel on Sunday evening at 11:30pm we had trouble finding the hotel. The GPS said we had reached our destination but all we could see was what our headlights illuminated- everything else was dark. Then I said to Marci, “Is that a building down there?” We took the entranceway down to our right and sure enough there was our hotel. The reason we could not see the hotel initially was because they were without power- along with 70% of the rest of Lynchburg we came to discover. Apparently recent storms had cause widespread outages.

We spoke to the attendant at the hotel who was sitting outside in the dark who informed us that they could not take any reservations even though we already had one; we were on our own. So at the top of the exit-way on what seemed like an abandoned road we stopped and talked about what to do. Marci scanned the GPS for nearby hotels within 10-20 miles and started calling. Every hotel that had power was completely booked. Turns out Lynchburg residents were taking up residence in local hotels until their power came back on. And I don’t blame them; no power is bad enough but no power with a heat index of 105˚ is a different story.

Perplexed by our unexpected turn of events and beginning to contemplate throwing in the towel and driving back home (7hrs mind you) my 6 year old son Mason peeps up to say, “Daddy, we should pray”. Thinking that was a brilliant idea I said, “You are right Mason; we should pray”, and we did.

One of the last hotels Marci called after we prayed was kind enough to inform us that the Thomas Road Baptist Church (Liberty University’s College Church) was providing a relief effort to any in need due to the power outages. So with no other options we headed on over to Thomas Road. When we arrived it became obvious that this congregation was doing a great deal to serve their community in a time of need. They warmly welcomed us at midnight, provided us drinks and food if we wanted to eat and then escorted the 5 of us to their gymnasium which was packed with families. They gave us blankets and mats and we fell asleep around 2:30am in a cool gymnasium with about 200 other people.

I got an early shower (about 5am) and a time to pray and ponder what the week might look like given our situation. We all walked to the church cafeteria at 7:30am where they served us a nice breakfast. As we finished our prayer together at the breakfast table thanking God for His provision overnight, a kind lady from the church approached our table and said, “I know you don’t know me from Adam and you may think this is kind of weird, but we heard you were Liberty students and we have power at our house. We live about 5 minutes from here. We have 2 extra bedrooms and a pool and you all are welcome to stay with us this week.” Wow. Wow was I thankful for this angelic messenger! I was most thankful because as I sat in the gymnasium the night before I could not help but say to myself over and over again, “How can I go to class tomorrow for 8 hours in an air conditioned room while my wife and children roam Lynchburg with no place to call home base? I can’t leave them to hang out in a gymnasium all day long when they don’t even know anyone.”

But now, by the grace of God through a Christ-like servant my concerns were relieved. We had a home, a pool, home-cooked meals and genuine spiritual conversation the rest of the week.

Praise God for His timely care for His children. Praise God that He gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. And praise God for my little boy Mason who knows an important part of what it means to build life around Jesus; “Daddy, we should pray”.