Sons of the King.

At times we find it very hard to build the trust of our neighbors. Years ago they saw us as white people from Edmond who just bombarded their neighborhood to pray... now a lot see us as friends and family who love them and are there to "do life" with them, not look down our noses. It has taken every bit of the 6 years we have been open to build that trust.

The hardest people to build trust with have been the men. Most of the women trust us now because they come get food and clothes, attend our bible class and watch us play with/tutor their children. The men on the other hand... that's a whole different story. I think many of them feel we have an ulterior motive. They wonder why anyone in their right mind would waste effort, money and time on complete strangers. But.. they watch their wives. They watch their wives kiss us on the cheek every chance they get and carry their bibles and Cross & Crown notebooks to bible study one morning a week. They watch them come running down to our doctor when their kid has a runny nose and cook dinner with groceries from our pantry. These men sense something different in their wives, but they can't quite put their finger on it.

I have watched many of these men stare and scowl in our direction. I have also watched those scowls be transformed to smiles and waves through the years. They realize now that we don't pose a threat. What they don't realize is that the transformation they see in their wives is the Holy Spirit. I trust that one by one they will realize that. They will see that the new spirit and joy in their wife is Jesus.

If you stand out at the corner of NW 9th and McKinley during a busy day, you can actually feel the Holy Spirit following these women to their homes. They are missionaries and they don't even know it. Missionaries to their children and especially their husbands. I have a dream that someday we will feel the need to have a men's bible study.. that through the example of their wives and the prompting of the Spirit there will be a desire to stand up and be better husbands, fathers and sons of the King.