"Now I understand why you do what you do"

There is a precious family I have become very close to in the past months... we will call them the Smiths. It is a single mother with 10 children. The family used to live in our neighborhood, but through a series of events had to move over to the Southside. The teenage kids were in our Rock Island ministry and the little ones in our Underground. Their father is in prison...for life. We have grown close in the past months because the oldest son, who is 13, got into some legal trouble and consequently was sent to a boys home. We have been to see him a few times... he is actually doing very well.

I would say there is a bit of a "financial totem pole" when it comes to the families in our community. At the top of the totem pole is the "working poor", who are usually uneducated people who work hard at minimum wage jobs. Many of the families in this category have food on the table and a roof over their head, but not much else. I would put the Smith family at the very bottom of the totem pole. Mom is so caught up taking care of kids that she can't find time to work. She knows she has made some horrible mistakes and can't seem to get back on her feet. 9 of the kids and the mom live in an efficiency apartment. Each has a mattress on the floor. Each of the kids has maybe a shirt or two and a pair of pants. None of them have coats. I don't think their heat works. Through a series of very special God appointments, a life group from Lifechurch.tv decided to sponsor this enormous family for Christmas. We had a guideline for our Christmas adoption of $50 per child. Because of the state this family is in, I didn't give the group a dollar limit, I just told them the story.

The day the group dropped the stuff off I had a nice, long cry. Completely overwhelming. Each child had a garbage bag filled with a coat, clothes, gloves, hats, mittens, blankets, toys, etc. Because this family doesn't have a car, I knew I would get the chance to deliver it. So I loaded 10 full trash bags up in our 15 passenger van, grabbed two of our teenage boys from the neighborhood and headed over to the Southside at 10:00 one evening. The two boys I took are hispanic boys and have heat in their homes and food.. they are at the top of the totem pole. I warned them as we drove over what they were going to see, they made a few jokes about how they lived in the hood and understood, but I knew they didn't. Now picture this in your mind... as soon as we pulled up to the apartment all 9 kids (ages 2-13) came pouring out of the door, barefoot into the snow. They jumped up in to my arms and even in to the arms of the two teenage boys they didn't know. As we carried each trash bag in they kept hugging each one of us and saying thank you.

When we got back in to the van to leave there was dead silence. Not a sound from either boy... then I began to hear a few sniffles coming from the back seat. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw one of the boys with tears rolling down his face. He then asked, "do you see that kinda thing alot?" and I told him I do. After that there was complete silence for about 10 minutes, then the other boy said, "Now I understand why you do what you do."

Many of the older kids in the neighborhood think we are crazy, they don't understand why we wouldn't get jobs where we would make big bucks and get to live glamourous lifestyles. We try to explain, but I still think it is hard for them to really grasp. That moment in the van was one of the "lightbulb moments" I always speak about. All of the Rock Island kids may not ever get it, but those two do. They got the chance to realize that all the money in the world can't buy the feeling of being able to hug complete strangers and share the love of Jesus.

Small things with great love.

I haven't shared much about the Christmas season because there is so much to share, it is all jumbled up in my head, but here is one story.

In the days and weeks that led up to Christmas there were so many sweet gestures from families and people in the community. Each day for about 2 weeks, the women in the neighborhood cooked lunch for us like tamales, enchiladas, chile rellenos, etc. I pride myself on remembering everyones names, but there were even a few people whose names I didn't know that brought us gifts. There are 2 different "gifts" that were my favorite.

The first is from an older street man that we call "John the baptist". He is know for finding all kids of treasures in the dumpsters behind the businesses in our neighborhood. The night of the christmas pageant he pulled me aside and presented a gift to me. They were two little hand paintings of butterflies that had been framed. He had found the frames in a dumpster and had made the paint out of old markers and empty paint cans he had found. He told me a long story about why he had picked the butterflies out just for me. It was such a sweet gift...

The second gift is a little more humorous. There is a homeless man I will just call MB. I'm just going to be blunt... he's crazy. On some days he says the kindest things and on some days he completely loses his mind and starts cussing people out. Because of his unpredictability, he doesn't get to come in and wait with everyone else. We think it is a safer idea for him to wait outside. Everyday Luke is so patient and helps MB with anything he needs. He usually washes his clothes about 2-3 times a week and gives him a can of vienna sausages, his favorite food, everyday. We have also become his personal bank and on the rare occasion he has a dollar or two, we put it in his file for safe-keeping. The thing that makes MB so interesting is his mode of communication. He writes note cards. He doesn't speak much but instead writes everything out (in perfect hand-writing) on small lined note cards. Every morning he rings the doorbell around 9 and drops off his requests for the day. Some days it will say "May I please have viennas and clean socks?" or it might say "Can I use the phone?"... it is very interesting and we all get a good chuckle. But a few weeks ago MB came with an entire stack of notecards and handed them to Luke. He asked Luke to pass them out. On each notecard he had written out tiny Christmas cards for every staff member. "Dear __________. Merry Christmas. God Bless you. I love you. Love, MB". It was so special and definitely a christmas card that will hang in my office year around.

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." -Mother Teresa

Rock Island...a year later.

I haven't blogged in a while for one reason. It's Christmas! We have had so much going on that I haven't had time to sit down at the computer in a while. This year for Christmas we did 250 families for Christmas food baskets, 100 families for family sponsored gifts, 30 teens for Rock Island Christmas, 250 people for our Christmas feast, 25 elementary kids in our Cross & Crown Christmas nativity, 300 people at the nativity program, and 50 women at the bible study Christmas party this morning. I'm no mathematician but I think that equals..... ALOT! How blessed we truly are.

Over the next few days I'm going to blog about each of those blessings separately because, of course, I've got stories to go along with them. Right now I'm going to share about the Rock Island Christmas.

Over the past year Rock Island has become more than we could have ever imagined. We started off the year a bit rocky. There were some break-ins and struggles with alot of the kids. But at the party I realized something very special....We've got 6th graders to 12th graders and whites, blacks, mexicans, native americans, etc.....BUT... THOSE KIDS ARE A FAMILY. They have each others backs at school, they all stay together in one house when the rest don't have electricity, they pick up each others homework at school when someone is sick (or suspended), they makes beats together on the computer and try to create their own rap group, and they even rig up dirty santa so that the kid who they know really needs a bike to ride to work gets to take home that bike. A year ago they were 50 individuals living in the neighborhood separately. They were fighting each other, stealing from each other and vandalizing each others houses. NOW.... well you better not come into our neighborhood and mess with one of them because you are likely to get the whole bunch on you.

Last Friday night we had our party. In the middle of ice and snow, 23 kids were waiting out in the cold when we opened the door. We ate pizza and drank hot cocoa, played games, opened gifts, and roasted marshmallows outside to make smores. We hung out together for 4 hours and never once turned on a computer, video game or television. It was awesome. The favorite gifts of the night were the brand new Rock Island hoodies that one of our donors had made. Every kid got one and they were soooo EXCITED! At the end of the night we all held hands and prayed together. Out of the 23 kids... including ex gang members, drug dealers and school drop outs.....EVERY single kid prayed OUT LOUD. Most adults won't even do that, but these kids poured their hearts out in front of their peers, their FAMILY. And now even typing this I'm getting pretty choked up.

And to think... all this began with one guy (Ron Crawford) stepping up to his calling. People thought he was crazy, his family struggled financially, but he knew the call and the Lord has blessed that. Imagine what you, one person, could do with your calling?!?!? If you started today...this time next year you might be shocked!

"Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you of things which you do not already know." -Jeremiah 33:3