New Stories Pt. 1

Not everything you do will be spectacular

But everything you do will be significant.

As already stated, outreach has officially ended.  We are all finally back together here on the oval.  

Strange?  Yes.  

Great? Yes.  

Overwhelming?  Definitely.  

Now comes the time when I get to realize more about what the heck I just did the last 5 or so months.  So whilst I process things, I just wanted to tell some stories:

I'm going to go a bit backwards with my story telling and talk about our last outreach location first since it is freshest on my mind.  Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Overall - LOVED it.  Seriously.  I think all of us, to some degree, loved Newcastle.  Our first day there, we were all smiles and just really happy to be there. 

When we got there, we had a little meeting with the pastors of the church we were helping out - Tyneside Vineyard - and talked a bit about their story and how they came to be up there planting this church and we looked at what our schedule was going to be like during our time there.  It was all pretty exciting stuff and we were going to be doing things that were completely different from everything we did in Africa.  We did a lot of flyering, as it was their big invite week, we passed out chocolate bars in the busy streets, we passed out free water on the street out by a row of night clubs (some very interesting and entertaining stories came out of that), and we helped out twice with a big craft event for kids.  I loved how every singe day we were there, we were able to do something totally different.  No day was ever the same.

One day, long story short, we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and went around and passed them out.  Our group split up a bit and Duane and I ended up walking through the streets basically looking for homeless people to give a sandwich to.  We had no idea where we were walking but the streets just looked cool so we went exploring a bit and stumbled across a homeless man sitting against the wall.  So we gave him a sandwich and some candy and just sat and talked with him.  He was definitely under the influence but he was hurting.  He has been on the streets for the last 7 months, he had been to war in Afghanistan and had gotten shot, and both his wife and daughter died in a car crash.  He felt so guilty and so hopeless.  It's hard to find the words to say in that situation but sometimes, people just need someone to care and to listen to them.  So after talking with him for a bit we prayed for him and went on our way.  His name was Max.

The church runs this compassion ministry called Storehouse.  At Storehouse, homeless and needy people can come on a Saturday morning and get a cup of tea and biscuits, a sausage roll and some pot noodles.  They will also get given a couple articles of clothing or anything else that they might need.  It is also just a really great place for people to come and just have good chats with people in a good environment.  So this one morning, a new lady came in so me and another volunteer chatted with her and filled in a form for her.  As we were talking to her, she was saying just how sick she felt and she looked sick as well.  She had an alcohol problem and she had been on the streets for almost a month and already couldn't take it anymore.  I had no idea what to say to her so I just stayed quiet and listened.  So we brought in another volunteer to come over and talk with her too because he had been in her exact situation not that long ago and was able to change his life around.  So he was telling her what she could do to change things and as he was talking, she just had a bit more hope in her eyes and would look up occasionally and just smile and you could see the hope.  And I just loved it how the other volunteer I was sitting with kept telling her to make sure she comes back to Storehouse because they wanted to watch over her and help her and take care of her in any way they could.  Her story and her situation just broke my heart and I just couldn't help but cry.  Her name was Sam.

HOTS - Healing On The Streets.  The name alone sounds a bit crazy.  Af first I was a bit worried about it but when the day actually came to do it, the same day I met Sam, I was excited, nervous, and a bit anxious but not as worried as I was before.  I actually really liked how it was set up and how it was run.  We went to the monument which is basically one of the main centers in Newcastle, set up some chairs and a big banner that said "Healing" and waited for people who wanted to get prayer for healing or just for anything really.  Crazy, I know.  I was teamed up with one of the people from the church so I was actually able to pray for quite a few people, 8 or 9, which was really cool.  What we do is when they sit in the chair, you kneel down next to them and ask a bit about them and start off by telling them how much God loves them, then you start praying for whatever it is they wanted prayer for.  But the thing is, when you are praying for them, you don't take your eyes off of them.  It definitely can be quite awkward when you are praying for someone and they are looking right into your eyes as you are speaking, but I discovered something about that.  Usually, I would always pray with my eyes closed because that is just what you do.  But praying for someone as you are looking directly at them changes things.  I was able to feel so much more compassion for them and actually see them as a person who just wants to know that they are loved.  It was cool to be able to help someone have that moment with God where they really do feel just how loved they are.  One lady we prayed for, it was so cool just be praying for her and to see her just smile because she really knew that God loved her.  If my eyes had been closed, I wouldn't have been able to see that. We may not have seen spectacular miracles that day, but I know that it made a significant difference to those people's days.

I hope these couple stories will suffice for the time being.