Recently I have made some pretty big life decisions, ones that I felt led to share.
I have always had empathy for homeless people. I always thought "oh, how sad." I wanted to do something, but my heart wasn't prepared for ministry in that area. Any time I even began to think about volunteering at a soup kitchen or in a shelter I was rocked to tears. It was all "so sad" that I was not of much use to that ministry.. until recently.
February 15, 2010 my life was radically and forever rocked, changed, blown wide open, and well, not my own any longer. That was the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. (For those of you who don't know what it is, feel free to email me, because it is the most amazing experience EVER!) Back to the story, on the evening of March 9, 2010 I was driving in my car and talking with God about wanting to be in homeless ministry of some kind. God gave me a vision of my future, legit vision, I came home and painted it. Agape' House. Agape' is the God-love. The self-sacrificing, give it all expecting nothing in return, love of Jesus. It's the amazing grace covering, sin forgiving, supernatural empowering love of God. Agape' House is a transitional home for homeless people that God has called me to open. Why? Simple, The Matthew Mandate.
34-36"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'
37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
This passage from the book of Matthew is a lot of times used as a fluffy feel-good because you did something good kind of verse; but it is so much more than that. It is a mandate from heaven. At least to me. I don't want to have to give an account to Jesus as to why I didn't give him clothes when he was cold, or a room when he was homeless. Do you? This passage has become part of my prayer for the Church. That we would see Jesus in every single person in need, not just the ones we think we can convert, or the ones who "want to help themselves" or the ones "who aren't just looking for a handout." It doesn't matter why they came to us, or where they are going to go from us, what matters is that for this moment they are here in front of us with open hands. Fill them. Love them. Restore them. Send them out to do the same.
So, what does this all have to do with my future? Everything. For the last 15 months I have been working my tush off (okay, not literally as I think it may have actually gotten bigger, but you get my drift) in Court Reporting school. God has recently given me release and peace about moving away from that path in to His path. I am going to be finishing out this semester of school and then taking a couple months to seek God with all I have, after that I have planned to transfer my credits to another school and begin working on a degree that will give me practical resources and learning to implement in the opening and running of Agape' House. Until then I am going to pursue leadership opportunities, ministry opportunities, and social-working outreach opportunities.
I know that God is going to use the house and the work that will be done there to change the world. I will post more about Agape' House, what it will include and how the progress is going along the way with this journey.
