In one of my favorite movies, Sympathy for Delicious, Mark Ruffalo plays Father Joe, a catholic priest who regularly ministers to those that wander around Skid Row, a 50 square block area covering the streets, sidewalks, and alleyways of downtown Los Angeles. It is "home" for thousands of men, women, and children who are homeless, on drugs and craving for a bite. Mark Ruffalo, also starred as the Hulk in The Avengers, is a professing Christian actor who plays Father Joe, an unlikely character who's heart was closely connected to his friends on Skid Row.
Father Joe gets down and dirty with them, he gets out of his nicely collared priest attire and walks around and hugs and loves on those getting around in wheelchairs and finding scraps from garbage cans and those that are repelled by society. Do me a favor and watch Sympathy for Delicious to get knocked out of your comfort zone.
Once a month, my home church small group serves at Cityteam San Francisco, they are the City's catalyst in meeting practical needs such as food and shelter for those on the fringes of society. We would get there at 12pm on a Saturday and watch crowds of people line up at the door as we prepared a BBQ and serve them an all-you-can eat meal. After lunch, we would take them to a community closet where they get to pick out items of clothing and take with them. Cityteam San Francisco's director Shirley Pounds is a Pennyslvian preacher's daughter who prayed a bold prayer in her 20's when she became a new resident of the then gritty downtown Oakland. While sitting in a car listening to the Brooklyn Tablenacle Choir, she felt God speaking to her through the melodious music and she asked God to break her heart for what broke His heart.
30 years later, Shirley is the inspiration to us, a crowd of 20's and 30somethings coming to serve at Cityteam. With fresh tears trailing down her cheeks, Shirley reaccounts on how God built Cityteam SF from the ground up in the last few decades and how she saw hundreds of people get off the streets and become empowered back to society through their programs.
Father Joe and Shirley Pounds are just two examples of unsung heroes that you and I may encounter on a daily basis. They may be our modern day Mother Theresa's and St. Francis of Assissi's that literally shake a generation and move a culture, but unrecognized, thus called unsung heroes. You may even know one or two of them.
What defines an unsung hero you ask? As my teammate Meg puts it: "Unsung Heroes are the people working behind the scenes, helping those in need, never receiving recognition for their good deeds. They have minimum but give everything they have to those less fortunate. These people spend their lives doing for others and giving back to the community-literally being the hands and feet of Jesus. Their love for Jesus is what motivates them and keeps them going on the hard days."
This month, my team Fire Starters and I are working directly with World Race founder and L Squad coach Seth Barnes to find these unsung heroes. Why? So we can share their stories with the world and open new doors for future World Racers to serve and assist these people with their ministries. We are pioneering this important and timely initiative and need your help!
What can you do?
You can help us by giving me the name, and contact information of someone who fits the above description. They are Christ/Kingdom focused, and meet a local need who need help with their ministry.
As a first priority, we are looking for unsung hero contacts in Guatemala and El Salvador but we are looking for worldwide contacts as well.
Think hard about this and facebook me or email me your contacts. We start to compile this list tomorrow morning.
I appreciate every contact you can provide me.
Our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is to have U2 write a song about one chosen unsung hero, and this hero could have come from you!
Yours Faithfully,
Jackie
Written in Santa Cruz del Quiche
