When you hear of gays and Christians, typically images of hate come to your mind–hateful language, condemnation, etc. Anything but love, actually.
That changed yesterday when my teammate Emily Gearhart and I stepped into the Youth Work Ireland offices and volunteers for shOUT! greeted us at the door. We introduced ourselves as two American girls trying to make the city of Galway a little more beautiful and asked if there was anything we could do for them. These two Christian girls ended up cleaning toilets, sweeping floors and cleaning out a refrigerator for Galway’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
Since arriving in Galway, half of the J Squad has been dubbed the “green” team, meaning our goal is to reach people here not by forcing them into our beliefs, but showing them that Christ followers are loving. Since being environmentally friendly is important to them, it is to us too. We have spent our time in Eyre Square cleaning graffiti, picking up trash and striking up conversations.
On this particular day we were frustrated that the graffiti wasn’t coming off, the rain wasn’t letting up and the wind was just nuts. Emily and I decided we’d do something a little differently and step into pubs and small shops and ask if anyone needed a hand with anything. Youth Work took up our offer and put us to work. The work was light and we were able to sit and talk with these men and women about their work and our work on the race.
To say that the majority of people we’ve encountered in Ireland are opposed to Christianity is an understatement. Our ministry contact from Discovery Church, who we are working with this month, tells us the apprehension to Christianity comes as a result of years of physical, sexual and mental abuse from the Catholic Church. Aside from that the only other side of Christianity they have seen comes in the form of televangelists. We’ve encountered MANY people who refuse prayer from us when we offer it and who have made fun of Jesus, our worship or our beliefs.
But we press on because our goal is to show that God’s love is much different than what they believe and/or have experienced.
So after we finished cleaning and chatting, we had to leave to catch our bus. The transition from talking about a Pride parade to “Can we pray for you?” isn’t necessarily the smoothest one, but we did it.
With a little hesitation, Amon, Genevieve and Maive finally agreed (but were still weirded out.)
We prayed for them to a God who loves them, just like he loves us. We asked for his forgiveness for any hurt they may have experienced in his name.
And as we walked away, they smiled.
**Click on ‘Browse Photos to see pictures of me cleaning graffiti (I am unable to upload it to this blog for some reason.**
