This month has been a lot about relationship building. We have been doing a lot of outreach with street evangelism and with talking to the residents at the local men's shelter. Most of their stories deal with alcohol, some form of loss, and pain from some life experience. We've just tried to love on them like Christ, listen to them, encourage them, and share the gospel with them.
I met a nice man, we will call him Rob, at the homeless shelter. He lost his job, because of his alcoholism, and had to move into the shelter. The main goal of all the men at the shelter, is to leave the shelter. They all have different plans on how they are going to get back on their own feet, but they definitly all have them. Rob's plan is to become a famous guitar player, like "Lynard Skynard". He says that he owns 35 guitars and has been learning to play for 20 something years. Even though he's been practicing that long, he still doesn't know the chords. It seems kind of crazy to think a 50 year old man that doesn't even know guitar chords is going to make it big, but that's what he puts his hope in. The drive of getting famous and rich keeps him going.
We all need something to place our hope in. As Christians, we can put our hope and trust in God. The world puts their hope and trust in things, that usually just let them down. People fail us, and we get hurt. Our athletic career doesn't pan out, and we feel lost. Our dreams of getting rich and famous dont happen, and we get crushed. When we make God's goals for our lives our goals, we don't get let down. We know that we don't have to worry about the days to come, because God won't ever let us go through more than we can take. We know that this world is not our home. We know where we find our value and worth. We know that every trial will have it's end.
Brian (right) witnessing to a backpacker from Germany, Biebert.
We have had the opportunity to share that hope with people in Australia this month. Not all of them have taken it very well, but we know that our job is only to plant seeds. We have been told that believing in God is stupid, that christianity does more harm than good, and that we are wasting our time. When I hear stuff like that, I hear people that have been hurt. I know God's word won't return to Him void and even though they are brushing it off now, they do know of God. While they may not put their hope in Him, God won't ever give up on them.
