We all have them – places in our cities and towns that we don’t go. Places that make us feel unsafe. Places full of the homeless, the drug addicts, the drug dealers, the prostitutes and all sorts of other “less than upstanding” citizens. I found out on Monday that I live in that place. The location that in which my team is staying (and where I am working more specifically) is a notoriously bad part of town (much to my surprise). It is known for violence, drugs, and prostitution. And yet I have never felt unsafe, not during the day or at night. I have only felt at ease around the people here. It occurred to me on my walk to work the other morning that one of the reasons I feel at ease is because many of the people who strike fear in the hearts of those who may inadvertently come to this neighborhood are now my friends. The same homeless men and women who sit and beg on the streets also use the services of the feeding/showering ministry I work with. Seldom do I walk anywhere in this town without running into a friendly face of someone who I have spent time talking with and getting to know at the ministry center (Often I run into two or three on any given outing). Getting to know them has changed what could have easily been fear into a heart for the downtrodden, the “lower class” citizens that others try so hard to avoid.
The truth is, it is a blessing in disguise. If I had befriended a group of well to do citizens here in Penang I could wander through their neighborhoods day and night and never run into any of them. They would be busy in their houses and preoccupied with their families. I would have to interject myself into their lives in order to build relationships with them. The homeless (really kind of a misnomer) live where I work and where I eat. They hang out where I walk (which we do quite a lot) and are always ready and waiting to strike up a conversation, give a hug, play some frisbee (Noah organized a game this past weekend), or just share a smile as you pass by. I am not suggesting that there aren’t dangerous people in bad neighborhoods and please don’t find the worst parts of your town and go and drop your kids off to see who they can meet (we are, by the way, still careful about where we walk, day and night). I am suggesting that there are good people in every neighborhood. I have spent long enough being afraid of someone for how they look, dress, or smell. It is the heart that matters and there are some truly beautiful ones here. My perspective has been changed along with my heart. I came to bless others and I have been blessed instead. Might I suggest you think about the neighborhoods around your home. Might God be calling you to minister in a place you feel less then safe. There are good people there waiting to meet you and waiting to understand God's love, maybe for the first time.
