Wednesday

Wednesday—who knew it was going to be such a day?

After I took care of some piddly stuff early in the morning, I had an appointment with Patrick Lukonga, on of the young men from Congo. We had a long talk, a long prayer, about prayer, about working with the refugee community. It only confirmed me in my fear that goads me to push discipleship harder: African Christians come here with a vibrant faith, but it is very hard to infect the weak American church with their intensity. It is much easier for our weakness to drag them down to our complacency. You always have to worry about a meeting with Africans, because it’s going to be filled with Scripture and challenge to a deeper spiritual life. Later in the afternoon, I met with Cedrick, Patrick’s brother and our translator. More of the same, deep discussion of prayer, seeking God’s calling in his life, plans for evangelism. They want to have long prayer retreats—start with a few hours on a Saturday and then have everyone come live and sleep at the church for a couple days. I’m telling you, if we listen to these Africans, we’ll get down to business!

Wednesday is the day of fasting, so we had prayer in the chapel. Hopefully more and more people will come to know fasting as a vital part of their prayer lives. There were four of us in the chapel at lunch, wearing it out. Me, Roz, a fellow getting past addiction and a guy 2 days out of detox at UK. He just found his way in with us. We cried out to God that He would increase our endurance for prayer, for staying on our knees so that we could always pray thru every temptation. We blessed each other.

Skye and I went to the garden to set up next steps, stake some tomatoes, hang out with a neighbor boy, and talk about the kinds of ministry she can take on at the church. While we were walking there, we were on a mission, working out the details of watering. We walked by a woman sitting on the steps behind the school.

Prayer meeting was good, has been for a few weeks. I have been preaching out of Leviticus—this obscure book has so much to say RIGHT NOW. Skye brought the woman on the steps to the meeting, and we prayed hard for her serious needs. I had to go up to her and repent for walking by her… so focused on a task, I missed a person. Alice wasn’t holding back and started talking about the Good Samaritan and I realized was I ever the Levite that afternoon—too busy with good works to do a good work…

Once the prayer meeting, youth and children’s programs were over, we kept cranking. Earlier in the day, me and Dingo visited a family that just moved in on 12^th Street. Two families, nine kids in a house. 4 belong to one mother who is just visiting. Such sweet kids. Anyhoo, one of the boys tells us it’s his birthday. Of course we have to get a cake. We get a cake, and get some plates and ice cream together for later. After the evening activities, a few of us headed up to the house. All the kids in the house and a number of people from the church piled into the house and we had a party for Austin, 7 years old. Rebecca baked a cake earlier in the day, so we had two cakes and all got big pieces!

I am not sure I can explain the energy in the house. I looked around and it wasn’t so much that we were all there—everybody had kind of settled in, talking to the moms or kids, it was that micro-fellowship David Singleton talks about.

Austin came by me in the hall and said, “This is the best day ever!” After things wound down, Jessica took a few of the boys to a ball game a neighbor boy was playing in.

12^th Street is being made holy by the presence of some godly young women—Meg, Jessica, Laura, MJ, Christy, I know I am leaving someone out--sorry. Peter and Jackie will be back from honeymoon in Greece soon, and they will add their love to 12^th Street in a new home.

Some of you know my fascination with www.chucknorrisfacts.com the website with crazy things about Chuck. My favorite: “Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.” I guess another favorite is, “Chuck Norris doesn’t read a book, he just stares at it until the information he wants comes out.” Or, “The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.” Alright, one more, I promise that’s it: “Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is.” Tuesday evening, the family thought they heard someone in their upstairs. They were freaked out, don’t have a phone yet, so they ran to Jessica and Laura’s. They were shocked that Laura just went over to the house, started walking around and looking for whoever it was. A bunch of us laughed because she does crazy stuff like that, walking late at night, kicking drunks out of people’s yards, whatever. I said, “No one will mess with her, she’s too mean.” John C said, “yeah, Chuck Norris answers to Laura…”