extra pizza

"Are you hungry?  Would you like some pizza?"

Last night was the last night of Urbana.  The first night we got here, we asked each other, "What are we even doing here?"  Last night, New Years eve 2009 as we sang out with 17,000 other people praise to God in English, Spanish, Swahili and Hindi.  It was a different kind of worship for me, I think for all of us.



You know when you look at some one differently, when you get to know their heart more.  How you desire to hear someone speak more often when you realize how deep their wisdom is?  Maybe you were so busy speaking you never listened before, too busy with other things to realize how unique and special they were.  We "look" at God differently, because we see him more fully. His character, his movement and his heart.

Each day at Urbana, we experienced God more deeply for two reasons.  They may sound basic--because they are.  Our recent connection with God, which has been overwhelmingly altering, joyful, etc., includes no secret steps or rituals.  We didn't learn a secret prayer.  It's so easy that we often just overlook it.

1. The bible (I know, hold on, don't tune out yet.)
2.  Seeing what God is currently, right now doing globally to save lives.  To help the 24,000 people who die a day from poverty.

OK, so the bible--I know, basic.  But I guess Andrew and I just kind of stick to the New Testament, maybe some Psalms or proverbs, right?  Well, what stuck out to us was hearing seminars spoken by these amazing people, who do great things for God, and each one claims sections of the bible that I NEVER pay attention to as their own ministy section of the bible.

examples
-Abner who runs a Latino outreach in urban LA starts every bible study studying the story of Moses.  How Moses didn't feel like he belonged with the Egyptians where he lives, or with the Hebrew, the land of his heritage.  Abner says that the immigrants who have moved to America from Latin America feel like God understands them when they read this story.  When it says that Moses brother had to speak for him because Moses who is said to "not speak well," Americans imply he has a speech impediment, the Latinos understand it differently, and know how it feels to "not speak well" in the land they live.

One speaker claimed the book of Amos for his ministry, another found inspiration in Hosea when sent out, "Chosen People Ministries" point Jews to their Messiah throughout the old testament, especially Isaiah.  Ruth Padilla, a missionary in Costa Rica speaks of Joseph constantly to the people she's ministering to.  Daryl McCarthy shared from Ezekiel which shot straight through Andrew and my heart.

Andrew and I look at the Bible with new eyes, and consequently God.  He knew what he was doing when he put those "weird" books in the bible.  That's why the bible is the living word of God, and why it's for every person.  How he can speak to the heart of each person on this each despite their country, nationality, or position.  So now we're paging through it, and loving it.


NEEXTTT, we see what God's doing.  In America we don't really see people dying of starvation. We don't really see poor people very often.  But we saw them this week, and we saw God seeking them. There is a section called"Global Connections" center in Urbana.  Name a people group, anywhere in the world, and there is a ministry set up to meet their needs.  We saw thousands of college students sign up to do all sorts of things around the world.  Indian slum ministries to Afghanistan outreach, Italy to Bolivian prostitutes, China and Russian Jews.  Many organizations set up to save the overwhelming amount of slaves in our world.  Children used as sex slaves in southeast Asia behind locked doors, raped for pay.

Us?

Well, I got in trouble for bringing my camera in.  Yep.  I was kindly told that many of the people who run these ministries work in a very sensitive areas, in countries where Christianity is outlawed, and if their pictures get out on the internet they could be in danger.

Well, since I don't want to add to the 480 Christian martyrs a day, I tucked my camera away.

I was shown in God's word his desires for the people in the world, met examples of people living in constant service like Jesus risking their lives to help the poor and oppressed, and saw what God is doing globally.  It's just sad to see how much people are needed to go and serve, to be willing to give up comfort for doing what is desperately needed.  We live in a real time world, where people live and die each day without knowing Jesus.

"If you don't serve the people around you in your community, you have no business being a missionary. An over the ocean plane ride doesn't change people, or make people more spiritual."

Andrew and I are praying that God will open our eyes, and give us courage to serve the people we interact with or see on a daily basis.  Tonight we ordered a medium pizza, but could only eat half.  While driving around town, the snow lightly falling outside in the 17 degree weather, I felt sad thinking how our pizza would go bad in our hotel room without a fridge.

"God, show us someone hungry, so we can share this with them."  My thoughts, 'you know, if I saw more hungry people, I could do this more often, we probably won't see anyone.'

Then we saw him sitting at a bus stop, at 11:30 pm, while it snowed.

"Let's give him the pizza"
"But, what if he's not homeless, we could offend him"
"Well, we could just ask, or something"
"But we already passed him"
"Let's just turn around."
"OK."

"Excuse me, sir.  Are you hungry?  Would you like some pizza?"

"YES!  Oh, thankyou," he sputtered through his thick speech impediment as he limped excitedly towards us.

"Oh THANK YOU!  God bless you, thank you!"

And we drove away and cried.