living grace

To begin this introduction, Living Grace is a part of a bigger organization called Living Hope, which is founded on a desire for the church to reach out by taking a holistic approach that effects spiritual, physical, economic and political change in the people of the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. There are a few different branches of Living Hope, but Living Grace in particular is the homeless & addictions ministry, which focuses on feeding the homeless, counseling the broken, clothing the naked, and recovery/job placement.

We spend every Wednesday morning at Living Grace. Each weekday morning at 815 they serve breakfast to a maximum of 50 people. Everything is free provided that you sit through the worship songs and morning devotion before you eat. They do the same at lunch at 1230. Half of our team gets there before breakfast, sometimes we do the devotion (basically a 5-10 minute mini-sermon), and then sit with the people while they eat. After they leave, we stay and help because Wednesday is when they receive their biggest shipment of the week (a local grocery store donates food). We help them sort out what is useable, wash all the produce, chop the veggies, prepare the bread, and do any odd jobs that need doing. Midway through the morning the other half of our team comes and takes over. They continue on with the veggie preparation, and stay through the afternoon devotion (again, we sometimes do this ourselves), and leave after lunch once everyone is gone.

At first, I was struggling with the whole idea of this ministry, because sometimes I don't think the most effective way of really helping people is making them sit through a sermon. For instance, in the US, lots of kids are forced to go to church and bribed with ice cream on Sunday afternoon, but they end up forgetting or resenting church later in life. Again, this was a case of outreach just not feeling as good as I thought it would. Plus it was sort of a surprise, because when we did community lunch back in Auckland, it was much more focused on relationships than on anything religious. We ate with the people, sat with them around tables, talked with them, and sometimes got to pray with them. But at Living Grace, it is highly focused on getting people fed. And saved. We sit in rows (not convenient for talking), we don't eat with the people, and after nearly every devotional, they sort of have an altar call. You've probably heard this kind of thing before - you know the whole "You could die today! If you died today, where would you spend eternity?".... which, I know, it's true - - but I personally don't think it's effective, and ultimately, I don't think it's the reason that people should decide to follow Jesus. If that's your only motivation - fear -I don't think it will be sustainable. It's not fully acknowledging who God is. It's worshipping Him because He can save you from going to hell, not because He is worthy of that praise and it is simply the honor He's due.

This is something I've learned/thought a lot about over the course of DTS - that we shouldn't worship God just for what He can/has done for us, but rather for who He is. Yes, He has done some incredible things for all of us - but what if He stopped? What if you went through some really hard times? Would your faith hold up then?

We heard a sermon a few weeks ago from a guy who is in the midst of some hard times like this, and it was the best sermon I've heard since being on DTS. One of the things he talked about that really stuck in my mind was about the famous missionary Hudson Taylor. He said that Taylor had a scroll on either side of his bed that read, in Chinese characters, "Ebenezer" and "Jehovah Jireh". The word Ebenezer refers to a passage in 1 Samuel 7 where the Israelites defeat the Philistines, after Samuel has offered a sacrifice. Realizing that God aided them in the battle, Samuel puts up a stone in memorial and names it Eben-Ezer, which means "stone of help" and as Samuel places the rock down, he declares "Till now the Lord has helped us". So this word Ebenezer has come to signify the way God has been faithful in the past. As for Jehovah Jireh, is the name that Abraham gave to the place where God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. He named the land after God gave him a ram to sacrifice instead, and it means "God will provide". So, these two words - one a recollection of past faithfulness, and the other a sure hope of things to come - describe the place where we spend our lives as Christians. We are often hanging in the balance between knowing that God has been faithful in the past, and knowing that he will provide in the future. And that land in-between is scary, and can be painful and difficult, but because of the poles on either side, even when it's shaking, we know it is stable ground. Anyway, that was a really complicated story and is mostly just my stream-of-consciousness thought process, and is only loosely related to Living Grace - - - so let's get back on track.

As the weeks have gone on, I have realized that what they're doing there is a good thing because they are filling a real need that these people have. And they are able to do it every weekday! Breakfast and lunch. I find that really impressive. They are there, every day, making this happen. I mean, if we all sat around and criticized every ministry that we see, nothing would ever get done. So while I would maybe do things differently, I can't say I've started any homeless ministries recently, so I should probably do less judging of people who have and more just being obedient and just helping them. All in all, I am learning a lot from helping out at Living Grace. It's definitely challenging me to think deeper, and I feel good that we can help out with a ministry that's providing so much for Muizenberg, so I'm glad we've gotten involved there.