Dear KKIM/KARS Family,
I am very humbled this Easter morning, having spent part of my afternoon at the Albuquerque Rescue Mission, but mostly on the streets of downtown Albuquerque……..
It was there annual Foot washing event held the day before Easter.
I was invited last year.
As I arrived after morning softball practice dressed in my softball uniform, I saw so many people in need lined up for foot washing, haircuts, shoes, socks, and children for their Easter basket, mostly homeless folks, but yet some who have held onto a home or apartment……..
I walked the streets talking with many and praying with many……….Dressed in my baseball pants…….became known for a short time as the Preacher in baseball pants!!! It added some needed humor to the day and helped me relate to folks………that I just wasn’t a stuffy Preacher.
My emotions ran high…….many…. many of these people know Jesus, My brother has spent a great deal of his last 20 years homeless.
One guy told me, “We homeless people believe in Jesus, he is are only friend.”
As I prayed for folks I heard stories like this………
I love Jesus, but I cannot quit drinking………….
I believe in God but I am in a fix because of past decisions……..
My Parents left me when I was a youngster……..
Please pray for my family we need everything……….
I’m on the edge of life, does it help me to pray, since I have not pleased God?…….
I have no money……but when I get money from a day job I spend it on booze because the weekends are so lonely, but please do not give me money today because that would not be a good idea.
I’m 80 years old I’m from Los Angeles and I had to leave because my 13 grand kids are all on drugs and now I have found a nursing home.
I have to beg for money when I get a need.
I cannot get medical care.
I kicked crack…….found Jesus and now I am trying to get me life back and I want to learn more about Jesus.
I looked into the eye’s of these folks, I hugged them, I shook their hands, I prayed with them……..
I really believe they ministered more to me than I to them.
The disconnect between the poor and those of us not poor, is getting larger……..
I believe the disconnect between the poor and the Church is getting larger…….
I kept thinking of all these folks lined up in front of the Rescue Mission and asking my self, Lord what do you want me to do?
So I just started walking and talking to folks….
I am sweating as I type this……this has really humbled me…..it is making me look at my life with Jesus.
I find it so refreshing to meet honest people and that is what I ran into yesterday………
I sat on the sidewalk I listened to a young man for 30 min or more…….his story of his parents leaving him, his life of booze and drugs…..but now he is changing his life….realizing his mistakes, taking responsibility for them and having God in his life and looking for work.
I found most all these folks yesterday truly honest with me about their relationship with Jesus.
I look at the facade put up by many Church going people and looked into the eye’s of the very poor yesterday………and then I read this today by Brennan Manning……….
When a man or women is truly honest, not just working at it, it is virtually impossible to insult them personally. There is nothing there to insult. Those who are truly ready for the Kingdom are just such people. Their inner poverty of spirit and rigorous honesty has set them free. They are people who have nothing to be proud of.
Getting honest with ourselves does not make us unacceptable to God. It does not distance us from God, but draws us to Him——as nothing else can—–and opens us anew to the flow of grace. While Jesus calls each of us to a more perfect life, we cannot achieve it on our own. To be alive is to be broken; to be broken is to stand in need of grace. It is only through God’s grace than any of us could dare to hope that we could be more like Jesus Christ.
The saved sinner with the titled halo has been converted from mistrust to trust, has arrived at an inner poverty of spirit, and lives the best he or she can in rigorous honesty with self, others, and God.
I am thankful to Jannetta La Mort and Pastor John Hill of Albuquerque Rescue Mission
for allowing me to take part……..but I was more ministered to than the folks that I ministered to………
I have taken to the streets……….I belong to Jesus, who knew no walls in His Ministry on earth……He still doesn’t……….What do we find in the Bible as far as who the people Jesus hung around with?…………I have learned much from Kyle Martin in Ministry and it is taking the Love of Christ to the streets………..walking……and I walked the streets in Downtown Albuquerque yesterday……..I looked into their eye’s and saw Jesus.
It has impacted me so…………. what has happened to our Godly priorities? We are all nothing but sinners………Who have been given Grace by our RISEN SAVIOR
Let us humble ourselves before our RISEN SAVIOR and to all his people….all his people some 4,000 children, they tell me, are homeless here in Albuquerque.
Let us be an honest people………
As many will eat a fancy dinner today……..and have much to eat…in a good solid home, a bed of your own…..money in your pocket……..and many friends around….let us remember the poor…….
My Easter dinner just won’t go down the same this year……..
In the Love of Christ, Dewey Sharon and Family
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