Alas this was the last week for Sunday Morning Live until the fall.  I will miss the wonderful breakfasts, the chance to worship with my whole spirit.  You see I was raised in the Catholic church and am more comfortable with music that makes you want to get up and dance or clap your hands.  I like to worship with movement and music.  I am very thankful that we added this worship last fall.  Music, food, movement, laughter and praise-  for me this is a great way to worship!!.  Thanks Joe for the gift of your talent in the kitchen.  Thanks to the Praise team and for Sandy for his vision.  We are all blessed by your work to glorify God.  See you next fall!!

Sometimes I think I run my spiritual life like I do my car.  I go, go, go until the car is on empty with a capital E.  Last Wednesday night I found myself running on empty.  Three hours before I was due at Room in the Inn, I received two frantic calls – one from Zeke and one from Erik.  It took a few hours but the crises were under control by 5 pm, just when I usually show up for RITI.  The problem was my spiritual resources were depleted and frankly I did not feel like reaching out to anyone.  If I had taken the time to fill up early in the day – reading the bible, sitting in silence, listening for God’s voice, these two crises would not have emptied my tank.  Much like the brides waiting for the bridegroom I did not have enough oil in my lamp or gas in my tank and boy was I tired. 

And what a night it turned out to be for RITI.  Two different families with four children (a teenager, two – two year olds and a 4 month old), one cranky grandmother and a blind women in a wheelchair.  Not a good day to be running on empty. I should know better – I should know that you never know when or how you will be needed.  I should know that I must be prepared.  I need to focus on filling up my own spiritual gas tank so I can be ready when God calls. 

Thank goodness for Pastor Al of the Walking by Faith Church.  I am sure that man never even lets his spiritual gas tank get half full.  He just exudes God’s love every time I see him.  Just being with him adds a little reserve to my tank.  I am going on a retreat this weekend and I just know I will come back with an extra tank of gas. And all you all don’t forget to fill up this Sunday!   

I bring Braden to church for so many different reasons. One reason is because I want to give his mom some rest time as she is fighting breast cancer.  She works full time and has completed 6 chemo treatments and now is in 45 days of radiation.  Another reason is that I want to begin Braden’s faith journey with him.  And yet another is that I miss my children’s childhood days and love to have an excuse to play outside in the creek and not do housework. So as I reflect on Sunday with Braden, I have to smile when I think about his view of church– “Our church has food!”

Date: 2009-02-27, 2:19PM EST-  Craigs List

I have enjoyed the hospitality of each church 6 times since becoming homeless. I recall 3 where the food was so good that I worried about weight gain shortly. I recall 2 others, for the uniqueness of a type of friendship without stereotyping, hesitancy or silent fears that developed within me strength to face the next day with my focus more towards productivity than survival.

It’s of this overwhelming sense of happiness that I am compelled to speak today.

Let me first give a much deserving shout out to young Mr. Josh Hagler, since called home to glory, for his persistence in speaking to members of Hickory Grove, United Methodist Church that they sponsor Room at the Inn. Successful after he passed away, I thank him and whisper the word ‘legacy’ that he may smile with the knowledge that he lives on.

Somewhere during the evening of very friendly host, every anxious smiles, fantastic meal, piping hot shower, Independence Day video, jokes, laughs and sharing a smoke brake, came the calm of peace that begins within and explodes outward with happiness to all things. Creativity is born here, I am sure. Each of the two times that this has occurred, I was transformed from homeless to someone with a misfortune. It would be as if I face a snarling lion that suddenly turned over in anticipation of a belly rub. Each time, the weight of my problem dissipated and I was allowed to focus on organizing my thoughts towards the fix, as apposed to distraught for the day.

I longer view the world from ground level, where each may look down on me. I view the world from ground zero, where each may view my launch.

Consider that I can not fail from this position and even that I currently reside at the same place where Jesus slept.

I thank you all, who volunteer yourselves for this program. I would think that with each person you help, the spark would come from a slightly different mix of people and events. Therein lay the magic of each moment that you reach out. You have given me fortitude, I am sure that I must not be alone in this.

No name given

Of course I did not notice him right away because I had to run to Walgreens – first for laundry detergent and the second time for one of the women neighbors (that’s another story).  By the time I got back, Pastor Al of the Walking by Faith church had welcomed the guests and everyone was busy collecting laundry and getting into clean clothes.  There was Ray – my new problem.  He did not look like a problem – he was clean, soft spoken and happy to be at our church.  He did not want to cause a problem – but he was one.  So I went home to call Julie, the RITI director and Jane sat down to have dinner with him.  After I spoke with Julie, she had to get home in order to check her database to see if he had checked in.  By the time she called me back with the unfortunate news that he was a stowaway and had not checked into the system, Ray had eaten dinner and was attending Pastor Al’s bible study.  She told me we had to send him to the shelter downtown as he could not be rewarded for cheating the system. 

I called Jane back to give her the bad news and tell her I would come up to tell him, but she would have none of that.  She said she had spoken with Ray and she felt he needed to be there that night and she could not in good conscience turn him away.  She said she had to step out in faith – throw out the rules and listen to what God was telling her to do.   She had spoken to Joe and he was in total agreement.  As I wrestled with the decision, Craig quoted me the blessing that Ron gives at the end of each service –

            Remember, you go nowhere by accident,

            Wherever you go, God is sending you.

            Wherever you are, God has put you there,

            God has a purpose in your being there.

            Christ Who indwells you has something

            God wants to do through you where you are.

            Believe this and go in God’s grace and love and power.

 I still wondered if I had made the right decision to allow Ray to spend the night, but at 8:30 that next morning when Jane called me, I realized that it had nothing to do with me or my decision, but it had everything to do with God.  Jane told me she had a life altering event that night – and when someone that has had cancer tells you that – well you know God was at work that night.  It seems Pastor Al gave a bible study that people were desperate to hear and when he finished, he and Ray spoke for over an hour and after that Jane and Joe and Ray stay up until 11:30 PM sharing their stories, struggles and faith in God.  God’s healing words were delivered that night to our most unlikely guest – our stowaway.  And God’s purpose was fulfilled because Jane, Joe and Pastor Al were listening to His call.

You have got to sign up for the nursery so you can get your chance to hold our new arrival – Madi Grace, newest child of God at Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church.

There was the beautiful homemade Christmas dinner by the Leischners and the McLemores.  Every dish was delicious.  It was just like going home for Christmas and all of your favorite dishes had been lovingly prepared by your mom. 

 There was the wonderfully hectic shopping at Walmart that was done in less than an hour with Diann and Jeremiah Pallman.  Shopping at Walmart is usually a chore for me, but with the Pallmans there was a sense of excitement and joy.

There was the gift of sitting with my children and husband watching them laugh, sing and pray with our neighbors.  Sharing my faith with my children, loving others through them and with them is not an everyday occurrence these days as they are often away at college.  

But for me the best gift of all was born that night and this year I experienced His birth anew as I sat in the church pew.  That night I heard an angel rejoicing at his birth and the angel was homeless man.   

I spend a lot of time shopping for, ministering to, cleaning up after our neighbors that there is not often time to be in communion with them.  As he was singing quietly with the anthem, I felt a glimpse of heaven, a place where all would worship together, a place where all join in one voice praising God.  There will be no black or white, no rich or poor.  There will be a beautiful blending until we are one voice and one people praising God.  A communion.

Mary Ann