all the small things

This is Tamaya. As I rode the church bus around downtown Jackson to the different communities before Wednesday church, this little sweetheart hopped on at one of the apartment complexes. She kind of stole my heart as soon as she sat next to me. Throughout the night little moments like this made me smile over and over, and I was encouraged that I get to love on her all semester.

The first thing I've noticed in working with HIS Heart, an urban ministry in the heart of downtown Jackson, is the closeness of the poverty to where I am located. In actuality, it takes 16 minutes to get to Calvary Baptist from the home I'm staying in. But the irony is, Calvary is on the same street I am living in currently. If I turn right out of my driveway and go straight for ten miles, Calvary is there, in the midst of all this poverty, on the left side of the road.

It struck me the first day I planned the route how direct the path from my little safety net to the poorest of inner city living was, and how I can't really pretend like it doesn't exist. Straight shot into downtown, and everywhere you look is broken. My heart naturally longs to offer hope and light from the Lord when I see this type of need, and honestly as we made visits and met people this week, it was the closest thing I've seen to true need and poverty since Cape Town. I'm not naive enough to think that it only exists outside of our country, but I guess I'm selfish enough to live like that's the truth. And the Lord boldly reminded me this week why it is not right to go on living as if our neighbors aren't in just as much need and pain as those precious children I met in South Africa.

I've always said "I don't want to be a 'social worker', I just want to work in the church." But I think the Lord has already begun to show me that the work of the church is to love those in need--those who the social workers are often helping.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

I pray that the Lord uses this semester to soften my heart and blur the lines of that calling in a way--I've always separated what a social worker does from what my call to ministry looks like. But sometimes my hard lines have prevented me from seeing the extreme need right before me, and often those needs--physical, emotional, mental, etc...--must be addressed before spiritual counsel is heard. I have always recognized the need for Christ in any sort of help and healing, apart from Him we can do nothing. But as Christ almost always met physical needs, I know those are realistically a part of ministry that cannot be overlooked.

"If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" James 2:16

This truth hit me hard this week, and it's only the beginning!