what a week, 2nd ed.

[Nathanial] *sigh* God showed up again, in profound ways. This past week has included another series of events that can only be attributed to some of the sneaky ways God is orchestrating this journey before me. Observe:

The biggest event of my past week occurred as I was driving to Gallery last Sunday. I pulled up to an intersection in Dayton’s Bluff and allowed a pedestrian to pass in front of my vehicle. It seemed pretty apparent that this man was homeless. As I made my left hand turn, the thought ran through my head, “You could stop and invite this man into your car. You could have him join you for church this morning. Then you could take him out to lunch after church.” Unfortunately, I did nothing except keep driving. The further I drove away from this man, the more my heart pounded with these thoughts. It created a church service that was spent inside my own head wrestling. I continued to wrestle with this missed opportunity and another conviction that occurred during church throughout all of Sunday afternoon and evening. I wrestled so much that I got a migraine! The internal turmoil continued all through Monday. Interactions among our house members further twisted my heart to a point where I had a very difficult time falling asleep!
As the week wore on, I was able to process through these feelings and thoughts I had been having. One of my very wise roommates reminded me to acknowledge how God is redefining my heart. There is something very special when this type of heart change can be observed in a tangible way. If I had passed this homeless man even just one year ago, I would not have had the same experience. Through my time here at Ekklesiah, God is truly forming my heart a little more like His own. Please keep praying that the hearts of Ryan, Tony, Stash, Kaleb, & Nathanial continue to be molded and shaped into the Heart of God!

Well, God wasn’t finished with me yet. On Wednesday of this past week, He stopped me dead in my tracks again. I was working with an 8 year old nina at school and near the completion of our lesson together; she wanted to draw something on the chalkboard. Since she had worked so diligently that particular morning, I allowed her to go hog wild. She began to tell me about the new home her family moved into recently. She began to draw an apartment building. She included some windows and a door. Then, my friend told me the reason her family moved was because the house right next door belonged to her Tio [uncle in Spanish]. Here were her next comments: “My Tio’s house is right here. He has a lot of grass. We have a little grass, but my Tio has BIG grass.” She proceeded to grab the green chalk and scribble relative plots. It is in this comment where God hit me with a greyhound bus. The single thing most important to my friend, the thing that meant the most to her was grass! she repeated it four times! GRASS! It was such a jaw-breaking reminder of the beauty of simplicity that my eyes welled up with tears, right in the middle of my work day! It is my prayer that what we come to value really are the simple things like grass and that we might not be worried about the unnecessary or unimportant things to our Creator.

Nope, God still wasn’t done with me this past week. Thursday night my brothers at Ekklesiah supported Academia de Cesar Chavez during Math and Science Night. In exchange for a couple free slices, they gave a couple hours to serve juice and pizza and helped me provide childcare for families. While the selfless act of service alone is to be applauded, this night resonated with me on a deeper level too. My roommate Kaleb is onto something in his recent desires to share in the aspects of our lives outside the walls of Ekklesiah. It is because of serving together Thursday night that my roommates will now have visual images to connect to when I talk about my day at work. They can now recall a few of the kids I might mention on any given day. This is truly something special to me. To echo the prayers of my brothers here at Ekklesiah, keep praying that our relationships with one another would become more vulnerable and reach new depths of brotherhood. शांति.