KOH2RVA: Day 257

Someone was asking me about First Baptist’s year-long, every-member mission trip recently, and wondering how we organized it. “How did you find something for everybody to do?” she asked.

The answer: we didn’t.

I told her what I’ve said again and again since coming to First Baptist, that there must be a thousand ways to bring heaven to earth and that our responsibility is to look around for anything that doesn’t look like heaven and then roll up our sleeves and get to work. I’m convinced that if we look at the world through our own eyes, we will see the things that break our own hearts and call us to action.

That’s so much easier than trying to come up with one, big mission project that everyone can embrace, and so much better than giving someone an assignment and saying, “Here, go do this.”

It also leads to some interesting results.

For example: I heard from one of our members recently who said she was bringing heaven to earth by feeding the feral cats in her neighborhood. And she said she’s using the premium cat food, not the cheap stuff.

That’s pretty much all she said, but I can fill in the blanks. She’s telling me that when she sees those skinny, half-starved cats it breaks her heart, she feels moved to do something about it. And she is moved because she believes those cats are part of God’s creation, and that God has it in his heart to redeem not only his human creatures, but everything he has made and called good, including cats (Rom. 8:18-21). And so she has taken on this ministry to the homeless, and she dishes out the premium cat food because she thinks of cats as something God made and loves, and not as a nuisance.

Chances are good that if she had submitted this idea to the church it would have never been approved. Someone would have said, “We don’t want to encourage this kind of thing,” and someone else would have said, “Are we supposed to pay for the cat food?” But she heard me say, “There must be a thousand ways to bring heaven to earth,” and she looked around for anything that didn’t look like heaven and saw this—skinny, half-starved cats—and it broke her heart, and she rolled up her sleeves and went to work.

That sounds like a parable to me. I can almost hear Jesus say, “What is the Kingdom of Heaven like, and to what shall I compare it? The Kingdom is like a woman whose heart was broken by what she saw in her own neighborhood, and who had the gumption to get up off the couch and do something about it.”

Read Full Post »

KOH2RVA: Day 249

Last night was our children’s end-of-the-year program at First Baptist Church, which is always a treat. Those kids who have spent the school year in Wednesday night music and mission activities get to show off what they’ve learned and last night we got to see:

They’ve learned a lot.

I didn’t take good notes and I forgot to take a picture, but here are some of the things that stood out:

The Kid with the Big Voice, who stood on the steps with the Angel Choir and sang the parts of the song he knew with enthusiasm. It was funny. The choir would be singing along in those tiny voices children have and then, suddenly, they would reach the chorus and here would come TKWTBV (the kid with the big voice), booming out the first line of the chorus like an opera star. The look on his face was priceless. He loves to sing, and it shows. I’ve got to get to know that kid.

The Prayer Walkers. These precious little girls told us about prayer walking in the neighborhood (which is exactly what it sounds like: you walk around the neighborhood praying for people and things). Several of the girls told us that they had prayed for “the lost cat.” Apparently they had seen a poster asking if anyone had seen a lost cat. The poster had a picture of the cat on it and the girls just melted. “Poor Mittens!” Isn’t it a comfort to know that somebody is out there praying for lost cats?

The Fake Mustaches. I think it was the Mission Force group that was telling us about the things they had done in the community during the year, and one of those things was singing Christmas carols at the nursing homes. So half the boys put on fake mustaches, as if they were the elderly residents of the nursing home, and the other half sang carols to them. When they finished singing the “elderly residents” came and hugged the boys and patted on them and tousled their hair just as they had at the nursing homes. The acting was Oscar-worthy.

The Fund Raisers. A few of the Girls in Action (GA’s) stood up to tell us about the fund-raising they’d been doing for mission projects around the world. Morella Harris told us about “Pure Water, Pure Love,” and I think she said at one point that it costs $500 to dig a well or put in a pump (or something) in an African village and that she and the other girls had raised enough money to do that six times over: $3,000. I gasped. She said they’d earned most of their money by selling lemonade, cutting grass, and—surprisingly—by selling water.

What impressed me about last night’s event was how many of the presentations were focused on mission, and how much of that mission was an effort to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia. Kids catch on so quickly, and often they end up teaching us what can be done if we throw ourselves into it with enthusiasm and prayer and fund raising and fake mustaches.

I want to thank Ruth Szucs and Candi Brown, the staff members most responsible for directing our children’s music and mission programs, but I also want to thank the dozens of volunteers who come on Wednesday night week after week to work with children. What we got last night was just a taste of the fruit of their labors.

And it was delicious.

Read Full Post »

KOH2RVA: Day 244

I don’t know how many years Bob Palmer has been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, but I do know this: for as long as I’ve been at First Baptist he’s been “Mr. Habitat.”

I was glad to discover First Baptist was involved with Habitat when I arrived five years ago.  I’ve volunteered a lot of hours to help people have decent, affordable housing and once had breakfast with Millard Fuller, Habitat’s founder, whose motto was: “No more shacks!”  Bob Palmer is committed to that vision, and like Mr. Fuller, sees it as a way of putting his faith into practice.

One of the other things I’ve admired about Bob is his commitment to racial reconciliation.  He’s become friends with one of the deacons at First African Baptist Church and they regularly dream about how our two churches might partner more closely.  One of those ways is Habitat’s “Faith Build,” when members of the faith community are encouraged to volunteer.  Not long ago I spent a day with several members of First Baptist and First African as we worked on a Habitat house together.  Driving nails side by side is a wonderful way to forget your differences and find out how much you have in common, and to learn that every once in a while everybody–even the most experienced volunteer–bends a nail.

So, thanks to Bob and the other FBC members pictured in this video who are bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia, through Habitat for Humanity.  The families who move out of their shacks and into these beautiful homes may conclude that, for them at least, the Kingdom has come

Read Full Post »

KOH2RVA: Day 232

At the end of worship yesterday Lori Bianco slipped me a folded piece of paper with a KOH2RVA story written on it: an account of a moment when the Kingdom of Heaven came to Richmond, Virginia, and she was lucky enough to have a front row seat.

She wrote:

The family I nanny for was going through some old clothes to give to Goodwill, and I asked if I could have them for a little girl who lives in an apartment complex where a friend of mine lives. She always has a big smile on her face, even though I always see her in the same outfit, and all through the winter, only sandals on her feet.

I brought over a box and a bag full of little girl treasures. When I knocked on the door, the children could not open the door since they were babysitting for their little sister and their mom was sleeping. I told them I would come back in a little bit.

I went across the road to have tea with a family from Egypt, and saw her little face pressed against the window…waiting impatiently for me to come back.

When I went back I was immediately let into the apartment. I put down the box and bag, but they were hesitant to look at it all. So I started to pull out the different things. This adorable little girl smiled at everything I brought out. Then I pulled out a pair of Barbie sandals, and her eyes grew large, she sucked in her breath, and her face lit up with the biggest smile possible.

Her Egyptian mother, who spoke very little English, repeated “God bless you!” over and over.

This was by far the highlight of my week, and the blessing I received from them far outweighed the little that I did for them.

When we do things like this—simple acts of kindness and generosity—we often take people by surprise. They want to know why we would do such a thing. That gives us the perfect opportunity to say, “Because of Jesus. Because this is what I think Jesus would do.” If they know who Jesus is, it might cause them to think about him in a different way, not only as someone they’ve seen in pictures, hanging on a cross, but as someone who comes and gives smiles and hugs and Barbie sandals to little girls. And if they don’t know who he is and say, “Jesus who?” Well!

That’s the perfect opportunity to tell them.

Read Full Post »

KOH2RVA: Day 199

Much of our focus for this year-long, every-member mission trip has been outside the walls of the church, but I don’t mind admitting that much of the time, perhaps even most of the time, the members of First Baptist Church bring heaven to earth for those who are inside the walls.

For example: at last month’s deacons’ meeting I led a training session on how to make a hospital visit, thinking especially about those times our own members are in the hospital. I emphasized that the word deacon literally means “minister,” and then I led them through these ten steps:

Making a hospital visit: suggestions for deacons

1. Park in the visitor’s parking lot. Go in the front entrance. Ask about the person at the information desk. Get a room number and follow directions to the floor.

2. Ask at the nurse’s station about visiting Mr. Jones in Room 555. If they ask about your relationship to the patient say, “I’m his minister” (the literal meaning of the word deacon).

3. Sanitize your hands before going in. If the doctor or nurse is in the room, wait in the hallway while they do their work.

4. When you enter the room, say, “Hello, Mr. Jones. I’m a deacon at First Baptist Church. I’ve come by for a visit.”

5. Be considerate. Don’t bounce on the bed. Don’t come in with the smell of gas on your hands or strong perfume that may be unsettling. Don’t say to the person, “My uncle died of what you have” (that suggestion from Bob Higgins).

6. Limit your visit to 5-10 minutes. The person is not there to entertain visitors, but to try to get well. A five minute visit will feel longer if you take off your topcoat, pull up a chair and sit down.

7. Try not to ask, “So, how are you?” Instead let them lead the conversation. If they need to talk about something, they will. If they don’t, they’ll talk about the food in the hospital.

8. Say, “I’d like to pray with you before I go. Is there anything in particular I could pray for?” Hold a hand if you can and then gather up the things they have mentioned and offer them up to God in a short, simple prayer. Leave a moment of silence after the “Amen.” Let them be the first to speak.

9. When you have finished the visit stand up and say something like, “I’ve enjoyed the visit. I hope to see you in church soon.” If that’s not appropriate, simply say a sincere goodbye and leave.

10. Sanitize your hands on your way out of the hospital.

The training session was well received, in fact, Lynn Turner and I got this email message from Clark Norton, one of our newest deacons, the next day.

Jim and Lynn,

Sign me up and give me some tough cookies! I live just down the street from St Francis in Midlothian but I’ll go anywhere.

Thanks again for inviting us to serve more.

Clark

Now, that’s the spirit, isn’t it? There’s a deacon who knows what the word means and who can’t wait to do some ministry. After all, if deacons aren’t going to do ministry, why ordain them?

May your tribe increase, Clark, and maybe on one of those hospital visits you will not only visit our members, but ask at the nurse’s station if there is anybody else on the floor who could use some cheering up.

Then you really will be bringing the KOH2RVA!

Read Full Post »