I am constantly reminded that Jesus loves us all, despite where we are...
I am so excited! I welcome my first missions team this weekend! They are coming for their second round of Charm City serving, they joined us for a long weekend last year and have decided this week to turn that weekend into a week! I am ridiculously excited and anxious for them to get here! I’ve developed a relationship with this team outside of them coming to serve and have spent some time in their territory, which I am excited to do again! This team along with another team that will arrive later next week will be the hands behind preparing all the last minute details, of the block party! I am most excited for the tie-dye party that will ensue at some point this week!! YAH!
As this team leaves next Sunday another team will have already arrived, they are a local team that will be spending time with us in the city, they will be there a little under a week, their week will be exciting because they’ll kick off our summer Diversity Summer Camp! I am UBER excited about that!
I am so excited for this summer, God really has opened a whole new world of opportunities for me this summer. I’ve only been full-time at the church for a week now, and I’ve done things I’ve been dreaming about for the past year and a half, I got to take one of my third grade girls out for lunch yesterday and spoil her, I got to help two boys apply for college, I got to watch two girls get excited about filling out job applications online, I’ve learned to play pool, and played the game back and forth with the twins (yes all four of them!) so many times this week, I could probably tell you every word on every card. I’ve loved and been loved in ways this week, I’ve been waiting for. I’ve spent time getting to know my “neighbors” and even more time outside on the streets with my kids. I’ve danced in the rain with teen girls, I’ve tossed the football with junior boys and dug a little deeper into the lives of the kids I love and the kids I am getting to know.
Now for the sad part of my week, everyday I’ve seen our friend “C” this week, “C” is a woman who’s lost her life to the ways of the streets, “C” doesn’t know how to function without her bottle of vodka (or whatever her drink of choice is that day) and her drug for the week. I’ve seen this woman at her best and her worst, I’ve cleaned her up after she’s been beat up, I’ve hugged her when her uncle got put in a nursing home, I’ve listened to her cry over her “boyfriend”, I’ve watched her continue to fight this battle with the streets, I’ve begged her to get help and held her while we’ve prayed, this week I feel like I am watching her die, someone I love, someone who I can’t help. In the past few weeks, she’s lost so much weight it’s crazy, she lives her life bouncing up and down the streets hanging on random men, she’s HIV positive, she’s always high, she’s GOING to be another statistic and I feel like it’s going to be sooner than later. Lastnight as I lay in bed I couldn’t help but wonder where she was last night, and I couldn’t help but thank God for her beautiful life, even though to outsiders she looks a wreck (she is), but if you dig deep enough you find her beauty. I begged God for the right words to say to convince her to help herself, I begged God for people to cross her path, like me, who love her despite her shortcomings, I begged God to protect her. Now I am begging YOU, will you join me in prayer for “C” would you lift her up to the Lord, asking for protection, asking for divine intervention and for people to smother her with the love of Jesus?
About colleen