Heart Work

What to say? My heart is filled with such love for Uganda, the people, the Lord and everything; I can’t help but cry tears of bittersweet as I sit here on the floor of my house putting thankyou’s together for my upcoming Silent Auction and Dessert Night. I have a mix collection of worship music shuffling, and so many of the songs right now are worship songs I sang with the Calvary Chapel Kampala Worship Team. I miss them so much; I just would love to listen to them via church phone. What a bizarre thought I know, but my heart is there, and in times like now, when I am homesick, and I know its Sunday morning at CCK, my heart is with them as they begin the first service with worship. Yes, I’m probably the only one in the world who would want to listen via church phone from Canada to Uganda, but that’s ok, I’m fine with that. And no, I’m not doing that…though it would sure be wonderful to be worshipping together from afar!

Last night, along with 11,000 other youth gathered together in Rogers Arena, the old GM place in Vancouver for the 2010 World Tour Passion Event. Louie Giglio, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder Band had part in this touching event bringing great joy, praise, singing, dancing, heartfelt worship, prayer and fellowship filled the arena as we all were there freely proclaiming and worshipping our Great King! We sang till we were hoarse, with a barely audible whisper to our friends. God is so good, what can I say!! What better than to gather as a body of Christ together to worship Him…and then to think that is nothing compared to what Heaven will be like!!

Yes, Music is one of the major parts of my life. No I cannot play an instrument- my mom tried to teach me…yes, you are right, that didn’t fare well!! No I cannot read music, it’s all by ear. I love my music. From sun-up to sun-down music is in my heart, my house, my car, and coming out of my mouth. I love singing praise and worship music, what better and to whom else do I want to sing but for God. I have been richly blessed with music and a passion for singing. No I do not have an amazing voice or anything like that, but I sing with my whole heart, all for God.

This coming week, the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra and Chorus has a concert, featuring several great pieces from Bach. As I have been with the Symphony since a year before heading to Uganda, I am happy to be back with them again while I am here! On that note… we are still selling tickets, and we would love for a sold out concert, so take out your family for a great night and buy your ticket soon!!

After a late night at the Passion Event last night, I was up late this morning; rushing off to a friend’s house to go help with ministry down in Vancouver’s East side. 540 sandwiches, at least 8 pans of soup, bags of apples and mandarins, homemade cookies and many bags of warm winter clothes and blankets; we were Vancouver bound. The doors of the vehicles were barely opened and there were swarms of people asking for a sandwich, eager to dig in the bags to see what clothes would fit them and excited to see what was happening. It was a big day for many on the corner of East Hastings and Main St today. Not more than an hour later, all was gone…only empty soup pans, bags of trash and warm, happy, content people remained. They were so thankful for a belly full of homemade warm food, and some clothing to get them through the cold winter coming. What a blessing to be able to reach out to these individuals, each a special creation.

Drugs were being shot up in front of us; it’s a reality, not just a thought. As I passed a man a bowl of soup, he muttered his thanks and turned to continue his sniff up of something through a strawlike pipe into his nose. So sad. These are real people; with a life on the street, living from dose to dose of drugs. One lady asked to trade a bowl of soup for $5; her poor body craved the drugs over food. Its one thing to drive through Vancouver, down East Hastings looking out your window and thinking, “hmm, poor people.” It’s a whole other story to take some time to go reach out to these truly poor people; and we only met a few of thousands that live in Vancouver, East Hastings being the drug central. As we passed out soup and sandwiches, sirens screeched by, a police car here, an ambulance there, a horn honking here, people rushing everywhere. Yes, those are people; people with different lives than those street people living in the alleys, digging in dumpsters, sleeping under cardboard, many with little to no teeth, thin, bone racked bodies full of bruises on both the inside and out. Intense body odor, stench of urine, mixed smells of drugs being smoked, dumpsters…

No, it’s not a pretty scented flower garden. It’s cold, creepy, unsafe, dangerous and scary; yet these individuals, the needy; they are people. God created them in His image, just as He did you and I. It is alone by God’s grace that we are not living on the streets; whether East Hastings in Vancouver, Downtown Chilliwack’s slums, or the streets of Uganda. Have you ever taken a moment to thank God for saving us? For humbling ourselves before Him thanking Him that we have a roof over our heads, a warm home, clothes and food in abundance. That we are loved, really truly loved. We have families and friends that care for us, many of these people don’t. We know we can at all times go to a friend’s house if we are struggling and we will have our needs met. Those street people’s friends are in the same predicament as them…and can probably not offer them anything except maybe a bite of their sandwich, or to snuggle together under one blanket to keep warm. We are blessed. So so blessed.

Last year while in Uganda over Thanksgiving Day, it came and went and I had forgotten about it, until a phone call from my family reminded me that it had come and gone; asking if we had celebrated Thanksgiving Day. I only could tell them that for me there, everyday is Thanksgiving Day, and no, there is not a set day for Thanksgiving. Interesting, huh? Maybe God put it on the hearts of North Americans to have a day of Thanksgiving, to help them to at least take one day out of 365 to thank the Lord for all His gracious benefits towards them. How far have we as a continent gone? Do we only wait for Thanksgiving Day to give thanks for the harvest? And these adults we reached out to today were so thankful for their need of food and clothing having been met.

I pray that God would continue to ignite within us all a love and desire to reach out to the lost, the physically and spiritually. So many of those we met today have no concept to ever understand God’s grace anymore; their brain is too damaged for them to comprehend, yet we mustn’t give up on them. Jesus wouldn’t and neither should we. We need to pray for them, they need so much more than just soup, sandwiches and clothes.

Lord, forgive us this day for any sinful thought or action we have committed, humble us Lord and make us as thankful as those dear people we met today, Lord that we would never forget what Your Son did for us, filthy rags, that we might have Eternal life. Forgive us Lord, draw us closer to You, and ignite within us a need that only You can fill. Amen.

Be encouraged today with Psalm 136… Read it word for word.