Going Outside Our Bubble

A few days ago I wrote that the people in my affluent community need the love and restoration of God just as much as poor urban people. That doesn’t mean we as Christ followers should be content to stay in our bubble of comfort and security. Where I live there is pain and hurt but it is very well hidden inside luxury SUVs and McMansions. You won’t find gang tags on walls or beggars on street corners. Nothing but extremely manicured streets here. There is huge diversity of ethnicity, but zero diversity of socio-economic status.

This is part of why there’s an epidemic of spoiled, ungrateful kids in my area. So how do we teach our kids empathy and compassion?

Kim lead a bunny hop contest. People will do a lot for $5.

Last night I had the opportunity to bring my family to a weekly event called Montrose Street  Reach. It’s basically church in a parking lot with a meal and lots of donated resources for people in great need. Montrose is a beautiful neighborhood deep in the city of Houston that’s home to a ton of bars and clubs. It’s a bit of a mecca for the LGBT community.  It also draws a lot of street kids, addicts, hookers and pimps. So that’s who comes to street church. I first learned about it at the Together for Them conference I went to back in February from Kim Dale, who spoke at one of the sessions I attended. Kim and her husband work with YWAM Houston and have partnered with other churches and ministries to have volunteers, food and donated clothing. They also help people who want to get free of that life by transitioning them out of the area to places that can help. That includes a lot of teen moms.

Celebrating birthdays. Kimberley turned 6. George has been clean for 17 years.

My friends band, Forlorn Hope, was asked to lead worship at street church last night. So along with two other friends we decided to bring our kids down to check it out and create a learning opportunity. The kids were really not getting it when I told them we were going to church outside in a parking lot. I didn’t want to get into the nitty gritty of the kinds of lifestyles the people there had so I kept it simple and told the kids that the people there had no homes. We’ve talked about the homeless before, as well as the hungry and the fatherless, so it wasn’t a new revelation to them.

Forlorn Hope leading worship.

If there was one word to classify the people I saw and spoke to it would be “tough”. They just looked like they’d experienced some hard stuff. There was a biker group that showed up too, I think maybe to volunteer. There were a few little kids there that clearly did not belong to volunteers. Martin Dale read off a whole bunch of rules including no fighting, no dealing, you can smoke but there’s a can for the cigarettes, no using the bathroom at the bookstore you gotta use the Kroger, etc. There was a ton of praying and lots of testimony. Everyone there seemed to really enjoy the music…the band led off with Israel Houghton’s You Are Good and it totally broke down any dividing walls. Not everyone there worshipped with enthusiasm but most did and I caught some smiles from the guys in the back acting like they didn’t care.

Trish and Vanessa watched from the back with their kids.

My kids were pretty annoying because I refused to give them my phone to play with and they aren’t used to just sitting still and listening. Mike and I stood most of the time while the kids sat on the pavement. Alex saw the drinks and snacks and would whine about being thirsty but I explained that the food was for other people who need it a lot more than we did. Eventually Mike took the kids and left.

Joe Williams prays over the crowd.

Nathan didn’t have too much to say about the whole thing. Sometimes I would catch the boys staring at certain people and once I saw Nathan trying to wave away some cigarette smoke. I don’t think they noticed the trannies…if they did they didn’t ask.

Later that night while tucked safely in bed, Alex told Mike that those people didn’t have any houses or food. Then during his usual bedtime prayer, completely unprompted, he prayed that Jesus would help the people find homes.

That is a bit part of why we went. But not just for my boys, for me as well, that the Lord would have the opportunity to work in my heart, and of course He did just that. One really big conclusion I came to was this: the people there are not so different from me and my family. We all are in desperate need of someone to save us from ourselves. We’re all created by the same God who loves us all the same amount, like a crazy passionate dad. We all need Jesus.

Author: Sarah

Mom of three. Triathlete. View all posts by Sarah