"God with skin on..."

"Rising Hope is God with skin on..." Venisa - one of the staff - informed me my first day at work.

Well, as I've spent a little over a week working with its ministries, I've seen Venisa's words come to life. The last couple days I've been shut in an office translating things, running around organizing/preparing things for Saturday's Family Fun Fair, and haven't had as much people-interaction as the social butterfly in me desires. Yet, there's one point everyday, regardless of what I'm up to, where I have the wonderful opportunity to unite with the people of Rising Hope: noon-day prayer.

Everyday at noon there is prayer open to all. Some days it's packed, others it's pretty slim, but it's always unifying and uplifting. Thursday was packed. We read from 2 Corinthians 4.

8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

As a mission church of/to the least, the lost, the lonely the members can truly relate to this. Pastor Keary always encourages, "God doesn't waste a single hurt." Here we have a hurting body, a hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down group of God's people... but they persevere through their hurts, and they come out as shining witnesses of the glory of God at work in this world.

Well at prayer Thursday, someone new was there. Shahandra was feeling low, the verses shared from 2 Corinthians really spoke to her, and after another's testimony of how he had been a coke addict for 20 years and then had his heart transformed by Jesus and was clean and a living witness, she broke down and shared her feelings.
Shahandra came to the church for a little help from their community services of food/clothing and at prayer time she was just drawn up there, not really sure why, just that she had an overwhelming feeling of being welcomed and of belonging encompass her as she encountered the beautiful people of this church. She's been struggling, and doesn't have anywhere else to turn but God. Then, sobbing, she trailed off, "I don't even have a church of my own..." And our sister Josephine chimed in, "Well you do now! Welcome to the family!" As Pastor Keary began to pray for Shahandra, she was literally surrounded by encouraging brothers and sisters (many going through the same thing) extending their hands in Christ's love and uplifting her situation, her life... reminding her that regardless of her despair, God still has a purpose for her, and he's reaching out to her through His Body at Rising Hope.