Jesus in the Park
Last night God used our house church to wildly love on a mother and her children. I wanted to post the whole story on here but after reading what Dan wrote, a guy in our house church, it would be silly to try to re-write it. He shared so well what God did through our little group in a park last night. So I am posting below for you to read and be blessed by. Yes, Jesus, you love so wonderfully, and we are blessed by your love flowing through us to the lost, broken, lonely, hurting and scared. All we can say is, please more!!!!
Our story as told by Dan…
“The king will answer them, ‘I tell you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’ Matthew 25:40
Last night I met Jesus in the park, and He was a young Hispanic mother of four named Maria. This is a portion of her story and how it was arranged for a group of people, random as we are to impact her life.
Maria took her children to the park last night to let them play. It was a beautiful spring evening so why shouldn’t she. As she was watching her kids she realized that she had lost her keys and began to look for them, to no avail. In broken English, she enlisted the help of another woman who was sitting on a bench and together they searched. With the sun setting and no sign of the keys the second woman went over to a large group of twenty to thirty somethings and asked if they would help in the search…
Last night was the night that the house church group known as “Village Hope” regularly meets. The decision was made to meet at the park in The Village, near the home where the group regularly meets. The email invite was as follows:
Bring a main dish, side dish or dessert to share. Plus, bring your own drink.
WEDNESDAY @ 6:30PM
And Pray. Maybe God will bring other people to the park that He wants us to build relationships with, encourage, pray for, etc. Let’s keep encouraging each other to really listen to His voice.
The group met in order to enjoy food and community and was just finishing their pot-luck when a woman approached them and asked if they could assist in the search for a set of keys. And thus began a divine appointment. Always willing to join a project, the house church group happily joined in and began to search the entire park with no luck. As the sun set those who had to leave did and those who could stay continued the search. Others played with Maria’s children while she feverishly searched for her keys.
As was mentioned before, Maria did not speak any English and no one in the house church group speaks Spanish, except for one woman. She is a native of Portugal, speaks fluent Portuguese (a language very similar to Spanish) and she had for the last two weeks been brushing up on her Spanish (coincidence, I think not). So there you have it, a translator who was able to talk with and comfort Maria as we waited. It was evident even to those who didn’t speak Spanish that this ability to communicate with someone was helping to put Maria at ease.
During the course of these conversations it was discovered that Maria had only recently lost her job and two of her children had birthdays coming up in the next five days. Maria was asked if she could call anyone to bring an extra set of keys, but she seemed hesitant to do so. It was clear by her statements and actions that her husband would be angry with her for losing the only key that they had to her vehicle. She said that “it was like a dark cloud was over her and she was not able to get away from it.”
By this time it was dark and the temperature was dropping and the wind was picking up. Someone in the group had called a locksmith and they were standing around waiting for him to arrive. A behind the scenes collection was made to pay for the locksmith and the new key that he would have to make. All the while there were twenty somthings (adults with jobs) rolling around in the grass, wrestling with the children and playing soccer to keep them busy. Maria eventually called her husband and asked him to come get the children (as it was no almost 10:15), and when he did arrive the only thing that he said was “this is typical, she doses stuff like this all the time”, he loaded up the kids and left saying that “this is her problem, let her figure it out.” With that he drove off with the kids, tires screeching.
The locksmith finally arrived and he was a boisterous Jew named Yisliv. Yisliv immediately began to work at taking the dash apart so that he could make a new key. He amused us with his mannerisms and laughed at us as we practiced our Hebrew on him (and by Hebrew I mean we could say “shalom”). As Yisliv worked, what was left of the group felt led to pray for Maria, sensing her fear and knowing that she needed some hope. We asked her if we could pray and she said yes and the small group gathered around her and lifted her up to the Father, it was an amazing time. She was moved to tears and expressed through the translator that she couldn’t express her gratitude for what we had done. Shortly after this Yisliv, with some awkward assistance from us, was able to find the right key and cut a new one right there. He started the car and we all cheered, gave Yisliv high fives and watched as he put Maria’s dash back together.
In the end we asked Maria if we could help her with a party for her kids (as of right now she was going to ask her husband it would be OK) using the rest of the money that was gathered. She thanked us profusely in broken English and we in turn used broken Spanish to tell her you’re welcome and she drove off.
Now I am not able to do this story justice, as it was a total God thing from the beginning. How else can you explain our deciding to meet in the park, and the prayer that was in the email, sent days before we went? How else can you explain the young woman who randomly began brushing up on her Spanish? How can you explain the woman in our group who had received $100 from work around Christmas, with the instructions to “use it to bless someone else.” Is it a coincidence that she had held on to it for nearly three months and had only that morning asked God what she should do with the money, or is it a further coincidence that she had stuck it in her pocket before she left for the park? Or how do you explain a small group of twenty somthings pooling together nearly $300 in a few minutes, in order to bless someone that they didn’t even know. How do you explain that group then standing in the cold wind until nearly 11:00, joyfully playing with her kids, offering encouragement and support in spite of early morning schedules or responsibilities? My only explanation is God. God moved and orchestrated the meeting between Maria and the group known as “Village Hope”, in order for Maria to see how much He loves her and how much he cares for her.
So yes, I met Jesus in the park last night and He was a mother named Maria. And I am so happy that this group of people were willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus to her, Maria, the least of these.
I do not write this down out of pride for what was done, I write it down because I left that night with a better picture of what Jesus calls us as believers to be, and because I was encouraged to see the body of Christ acting like they are called to. I hope that you are encouraged and that you too will see opportunities to be Jesus to the least of these.”
