best two hours of living here
If you ever want to experience the best two hours of being in Nassau, I'll tell you how to find them. Put on sunscreen and grab a bottle of water and start walking to the Kemp Road neighborhood. Have invitations in hand for a free event that you want to invite kids to and be prepared to encounter some wonderful people.
This is what 13 of us from Kingdom Life Church did this past Saturday morning from 10-12. And for me, it has been the best two hour segment of living here by far. Heaps of trash provided ambience. Kids eager to have some attention flocked to us. Moms with looks of exhaustion willingly listened as we told about our free Music Camp/VBS where their children can come for 4 hours a day, have fun, receive some musical teaching, a snack, a t-shirt, and perform a concert at the end of the week. Maybe it was the hope in our faces that drew them to us. Maybe it was the need in their faces that drew us to them. But we both gained by meeting each other.
We were in serious need of encouragement upon arriving back in Nassau. Our power had been cut, our pool was a green mess of tadpoles, our yard was an Amazonian rain forest, and that was just the first hour of being home. Then came a broken fridge, a van that wouldn't start, and a fresh litter of in-house misquotes eager to connect with us. We were not setting our eyes on the blessings of living here. But God knew what He was about to do. He wasn't worried.
Saturday morning when we hit the Kemp Road neighborhood, He unleashed the joy we'd been looking for. We met needy people whose only hope is what we have inside us...Jesus. When I think of the pleasure a doctor must feel at being able to set a bone correctly, re-circuit a failing heart, or deliver a new baby, it still cannot compare to the medicine we as believers carry with us. For the poor in material things we have the hope of mansions in glory. For the sick in body we have the hope of whole and glorified bodies in eternity. For the outcast and down-trodden we have membership in God's family and identity with the King of Kings. For the widow and orphan we have the Lord who is a husband and a Father who adopts us as His own. There is no need that can overwhelm His provision. And we carry this hope within us.
That's why there was joy on Saturday. The unstoppable gospel light was within us, beaming out hope to the troubled. And knowing this is just a first step, meeting them and welcoming little children in Jesus' name into our church to hear the gospel...it propels us to keep going, to be ready with the Word, to pray unceasingly, to give not of our excess, but of all that we are, broken and spilled out for Christ and those He came to save.
"I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased....For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands." Ps. 138:1-3, 6-8
This is what 13 of us from Kingdom Life Church did this past Saturday morning from 10-12. And for me, it has been the best two hour segment of living here by far. Heaps of trash provided ambience. Kids eager to have some attention flocked to us. Moms with looks of exhaustion willingly listened as we told about our free Music Camp/VBS where their children can come for 4 hours a day, have fun, receive some musical teaching, a snack, a t-shirt, and perform a concert at the end of the week. Maybe it was the hope in our faces that drew them to us. Maybe it was the need in their faces that drew us to them. But we both gained by meeting each other.
We were in serious need of encouragement upon arriving back in Nassau. Our power had been cut, our pool was a green mess of tadpoles, our yard was an Amazonian rain forest, and that was just the first hour of being home. Then came a broken fridge, a van that wouldn't start, and a fresh litter of in-house misquotes eager to connect with us. We were not setting our eyes on the blessings of living here. But God knew what He was about to do. He wasn't worried.
Saturday morning when we hit the Kemp Road neighborhood, He unleashed the joy we'd been looking for. We met needy people whose only hope is what we have inside us...Jesus. When I think of the pleasure a doctor must feel at being able to set a bone correctly, re-circuit a failing heart, or deliver a new baby, it still cannot compare to the medicine we as believers carry with us. For the poor in material things we have the hope of mansions in glory. For the sick in body we have the hope of whole and glorified bodies in eternity. For the outcast and down-trodden we have membership in God's family and identity with the King of Kings. For the widow and orphan we have the Lord who is a husband and a Father who adopts us as His own. There is no need that can overwhelm His provision. And we carry this hope within us.
That's why there was joy on Saturday. The unstoppable gospel light was within us, beaming out hope to the troubled. And knowing this is just a first step, meeting them and welcoming little children in Jesus' name into our church to hear the gospel...it propels us to keep going, to be ready with the Word, to pray unceasingly, to give not of our excess, but of all that we are, broken and spilled out for Christ and those He came to save.
"I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased....For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands." Ps. 138:1-3, 6-8
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