Today’s post comes to us from Kirsten Johnson, a Grace attender and recent participant on a New York City Relief short-term trip.

Serving on the relief bus will change your life…it certainly has changed mine!

God knew just what I needed just when I needed it…About 2 years ago I had one of two life changing moments…I was a divorced, 31 year old mother of a 3 ½ year old son.  I grew up in a Christian home and knew I wanted the same for my son Brennan.  I had recently made some bad decisions and had also ended a six year marriage.  I was not attending church regularly.  There was this day where I so vividly recall God asking me what I was waiting for…Brennan was almost 4!  I thought well that is a good question.  When was I going to form this Christian home?  When he was a teenager?  God truly told me that day that I needed to make my life what I wanted it and we went to church that weekend.

The second life changing moment was within that first fews weeks at Grace when there was a video on the New York City Relief Short-Term trip.  Words can not describe what happened that day in church.  God tugged on my heart in a way I have never experienced or maybe never noticed.  I leaned over to my mom and said I am going to do that.  I went home that day, got on the Grace website and signed up for the February 2008 trip.  There is a sign in NYC at the Hope Center that says DANGER…Serving on the Relief Bus will Change your life.  It truly changed mine…I learned in that four days that our role was to love people. I can do that!

After the NYC trip God continued to tug on my heart more and more…I started serving dinner at the Wheeler Care Center for Women and Children in November.  I love it!  It’s really not glamorous.  I didn’t bring someone to Jesus that first meal but I got to serve about 50 women and 10 children filled with amazing moments of eye contact and smiles which were each an absolute blessing!

Brennan helps me rescue food from the Noblesville Panera Bread one Wednesday a month.  What a blessing this organization is!  We go to Panera about 8:55 p.m., right before they close, and pick up all the food that they have left.  We go to Third Phase food pantry, load it into grocery carts and take it in.  It has been really amazing to see Brennan grow through this experience.  At first he went in to Panera with me but then waited in the car at Third Phase.  Now he wants to carry things into Third Phase so he can help me and so he can see everyone.  He will even tell you all about what we are doing with the food and who it is for.

In June we began joining the Grace folks at Wheeler on Sundays serving dinner to the men and then playing games.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to serve at Wheeler I recommend just giving it one chance.  I will admit to you that even after a trip to New York and serving at the women’s shelter I was nervous about how it would go playing games with the men after dinner.  Immediately the first time I went I thought what on earth was I worried about?  It was wonderful and a really great opportunity to connect with people.  When we go now Brennan has his entire game agenda planned out prior to dinner.  It is something we both really look forward to.

I will hopefully be leading a trip to New York next June and I would love to share this experience with you if you are interested in being forever changed!

The way I see the world has changed pretty drastically in the last year. In order to tell you about it, I need to share a little bit about where I’m coming from. I grew up in a typical upper-middle class suburban family, where our two great goals in life were to be good people and for our family to seem as put together as possible.

This view was radically shaken during my senior year of high school when I began a relationship with Christ.  I learned that it was because of Christ’s sacrifice that I was able to experience forgiveness for the wrong things I had done and enter a relationship with God. Not only that, but God was inviting me to be involved in the work of allowing others to experiencing this joy.

When I arrived at college, I got involved in an on-campus ministry that was primarily focused on telling students about Jesus and helping people to grow in their relationship with the Lord. My experiences there helped me draw closer to God and grow as a new Christian. At the time, if you’d have asked me what a Christian was supposed to do, I would have likely said, “Share the Gospel and help people grow.”

After a one year internship with that same organization, I was accepted to an internship on Grace’s Outreach and Leadership Development team. As I stepped into the role, however, I discovered that Grace’s view of outreach didn’t fit into my nicely constructed box.

I remember showing up for my first Sunday at Wheeler Mission. I hadn’t started the internship yet, but I heard there was an outreach going on, so I decided to jump in. I’d been to an urban mission once before to drop off some clothes to donate, but I’d never thought much about interacting with our homeless neighbors. While I spent most of the afternoon hiding behind the broccoli on the food line, I was amazed how everyone around me treated the men like genuine friends. Later, I was shocked when we wrapped up our time there, and no one stood up and shared the Gospel. I thought we were coming to do outreach. What was this?

As the weeks went by, I saw the same pattern over and over. We spent hours tutoring kids at Shepherd, collecting crates of food in Grace’s parking lot, and playing Euchre with our new friends at Wheeler. At Wheeler, I got to meet Greg, a recovering heroin addict with a heart of gold and a desire for God; Walter, a displaced Katrina refuge with the desire to give back more than he had; and Jeff, a guy who has great stories and infectious laugh.

Not once was there an altar call from the front, a four point tract, or an expectation set out that the people who we were befriending needed to change. At first, this made me very angry. As Christians, I thought, we must be sharing the Good News of what Christ has done. However, I slowly began to realize that our time spent in service was not so much about what Christ had done, but about what Christ is doing.

I realized that Jesus talked about a lot of issues, aside from people being “saved”. I’d never thought that Jesus was just as serious about Luke 4:18-19 as he was about John 3:16, and that John 10:10 is not just about a perfect eternal life, but a life full of meaning, punctuated by compassion, justice and truth, that begins now and extends into eternity.

Now, I want to take one moment to back up the bus, because I’m guessing there are some people reading this who are thinking “Heretic!” That was actually the word I said out loud the first time I heard this idea. Let me assure you, I firmly believe that God isn’t impressed by our good deeds, even works of justice that are close to his heart. Spreading and believing the message that my sins and yours were paid for on Calvary’s cross is, and always will be, central to the body of Christ. It is among the most powerful demonstrations of love I have encountered. I firmly believe that most churches, especially Grace, must do a better job of making this truth clear and relevant in the lives of people who don’t know what it means to have a relationship with Christ.

But, let me pose a question or two. Is the Gospel we are hoping in something that doesn’t kick in until we reach the other side of eternity? Does it seem that something is lacking from this Good News for the life we’re living now? Isn’t it possible that as we trust in Christ for our eternity, we can also be following His lead, leaving our comfort zones and loving all people, not just those who look and think like us?

Is there really such a separation between living forever and loving now? Can’t we do both?

Walter grew up in New Orleans, where he raised a family while working on the docks, loading and unloading ships as they came into port. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Walter’s home was completely destroyed. The government helped him move to Indianapolis, but he left behind a son in New Orleans and a daughter in Texas. Shortly after relocating, he got connected with Grace as part of our effort to reach out to the refugees. Walter was able to find transitional housing, and began looking for work. He was able to get a few temporary jobs, but despite diligent searching was unable to find a steady job.

In February, Walter’s housing aid ran out, and without a solid job, he found himself homeless. He made his way to Wheeler Men’s Mission, where he entered their residential program. A few days later, another volunteer and I made a run for the Wheeler Shuttle, where volunteers from Grace pick up men from Wheeler and bring them to Grace for a meal and a chance to attend Saturday night service. On the ride to Grace, Walter shared with us how thankful he was that the Lord had continued to provide for him in the midst of his circumstances. I couldn’t believe the conviction he had that God was truly in control and was working these events for good in his life. It was a great honor to worship with my brother in Christ that evening.

A few weeks later, we saw Walter at CHIP’s annual Indy Homeless Connect event. He was excited about the possibility of making some job connections. A week later, I ran into Walter again, but this time in a context I did not expect.

I arrived at Shepherd Community Center to serve at Saturdays at Shepherd, a weekly outreach opportunity where Grace volunteers make and serve breakfast to the community, while a group of doctors and nurses volunteer their time to host a free medical clinic. I knew several of the people who had signed up to volunteer that weekend, since they were all from the same Grace Group, but when I walked in, I was surprised to see Walter. I asked him if he’d heard about the medical clinic and come to check it out, but he said, “No, I’ve come to give something back.” He was not there to receive care, but to help us serve breakfast!

Walter serving breakfast with the team at Saturdays at Shepherd

I found out that he’d gotten connected with the small group while at Grace, and he’d kept in touch with them since then. When he found out they were serving at Shepherd, he decided to come because he knew that whatever his circumstances, Jesus calls him to a life of service. I was again humbled as I realized that although Walter has had so much taken from him, he still views giving of himself as central to his walk with Christ. We often reflect on how Matthew 25 talks about seeing Christ in those with great need, and I have little doubt that I was flipping pancakes beside Jesus that morning.

If you’d like more information about serving at Wheeler or Saturday’s at Shepherd, please visit our website.

This post was written by Ali Brown. To learn more about Ali, read about her current adventures in Klemtu by clicking here.

Outreach has absolutely transformed my life and strengthened my relationship with Christ in ways I could have never imagined. I started coming to Grace at the end of my senior year of high school and really committed my life to Christ at that time, but after four years of a lackluster spiritual life in college I felt lost and confused about how to make my faith my own. I came back home after college to figure out what I wanted to do as a career and discovered God had only just begun his work on my life.

Reconnecting with Grace has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. After diving into some social justice books with my Bible study, a passion for outreach was ignited within me and I decided to check out some of the opportunities Grace had to offer. I saw in the navigator that Grace was going to start serving at Wheeler Mission every Sunday afternoon and I thought that would be a great place to start seeing if God really had wired me for outreach.

Just like most newcomers to Wheeler, I started out strictly serving food behind the line because it was more in my comfort zone and I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to relate to the men in a one on one conversation. After a few weeks, however, I was amazed at how God opened my eyes and revealed that these men really were exactly the same as me–the only difference was their mistakes happened to cost them everything they had. I have developed some of the most genuine, caring relationships with these men, even though I only get to hang out with them once a week for two hours at a time.

I never considered myself a leader and always felt more comfortable being guided by others in my spiritual journey, but I’m now co-leading at Wheeler and love having the opportunity to share with others my passion for this wonderful mission. Even though I will be leaving Grace in the fall to start medical school, I know my faith is now strong enough to grow outside the walls of Grace and away from the comforts of home. I have always wanted to be a medical missionary and treat sick people around the world, but I now have a passion to provide free health care in homeless shelters and to other underserved populations wherever I end up practicing medicine.

I am so thankful that the outreach team at Grace has helped me realize my spiritual gifts. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.