Reaching out to Katrina victims

Man, I have not been keeping up with my blogging. Sorry. Sometimes it's hard to find time to put my thoughts together and then to find time to type them out. I'll try to do better.

We had a discussion last night in our young adult men's bible study on how we could reach out to the people at the shelter here in West Point. There were buses that went to pick people up and take them to local churches, but (and I hate to label churches like this) there was no one who got on the buses to go to the white churches, and there were only a few to get on the buses to go to the black churches. The reason being, most likely, that most probably felt like they were not presentable enough to go to a Sunday morning church service since all they pretty much had were the clothes on their back. How do we fix that?

We came to the conclusion that we needed to begin building relationships with these people by sitting down and talking to them, getting to know them, making them feel comfortable, and letting them know that we care for them, regardless of how little they have. Maybe they had no one to tell them that it was okay to come as you are to the worship service, I don't know. I know that I don't want to sit around and wait on someone else to do it.

I'll be honest. I have never been especially gifted at sharing Christ in a really open way by just walking up to someone and starting a conversation. But I know that at times God calls us to do that, and I need to get out of my comfort zone and trust in God to use me in an effective way. Let him take the fear away and replace it with courage.

Timmy and I plan on going to the shelter this evening, finally! I hope that God will open up some doors for us, even if we end up being needed as clothes sorters, or whatever. I want to help these people somehow, and I need to start now. I hope that I can share with some of them the hope of Christ. Alot of these people are having to start over again in a new place with no jobs lined up. It can be easy for them to lose hope. So I hope that we can be a source of hope for them, and to be humble and broken and bear their burdens with them, just as Jesus would do.

Please share some of your thoughts on this.