At times when the world seems chaotic and it appears that hate, evil, and other types of darkness are on the rise, the enemy can appear quite strong. This appearance of strength is actually one of its weakest times, because it highlights the contrast and makes God's peace, hope, and love shine that much brighter and be that much more evident when they do shine. That said, as believers, times like this are critical for us to be silent and listen to God, to be humble and move in God, and to allow God to work on ourselves so we are ready to walk with others in love and hope. In that vein of thought, I want to share with you today three-and-a-half brief stories of places I feel I've seen God work in the last month.
Short Story One: During one of the nights The Gamers Guild was open, we had a new fellow come in to the free store. He'd just finished serving his parole and had heard about us from one of his friends. It was a busy night with quite a few people wanting or needing things, but I felt like I should go show him around and let him know what services we offered. As we talked, it became apparent that I could do more good for him by sharing information on several food ministries and other services in the area, so I got some scratch paper and wrote down some details for him. While I did, I listened to his story of hardship and of gradual success, and I was able to applaud him for his hard work. At the end of our conversation, he told me he was starting a small business to do manual labor and construction, and he was excited and nervous about it. I wished him well, gave him some more resources, and then he headed out.
Many individuals like that will be one-time visitors to the free store. However, this fellow came back later—and he was excited to share that he had successfully completed his first job and might be looking for some workers to help with his next. He attributed some of his success to early support from our ministry, but I honestly didn't give him that many resources; I truly believe that the support he felt was more from God and from us respectfully listening to him share his story than from any actual direct resources we provided. After this visit, he came in one more time—this time he was excited to share that he'd obtained an opportunity to get new diabetic testing kits for free; he knew the free store had a fair number of low income individuals who might be able to use them, and he wanted to know if we'd accept them. I was personally fairly blown away—here was someone who had used much less resources off our shelves than many individuals, and he was touched enough to contribute back much more than he was given. It reminds me both of the crop yielding a harvest many times more than was planted and the idea that Abraham and his tribe were blessed to be a blessing to others. Even that evening he stayed around and helped organize some of our donations that had come in, though none of them were actually things he needed. He is looking for the opportunity to contribute back to others, and that is cool to see.
Short Story Two: One Monday night bible study a few weeks back, one of our members had brought a guest. She was a new grad student to Fort Hays, and she hadn't had a chance to make many community connections with COVID and all the restrictions. This individual was initially sweet and also somewhat shy, but she was welcomed and was able to share a bit about herself and her take on the scripture we were studying that first night. After prayer time, we stayed and chatted more, and we invited her to the Aikido classes as well since it seemed like she was looking for things to do and people to get to know.
The next day we saw her at an Aikido class, and the other students got to know her and work with her. Though Aikido can be quite challenging at the start, she did well and seemed to enjoy learning and meeting people. A week later, at her second time in small group, she shared that her week had gotten much better. Apparently she had been quite lonely and disconnected—mostly just sticking to contacting family and friends who were quite distant. She had few if any direct connections in Hays, and this was her first time in a couple of months actually feeling like she had people she could interact with. She explained that we in the small group were a large part of why she was feeling better, and I felt that it was a cool God connection and part of God's providence for her and for us.
Short Story Three: About a year ago, our ministry had been working with an individual who can be fairly challenging to engage with—part of that is because of their inability to understand all types of boundaries. At that time, they were unwilling to accept help within the boundaries that I had laid down, so they had walked away from us. A month or two ago, this individual showed back up wanting help again.
I had to do some internal prayer and reflection to come at this situation from a healthy place; thankfully, God has been growing me in the past year such that it has been far easier to work with this individual than it was back then. As such, my intention going in and my outlook going in to meeting with them has generally been healthy from the start; rather than having a spirit of obligation (which is where I eventually ended up last year), I have viewed it as a genuine opportunity and have been ok cutting off the time with them when it needs to be cut off for other things. In a sense, their mental health disorders and other challenges leave them constantly trying to make themselves the center of everyone else's lives, and this is a large part of where they constantly end up conflicting with my boundaries and other people's boundaries.
Thankfully, God already had a pastor friend of mine working with them this time, and He had also connected them to another nonprofit ministry, so the support network was more spread out and better able to function. In addition, when I was praying about this another friend of mine who is retiring from her role as a lead pastor and who is going back into spiritual direction work came to mind as a person to introduce this individual to. I felt that this introduction would be beneficial but had to be cautiously done, as my retiring pastor friend has a sweet, supporting soul that could help this individual, but this individual's tendencies would cause them to ask for more than could be provided. I had to trust God and trust in my friend's abilities to hold to her own boundaries if she chose to develop a connection with this individual.
Thankfully, it seems that God has been using this connection more than I would have ever foreseen as not just she, but also her husband, have been interacting with this individually in very healthy ways. This further building up of the support network around this individual is a cool answer to prayer, and I'm excited to see what God will continue to do.
As a short story 3.5, there's a very Christ-centered homeless fellow who is a regular in Unite's Monday evening small group Bible study. He is in his late sixties, and he bikes around Hays and has been called 'homeless Jesus' by people in the community because he's always telling people about Jesus and trying to help transients, homeless people, or just individuals in need. This fellow is actually quite well-read and intelligent, and he frequents the free store to get items for other individuals (and occasionally some things for himself). One Thursday evening after getting back from teaching the FHSU Aikido Club, I walked into the dojo door and saw this fellow sitting at a table in The Gamers Guild playing chess with the individual I just mentioned in the third story—the individual who is now getting a better support network. Watching these two individuals who really should have no reason to interact from a worldly perspective share a game and talk about life was actually quite a heart-warming scene to me. Knowing each of them fairly well, I can surmise that each was likely growing from this interaction, being challenged, and also having some of their needs met. It's also two individuals who the world might often overlook or even actively avoid. Yet here, in this moment, God was drawing them together and helping them both grow through community. What a cool thing.
Thanks for your prayers—things are always moving here. The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing, and we are trying to pray, listen, and figure out what our part is in it as it comes along. I'm only just now getting back into the habit of publishing the newsletter regularly, so if you know of anyone else who would like to read it, please feel free to send me their email address, mailing address, or to point them to our blog (http://uniteeph4-1-16.blogspot.com/). Blessings to you, and I hope things are going well in your part of this world!
Sincerely,
Brandon
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