hot dogLast night our church left the building and went to the local housing authority.  We bought 200 hotdogs (remember we are in a small, poor town) with chips and drinks.  We set up two grills in the main lawn area and began to grill hotdogs and hand them out to everyone who lived in the housing authority.

Conversations began to spark and smiles entered faces (both the people we were there for and our church body).  It was a joyous experience even with all my doubts.  I wanted to make sure that this was in no way creating a consumerism with the people we were there to engage.  I did not want to “buy off” people to come to our church.  My intent was to have the people of Ferry Lake re-engage the community that once were a part of and bring Christ to the streets.  This small community, as well as most towns across the nation, is very segregated and it is seen most on Sunday mornings.  Hopefully this was the first step into building bridges again for the community and ultimately the reflection of Jesus and how His blood unites us all.

For weeks up to this event, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would go before us and prepare hearts to receive us and Jesus.  God graciously answered our prayer and I saw great hope in the lives of all of the people present.  This does not mean that the pews will be filled this coming Sunday, nor was that the intent.  My desire and passion is that the kingdom of God will be filled with souls that may have been touched by one stupid little hotdog.