My Death in Life

(A part of graduating from Moody Bible Institute requires that you serve as an intern.  I am currently serving my internship at New Community Church and this is a reflection from a retreat that the interns currently took this past weekend.)


It's hard for me to describe what happened to me during Urban Plunge.  It's an exposure trip to try to get us to recognize a part of Spokane that we tend to turn a blind eye too.  I've grown up to good parents who occasionally participated in feeding the poor and helping out in homes for single mothers in tough situations.  I've been a part of youth group trips to the poorest part of the country and we would help out in soup kitchens in Des Moines.  Needless to say, there's not a ton of shock value, but the trip was a special look into a city that I haven't had a lot of time to get to know.  It showed what made Spokane special from the places I'd already been.

Before I get into what made this special, I want to give an overview for what the weekend was like.  The interns were directed to not eat lunch before we met at the church around 3 PM.  From there we walked to various ministries.  When we got there we received a little tour and Q&A time and then in some small way would help out.  We stayed the night in a building owned by a ministry called Cup of Cool Water and from there we handed out meals.  The next day we did the same thing, going to a couple of ministries and then helping out.  I parted ways with the group because I had to work.

So what makes Urban Plunge special?  What did I notice?  For whatever reasons, I heard a consistent theme in what our tour guides would explain in the way their ministry operates- relationship.  A little part of me felt like the writer of Ecclesiastes ("Vanity! It's all vanity!") when it came to the multiple programs offered by multiple organizations all seemingly doing the same thing day in and day out.  But what made the difference in the all-too-fleeting food, money, clothing, and shelter mean anything was the relationships that it built.  Ralph, a man we met in the kitchen of the House of Charity, was a prime example of this;
"I was out there [the cafeteria] only a few years ago," he said as he showed me how to slice and dice some vegetables, "But I got connected and started working in here.  Now I'm working at another restaurant..."

A deeper aspect of this is that relationships are not a solution to the problem of poverty.  I fear there might not be an ultimate answer in the sense of bringing an end to an evil that corrupts our planet.  It is more of an opportunity to change.  If we think that there is an answer to this situation we would be in danger of neglecting the reality of the consequences of sin and the person's volition in their life.  But if we see it as an opportunity for God to be present on earth through our love for His people, then I think things of eternal consequence will occur.

But the truth of the importance of relationships is merely amplified in the Urban Plunge.  Think about your own life.  How many times are we saved by those around us from decisions that harm us- even when we perceive they don't matter or are even beneficial.  When you take relationships away or have detrimental relationships, we in turn suffer; may be not to the same extreme... but may be.  Who knows what I could make of my life without accountability?  How much discipline is inherent in me, in you?