Wow

Today, my group (who is AWESOME) and I went to Central Union Mission. I always introduce Central Union Mission to my groups as the ministry site I would work at full-time if I was allotted the opportunity. It's the oldest homeless shelter in DC, and is a faith based organization, meaning that they raise all of their own funding. Today, while we were there, my group and I were given the luxury of being able to hear the testimony of one of the men working through Central Union Missions Spiritual Transformation Program. His story hit me enough that I wanted to write it all out before I get it. For the sake of confidentiality, I'll call him George. I'll try as hard as I can to get it as accurate as possible. If i see him again, I'll clarify the details and correct any mistakes I may make.

George was born a heroine addict because of his mother. Throughout his childhood, he was abused physically, sexually, mentally and spiritually. He didn't grow up knowing his mom, so he went through the social system and experienced a number of foster homes, all of which were negative experiences. Eventually, at 5 he was reconnected with his biological mother and she maintained her contact with him. The correct paperwork was processed and George was going to live with his mom. The night before he was supposed to be in her custody, she was murdered.

Because his father was a deadbeat, he (again), didn't have a place to go. His mom had left somewhat of an estate, so his aunts and uncles agreed to split the custody of George and his siblings if it meant they received the estate as well. George went to live with his aunt, his twin sister and another sister lived with another aunt, and his brother lived with his uncle. After the estate ran out, George was placed in a car with his aunt and a suitcase, where she drove him to Chicago, took him out of the car and placed him on a stoop, then drove away without telling him where he was. A woman eventually walked up the stoop, looked at him and told him that he looked like someone she knew. She ran inside, got a picture of his father, put it next to his face, and realized she was meeting her grandson for the first time.

George's grandmother took him in and took care of him. Unfortunately, she didn't know about the abuse he had experience in foster care and was not able to help him with his anger issues because she wasn't aware they existed. He started getting in trouble and eventually was no longer in her care. When he told this part of his story, the sadness in the tone of his voice could not be ignored.

George reconnected with his father and lived with him. There, his father beat him as well. George's father (at various times), broke his ribs, front arm, jaw and leg. George quit living with anyone at this point and began running drugs. He credits the anger that he had accumulated throughout his lifetime to being effective at this job. He described this position as 'the guy who collected the money.' He told us he weighed about 275 at this point and from what I could measure, he was about 5' 10". I can't imagine how jacked he was. During this time, he was still filled with his anger, and found fulfillment through claiming himself to be a Muslim.

During the time he was a drug runner, he made a pact with his two best friends. Their deal was that they would always watch out for each other, and that if anything were to happen, they would take care of each other's children. One of the other two in this pact with George was delivering food one night when a man approached him behind the back and shot him in the head killing him. George took in his son as his own. The other one of George's friends eventually went to jail, and when he was released he was murdered as well. George named his first born after this friend.

At that point, he decided that he needed to get out of the business he was in and took all the money he had so that he could enroll himself in Howard University. There, he majored in science and became a surgeon at George Washington Hospital. At George Washington, he eventually ended up performing surgery on Hilary Rodham Clinton's mom. One day, after he had taken care of the Clinton family, Bill Clinton approached George and asked him if he would consider joining homeland security. George only credits this to divine planning, because pretty soon he was working in homeland security.

After two months (which is impossible...unless God is on your side), George became a sargent. Effectively, he assumed the roll of being the last person prisoners encountered before they entered federal prisons. At this point, he will openly admit that he was violent...and he believes that it was this force that got him promoted so quickly, through being so effective.

One night, his best friend came over and sang him a song on a CD. George can't explain why to this day, but he broke down sobbing asking her about Jesus. He committed his life to Christ at that moment. As he began to explore the Bible, he began to learn compassion and let it leak into his job. He began to bring prisoners out for one last meal before he carted them to prison and he would let them sit down and watch their favorite movie in the car. His co-workers became angry with his change in heart, and George ended up being framed for attempting to steal weapons from homeland security.

His boss apologized, telling George he didn't believe he did it, but that all evidence pointed to him. George knew that contesting it would deplete his bank account and it would not get him his job back. He tried anyways, and in the process, as he lost his money, he ended up losing his wife and four children as well. George found himself homeless in DC with nowhere to go. As he hopped shelter to shelter he continued to pray. One day, he heard someone way Central Union Mission and he replied to nobody that if that was what God wanted, God had to show him the way. When he woke up the next morning, he asked the first person he saw if they knew the location of Central Union Mission and they gave him the cross streets. He entered, broke down at the front desk and started crying. They brought him to the prayer room where he knelt down and started sobbing.

When George finished praying, he stood up, turned around and asked if he could enter their Spiritual Transformation Program. They let him join, and since then, he has been doing their bible studies twice a day for the past five months. He's on track to graduate. I don't know if he will, and I won't be around to see him finish. I don't know what I have to learn from his story. All I know is that something about George's story stuck with me enough that I haven't been able to shake it off as I continued my day. At the very least, I feel like I'm supposed to write it down and hopefully keep this post as a reminder to myself to keep praying for George as I look back on this blog throughout the months I'm back at school :)

"Your Follow Through Is Never Late"

When I'm in DC, I attend NCC (National Community Church). NCC is a multi-site church, scattered throughout the city. Their lead pastor is Mark Batterson, and most importantly...it owns a spectacular coffee shop. This summer, they are doing a 9 week series titled 'The God Anthology.' Their premise is that they are going to take 9 weeks exploring 9 different characteristics of God. So far, we have covered 'mystery,' 'holiness,' 'faithfulness,' and 'wrath.' Each week has been spectacular. For every sermon, they have had one of their worship leaders write a song describing that particular trait of God. I've loved each week.

To coordinate their messages and the worship songs, NCC put up a website (www.godanthology.com) where you can go and listen to the sermons as well as the songs they are writing. The songs have been posted before the sermons are preached on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

Because I'm impatient, the first week I found out that NCC was publishing the songs on this new website, I got home, looked them all up and listened to them. I loved the 'mystery' song, because I had just heard it at church, but when I tried listening to the rest of them, I didn't really 'get' them. I heard them, but they just sounded like songs and I didn't necessarily like any of them.

The next week, Pastor Mark preached on holiness and I LOVED the song. When I got home, I (again) went onto the website, and listened to the song they had posted...just to make sure it was the same song I had tried listening to 7 days ago and decided I didn't like. Sure enough...it was the exact same song. Surprisingly, the same thing happened the next week at church during the 'faithfulness' sermon and song.

I couldn't figure out why I all of a sudden enjoyed these songs...when a mere week before I was less than impressed with them. One morning, I was doing my devotions, and decided to include the song from the faithfulness sermon into my devotion time. I wanted to listen to and absorb those words before my day started. In the chorus to this song, they sing the line 'your follow through is never late.'

I couldn't help but realize that this line implies that God's follow through is never early either...his timing is perfect. When He wants us to learn and see...we will. But, we will never be able to see or learn on our own. Ironically, He was teaching me this lesson through these sermons and their matching songs. I wanted to learn this songs and the lessons they brought with them so badly that I wasn't willing to space them out when I found the God Anthology website. I tried listening to each song in a row, and got frustrated when I didn't learn about God's holiness, faithfulness and wrath through these songs in a mere 3 minutes each.

The reason I couldn't learn each lesson through these songs when I wanted to was because I was doing it on my time...not God's. Because it was on my time and rushed...I couldn't hear the words fully and learn them. However, as I'm now patiently waiting and going to each sermon once a week, then singing the songs as a reflection of the sermon I just heard...the songs are filled with meaning. And, as I sing each of them as an act of worship, I'm falling in love with every song. It wasn't that I'm not supposed to love these songs...it's that I'm supposed to love them on God's timing, and as He reveals himself to me on His schedule, I will love each song...because God's follow through is never late :)