i'm 16 years old, and ive been on the streets for 6 months. My mom and i got into a fight last December; so I left. She wouldn't pay my school fees...well, she can't. She uses all of her money on alcohol! I'm not from Joburg; I live a couple of hours away….well... i use to. i heard there was money and jobs in Jo'burg, but it hasn't turned out how i thought it would be. i'm all alone; my older brother knows where i am, but i don’t have any contact with my mom. See, i go to different shelters or churches to get food during the days and at nights i sleep in the park or wherever i can find a place. There are these two restaurant owners who are nice to me and a couple of the others; they always give us food if we go in and tell them we are hungry. This is my reality as i wake up each morning to people walking by me on their way to work, each afternoon as my stomach begins to ache from hunger, and each night as i look for a place in the park to sleep ….i'm not just a body under a blanket by the bridge...my name is Lawrence.I have had the opportunity several Wednesday nights to take part in a homeless ministry in downtown Johannesburg. We met Lawrence during our last stop of handing out soup and bread last night. He looked so young and scared; hopeless. He needs HIS love. ....and Lawrence is only ONE....there are sooo many more like him.
When you do it for one of the least of these; you have done it unto Me (Matthew 25:45). Our world would be a different place if Christians began putting action to the faith they claim to have. Don't we have Jesus??? ...why is it people think it is strange when a Christian wants to be out there or on that side of the ocean or on this side of the tracks no matter what the cost... Obedience shouldn't be the exception if we are Christians; it SHOULD be the norm. Wouldn't you rather live with others perplexed by your devotion, than die and have your Savior questioning it? Let's live a radically obedient, irresistibly contagious, and fervently devoted life so that the Lawrences in our world become a priceless soul, someones child (HIS child) that needs to hear about His love and not just a body under a blanket by the bridge!!
2 comments:
wow, thanks for sharing Sarah and you are right about this we need to live radically for Christ and reach out to many others like that who are alone and scared and just waiting for someone to reach out with the love of Christ to them.We need to think outside the box and not be stagnant Christians.
Thanks for giving a voice to one of the disenfranchised. We tend to forget that there are many who, for a multitude of reasons, are homeless, and perhaps hopeless. This is a problem in Canada too, especially in our larger cities. Thank the Lord for those who minister to them.
Your site caught my eye today because of the title, taken, I assume, from E. W. Blandy's hymn. But your blog made me think of another that I've discussed on my blog, Wordwise Hymns: Frank North's great hymn, "Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life." It says, in part:
Where cross the crowded ways of life,
Where sound the cries of race and clan
Above the noise of selfish strife,
We hear your voice, O Son of Man.
In haunts of wretchedness and need,
On shadowed thresholds dark with fears,
From paths where hide the lures of greed,
We catch the vision of Your tears.
From tender childhood’s helplessness,
From woman’s grief, man’s burdened toil,
From famished souls, from sorrow’s stress,
Your heart has never known recoil.
The cup of water given for You,
Still holds the freshness of Your grace;
Yet long these multitudes to view
The sweet compassion of Your face.
Thanks for sensitizing your readers to a great need. God bless.
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