Good morning and happy Saturday. It was a great week in the life of our church. Beginning with Sunday morning and continuing throughout the week, we had the opportunity to impact a lot of lives through our church. Worship services, various discipleship offerings, basketball outreach, Harvester’s food distribution at Shawanoe Elementary, visitation and outreach, and personal interactions – the people of CIC are committed to making a difference for the cause of Christ. What an incredible blessing you are!
On Friday evening, I took advantage of the nice weather and went for a long walk. As I walked through a business park near our apartments I crossed over some railroad tracks. As I did I recalled an incident that took place in Mexico. On one of our mission trips to Empalme, Mexico, we were crossing over some tracks on our way to the church. As we did, we noticed a man in a wheelchair approach the tracks about a half block from the crossing. Amazingly, as we watched, he climbed out of his wheelchair and made his way to the tracks. Shockingly, he then laid he head down on the rails. Our timing was perfect to see all of this as we slowly drove through the intersection. My first thought was that someone needed to do something. Immediately, I realized that someone included those of us in the van. I pulled over and several of us piled out. We ran toward the man yelling in both English and Spanish. In the distance, a train was coming that way. Even though it was moving slow it made the whole thing seem like a scene out of a movie. A man with no legs wanting to kill himself. Three gringos yelling at him to stop. A train rolling down the tracks, getting closer and louder. The man rejecting our offer to help crawled out into the middle of the tracks. Even though Doug, Todd and I had not developed a plan, we were thinking the same thing. If he didn’t get off the tracks, we were going to grab him just before the train got there and pull him to safety. Fortunately, a police truck showed up at that point. As soon as they hit their siren and the man saw their automatic weapons, he crawled back to his wheelchair. As we stood there watching this transpire, the train rumbled by blowing its horn and causing the ground to shake. It was an incredibly surreal experience. Looking back, I am thankful that it turned out as it did. No one ended up getting hurt and we were tested to see if we would help someone in need.
As I thought about this, it is evident that there are a lot of people in need around us. There are people that want to hurt themselves. There are people in need of material things like food, clothing and shelter. Some people are desperately lonely and need someone to talk to. A lot of people just want to know that someone cares about them. There are people that need help with things like understanding English, moving some furniture, finding low cost resources, etc. Furthermore, there are countless numbers of people that need help understanding God’s Word. Many need help understanding the love of God and the simple Gospel message. This list could go on an on. The bottom line is that there are many people that need help in a wide variety of ways. The question is are we willing to help? Don’t just be the one to think someone ought to help them. Be that someone.
May God bless you as you serve Him in a multitude of ways.
You are loved,
Pastor Larry
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