Listening to Our Neighbors

by Rev Eric Folkerth

All week I’ve been thinking about Sarah. Sarah is not her real name, I’m changing it here to protect her identity.

Sarah is one of the houseless neighbors that Andrew McGregor and I helped off the streets, on Sunday afternoon, and into the shelter at Oak Lawn UMC this week. When we first met her, she almost leapt inside the van, so eager was she to go with us. She was extremely talkative, and the very first thing she told us was,

“I’ve just been praying that someone would come along and help us.”

What moved me about this, of course, is that we’d just finish our own worship service, we WE prayed for HER…and for all of our houseless neighbors in Oak Cliff. It suddenly felt like a beautiful confluence of answered prayers.

But Sarah’s greatest, and most humbling gift, was what she then did for Andrew and I over the course of the next few hours. While the Dallas Cowboys were being drubbed by Green Bay, Sarah guided us all over Oak Cliff, showing us perhaps six or seven NEW “encampments” of homeless folks we were unaware of.

This was a humbling moment, of course. After for years of doing the work, we had begun to think we knew everywhere to look. Turns out, we had just scratched the surface.

Everywhere we went, Sarah encouraged her many friends to come with us, so that they could find shelter and a warm bed. Many of them took her up on it. Some did not. (I later rechecked some who turned us down, only to find they had sought other shelter, or found a hotel for the night….)

She talked in rapid-fire about prayer, God, homelessness, her family, and probably told us more information about her friends than she should have. (We hold these confidences as sacred…)

But what strikes me most now is: It was very important to listen to her. To put aside our own preconceptions that we knew what we were doing, and instead let her teach us.

This is the heart of servant ministry.

I want to thank all those who helps in so many ways this week. Our twelve volunteers who served the meal Monday night at OLUMC. They all had beautiful servant hearts, and we were able to re-connected with the folks we’d literally brought in from the streets on Sunday.

Oscar Brown witnessed an incredible event…where a houseless person was able to connect with his Mother, and agreed to “come home;” a literal retelling of the “Prodigal Son” story.

Then, late in the week, several of our members have been washing up blankets and sheets, performing yet another servant ministry for our houseless neighbors.

Thanks be to God for all our volunteers, for our friends at OLUMC, and all the partners in this ministry.

This Sunday’s Gospel is about Jesus’ call of his disciples. It’s interesting to note how the Gospel accounts have Jesus LISTENING to his Disciples…understanding their lives as fisherfolk and tax collectors.

It is when he listens to them, that they respond.

And so, we’ll continue to listen to all those in our mission field…our members and visitors, our neighbors, our Wednesday Night Live parents and children, our own new infant parents….

And….even our houseless neighbors.

Sometimes, we see that even they have a calling that we need to help fulfill…as we are in ministry with, not to, our friends in North Oak Cliff.

See you Sunday.