Beauty in ministry.

Work has demanded my weekend time for the past few weeks. Even though I've had to give up Saturday morning hockey with the cousins, the work has been good. With deadlines coming up in about a month and a half, I have to finish three videos, so I've been going from location to location grabbing footage to use.

The most compelling place I've gone to so far is San Francisco's CityTeam where they do ministry work in the low-income hotels along 6th Street. These hotels consist of low-lit hallways and thin walls. One-person bathrooms are shared by all, and the showers don't have locking doors. The room is just big enough for a bed, a table, and a chair, and most are only lit with the resident's television. What got me the most was the smell - a mixture of body odor, rotten wood, and urine. I've encountered similar smells before down an abandoned alley or an unkept public bathroom; such odors should never linger where someone sleeps.

I walked with volunteers through these hallways listening to them offer food and prayer. The group that day were regulars who knew the people living in these rooms, and it was encouraging to see people of wealth build relationships with those who can barely afford a lamp to light their room. These volunteers are truly acting from their hearts as they hand these people groceries. The volunteers come as messengers of Christ, praying with these people and lifting them up. They come, in all their success, to offer a Life in that they can only hope to fully succeed. They come, in spite of all they own, to tell them of a Home even they long for with every part of their being.

Lord, take us home!