The Heart of a Child
Bread of Life Cafe is the best ministry our church sponsors. Every Wednesday night we feed anyone who wishes to join us. We get people who are clearly homeless and we get those who eat at Olive Garden and similar restaurants other nights of the week. Some weeks we feed more than attend our worship time on Sunday mornings, sometimes fewer.
We hope we draw people with more than delicious food. We also offer friendship, conversation, and a devotional time of singing, prayer, and spiritual thoughts. The prayer requests deal with needs for jobs, hopes that someone will return safely, health issues, and those who are grieving.
Before the adult part of the devotional, Steve (my husband and the pulpit minister there at the Central Church) calls all the children together and they sing a few songs and learn Bible verses and Bible facts. This time and the prayer request time are my favorite parts of the evening.
Recently, a child we didn’t know approached Steve as we were cleaning up afterward and offered him a page from a notebook. You can see it here. She said, “Would you give this to God?”
Oh, for the heart of a child! A heart that believes that righteous adults can pass messages on to God for us. A heart that can offer the simple message “I love God and Jesus” and know the message will be received. A heart that trusts completely, without hesitation. A heart that is brave to approach a relative stranger and give him a message for God.
This week I hope I can be more like Hanna. But rather than sending a message to God, I want to share God’s message with someone here below–someone who needs to know the love of God and salvation through Jesus Christ. I want my child-like spirit to touch others as Hanna touched us.
[...] At that moment her boyfriend Chris came out and we shook hands with him, saying that we missed him, too. Chris and Marcia had visited church a couple of Sunday mornings and Marcia comes occasionally to our free Wednesday meals, the Bread of Life Café.. [...]