Chris has been a regular each Tuesday night since Paul started his ministry in 2003. He comes each week to hear God’s Word and volunteer to serve tea and/or clean up after the hot meal is served. Last Tuesday night I started talking to Chris and asked him about his background. He told me he was from Pascagoula, Mississippi. As a young boy his mother influenced him to accept Christ when he was 12 years old. But he told me that he later fell away and led a life of sin until he rededicated his life to the Lord when he was 24 years old. Every since that day, he has continued to follow Christ by reading the Word, participating in various ministries, attending church, and encouraging his neighbors to come downtown on Tuesday nights.After taking to Chris, I couldn’t help to think about Paul’s message tonight. He continued with our study of Romans in the twelfth chapter where it describes what is necessary for us to become part of the body of Christ. Paul mentioned that when we come to Christ that we must “subject ourselves” to change. If we don’t, we tend to stray away from the Christian walk. Just like Chris and many others, we dedicate our lives but do not change because we continue to associate ourselves with the same group of people and go the same places. Paul talked about his life after accepting Christ. He separated himself from certain individuals that he had previously associated with. He joined a church and immediately immersed himself in the children’s ministry. He became one of those members of the body discussed in Romans 12:4-8. He served and allowed God to develop his talents which prepared him for the ministry in downtown Greenville. This process is called sanctification. In order for God to do this work in our lives, we must be willing to yield to His direction and serve, so that God will then develop our talents for His glory.
Also, there were many who talked about the article in the newspaper about Paul’s catering business. The interesting part of the article highlighted the Tuesday night ministry and one of our long-time homeless/volunteers named Eric. Eric has been a key to this ministry in reaching the homeless and I think he was delighted to receive some notoriety. Many said that Eric was “riding on Paul’s coattails”. We all had a good laugh. Here is the link to the article that was in the Greeville News.
At the end of the night, we all pitched in to clean-up after serving 80 meals with the help of 18 volunteers. During this time I could see many volunteers praying with our friends and other volunteers were helping pass out much needed jackets on a cool night. We are grateful for all of our volunteers who serve tirelessly without desiring any recognition. Their reward is seeing positive change in the lives of our friends in downtown Greenville. They are truly allowing God to develop their talents for His glory.
~Marc
