"An act of kindness restores the soul"

We've been meeting with a small group on South 9th Street in Modesto for almost a year now.  We started out at Shiva's motel which burned down and we moved on to the 9th Street doughnut shop for the last little bit.  We have gone through the gospel of John and now are making our way through St. Paul's letter to the Romans.

The last few weeks, we have found the doughnut shop to be closed, so in true 9th Street Cafe style, we just pulled chairs out of the van and met right on the street.  Here lately we've been piling everyone in the van and taking them up to Wendy's for a frosty.

A few weeks ago we looked at Romans 10 and saw Paul's devotion to his people.  How he ached for his countrymen to come to know Jesus.  So much so that he admits he was willing to be left out in order to see them come in.  So the question was, there on the doorstep of the doughnut shop, how might you be able to bring good news to the people around you today?  And the sidewalk congregation gave some great answers...

• Love
• Show up
• Don't try to do something great, do simple acts of kindness
• Serve

"An act of kindness restores the soul" - Ron

Let's show up to love and serve today.

Fire at Shiva's Motel

 Wednesday night there was a fire at Shiva's Motel on South 9th Street. This is the place where we have been trying to connect with people in one way or another for 8 or more years. 7 people lost the very little that they own including our friends James and Cheryl. Everyone is ok but they have lost clothes and all their personal belongings. There is a mother and a 3 year old girl. And a few others that I do not know personally.


 When we arrived Thursday afternoon to have our weekly Bible study at the Shiva, the team we partner with from Christian Challenge had been there a while already. And local ministries were already engaged. A congregation committed to bring dinner down for the motel residents and our friends were rushing off to the store to buy some sandwich fixins so folks could have a lunch.


 
We carried on with the Bible study and were able to join in prayer with the community





 The local Gospel Mission stepped up to provide some clothes for the people who have lost their things in the fire. It was great to watch people, motivated by compassion, respond in love to an emergency. 


Good things can happen when we work together.