That one person...

Each community has that one special person. Often, it’s an older gentleman that comes and visits our LAMP team around meal times, particularly in the evenings. Most of our older visitors share a story of how they ended up where they are today. Some have or are struggling with alcoholism. Others are aging and experiencing memory loss.

Nearly all of our visitors retell their stories over and over again. The members of the teams are very considerate and listen to our visitors’ stories, again and again. Without fail, the team members offer to share food or a meal and pray with their visitor, much like Braban is doing here.

 It’s hard. The team members want to help in some tangible way.  Often there is not much we can do except to pray and listen.

Several of our visitors speak about the “bad” that they have done.  Some of these people apologize for the choices they’ve made.  It’s a humbling reminder of the sinful world we live in and the consequences of our sinful decisions. I remind our visitors that we all have sinned and struggle with temptations and choices we’ve made.

I am grateful to be able to share the hope that we all have, that God loves us despite our sinfulness and forgives our sins when we ask Him.  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NIV)

I am thankful for our teams of volunteer missionaries who show compassionate love and understanding towards our visitors that share his/her life story with us.  I also appreciate all of your prayers for us in the mission field as we, in turn, offer encouragement and pray for those in need.