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What goes around...

Sometimes you help people and God uses it not only to bless them, but to bless you in ways that you never expected.

About 10 months ago, a young couple arrived in Port Colborne from New Brunswick. They had come with the expectation of a job that was waiting for them. When they arrived, there was no job. They were pregnant and due in two weeks. They now have a beautiful little girl.

At the time, no job, no family, no friends, they called Port of Grace. They had heard of us through someone they met, and as usual, not having very much money, we couldn't help them that way, but we did the next best thing, and we threw them a shower. And in an indirect way, they were blessed with most of the needs they had for the imminent arrival of their baby daughter...

After that we sort of lost touch. We would see them on a pretty regular basis around town. We'd stop and talk, but that's as far as the relationship got. That is, until last Monday.

Last week, on a wet Monday afternoon, I received a phone call. On the other end of the phone, a distraught woman said, "Ed? I don't know if you remember me? I'm ...... My husband, the baby and I are stuck. We have nowhere to spend the night. (There's a much more detailed story behind that - but that isn't the point of this post.) Anyway, after running out of options, Vania and I decided to take them in for a few days, while they got established and got a place.

Needless to say that has led to many conversations...

Here's the point of the post. Crazy ways in which we've been blessed due to this contact...

A few days later after they moved in, "he" asked me if there was a back door to the church. I told him yes. And then he told me that someone he knows in town had told him about a plan to break into the church through the back door. To which he responded, "you do that, and I'll turn you in myself! That church helped us when we arrived here in town and had nothing." Needless to say that was the end of that friendship, but there's a good chance we avoided a break in as a church.

Yesterday, they went to visit a friend. (you need to understand, some of their friends, or their friend's friends, are not the best connections to have, but still...) While they were there someone who knows our drug dealing neighbours across the street were asking them if they were staying with the pastor's family. And then, proceeded to tell them that we had worked with the police to do a "sting" operation on the drug house. Something we never did. Anyway, they defended us, and said there was no way we would do that, and that if they were willing to come to our house and talk to us for a few minutes they'd change their minds about us. Not sure what or if that will open any doors for us in the future.

Just in case you're wondering. It's taken a few years of trying to figure out, how do you pray when your neighbours do drugs and sell drugs and work against the very thigns you're trying to do in your community. In the end praying that they will leave is not the answer, because they'll just do it somewhere else. Praying that you will leave isn't the answer either for obvious reasons. The only answer we can think of, is that God will change their hearts. And that if He wants to, he will use us in that process. Ok, that was a tangent.

Anyway, the interesting part of all this, is that a little kindness has led to something interesting, I'm not sure what all it could lead to in the long run, only God knows that.

Once again, we're reminded, do your part and let God worry about and deal with the details.

Don't get me wrong. This hasn't been "easy." And this was the first time we've opened our doors like this in the three years we've been here. But in the end we know it was the right thing to do. They move out this afternoon.

Posted by ed