White people go to Jacksonville

Yep I'm that blogger that comes home from a mission trip and talks about how awesome it was and how it changed my life and stuff. So get over it. 7 of us manchester creekers went on down to Jacksonville Florida and helped out with 2nd Mile Ministries. They're an urban ministry serving in the worst neighborhood in the city. Actually the neighborhood that we stayed and served in has the highest murder rate in Florida and it's the worst school district in the nation (based on test scores). Most of the groups that come down to help out are in the minority in the neighborhood and people usually ask, "Where did you get all these nice white people?" I felt like that was the same reaction for our group as well. A lot of the community folks walking past us as we did our street projects would stop and ask which group we were with and would thank us for doing the work which I thought was really cool. I've done urban ministry before, and usually the thing that tugs at my heart is the reality of how much "stuff" I've got compared to someone else. It's good to be thankful for my stuff and my family and friends and my living situation, but this time that fact really didn't stick out. What got at me was the parable in Matthew 25 when Jesus teaches that what we do for his people is really what we do for him. What I've learned about parables is that He cares more about our hearts than anything else. I don't expect to change the world or expect to see complete justice for the poor or oppressed people in this world, but I can and should have a heart for the poor and oppressed and care about injustice because God does and He hasn't forgotten about them. He hung out with those people when He was here. The people that don't have it all together, the people who don't have anything at all really. When you go into the urban areas, you want to change their situations and fix all the problems. I would've loved to have gone down to Florida and seen some lives changed but it didn't happen. But I think that we all saw that Jesus wants our hearts to form more to His and care for the things he cares for. So that's a good week indeed.