who?

I dutifully walked to the apartments this morning. Rubbish lay strewn about the parking lot and sidewalks. Satellite dishes– four in all which feed their signals into an army of ubiquitous flat screen tv in most of the apartments– betrayed the appearance of wealth. No small irony in a section 8 (government subsidized) low income apartment complex. It was 9:30 am, my customary time to check in on specific homes to see if children wanted to come to church. Only one person responded by opening the door. Her son was still in bed.

So I struck out this time. And it should be no surprise. What motive is there to wake that early on a Sunday? Sometimes they will rise up and attend. But mostly they do not. Not when the decision is up to the children, and they often must take initiative to dress and feed themselves since their parents typically are still asleep.

Although we will continue making the attempt as we have promised specific families in the apartments, I know that we cannot rely solely on such an effort to reach them with the gospel. The gospel needs to be embodied among them through the lives of believers who speak their languages and do life with them. But who will go? Who will the Lord send?