I’ve been visiting our ministry in Philadelphia this week.
The part of town where we have our ministry is a neighborhood called Kensington.
I suppose it’s named after Kensington Avenue which is one of the main streets in the area.
Kensington Avenue is always in the shade because the track for the elevated train (called the El) is built over Kensington Avenue.
When I drive down Kensington Avenue I think of all the movies I’ve seen where there’s a chase scene under the elevated railroad track.
A lot of movies have been filmed in the area.
Just a few months ago one of our staff saw Sylvester Stallone on Kensington Avenue filming Rocky VI. The first time I was in Kensington I was standing on Susquehanna Avenue looking down the street at all the row houses and I fully expected to see Rocky running toward me.
For me, spending time in Kensington is hard on the soul.
The area is given over to drugs, prostitution, crime, urban blight, the whole package.
As a matter of fact two of our staff were held up at gunpoint three days before I arrived.
Many times when someone is robbed at gunpoint in Kensington they are killed.
Praise the Lord, He protected them.
As I spend time in Kensington and see the ministry we’re doing I’m overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness.
The problems are so big.
The people are in such bondage that they don’t even realize their enslavement.
I find myself questioning my, or anyone’s, ability to break the bonds that the enemy has shackled the people with.
Where do we start?
What do we say?
How do we minister?
It’s not a crisis of faith, but it is overwhelming.
Kensington is behind enemy lines and the enemy is firmly in control.
I watched a group of four boys yesterday.
They were standing on a street corner.
One looked like he was in high school, two looked about junior high age, and the last was about 8 years old.
It was apparent that the youngest was kind of tagging along, and that the older boys didn’t have any use for him.
As I watched, the three older boys went off down the street and the youngest one stayed on the street corner.
I was struck by the fact that an 8 year old would be allowed to be out on those streets without any adult around.
It broke my heart to think about the life that child leads, the lack of love and concern he experiences on a daily basis.
I have an 8 year old son, Trent.
I can’t bear the thought of Trent being in a situation in which the concern for his well-being was so absent that he would be permitted to walk the streets of Kensington alone.
If this boy is out on Kensington Avenue alone, what other basic human needs for love, compassion, concern, tenderness, and sympathy is he going without?
The fact that he’s left to his own devices in a place like Kensington is only a symptom of deep root cause issues.
Absent fathers, tired mothers past the point of caring, drugs, alcohol, poverty, rape, murder, on and on.
Hopeless.
I know the truth of scripture.
I know that Christ in us allows us to be overcomers.
I know that we are in Christ and all authority has been given to Christ.
I know because of the finished work of Christ we can storm the gates of hell.
I know that God doesn’t expect us to fix the problems in Kensington on our own.
I believe these things, in fact, I’ve attempted to order my life in response to the reality of them. So why do I feel that the situation is so hopeless?
I think it may have something to do with coming to understand the difference between doing and being.
Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Martha was preparing the meal and attending to numerous tasks.
Martha was frustrated that Mary wasn’t helping.
Jesus gently rebuked Martha telling her that Mary had chosen the better thing.
What was the better thing?
Being at the feet of Jesus.
What is being?
I think it can mean a lot of things.
It means placing our relationship with God ahead of our duty in ministry.
We can do many things, but if they’re not the things God wants us to do we’ll not bear fruit.
Our God is a God of redemption and I believe that God has a plan to redeem Kensington.
Our staff there certainly believes it or they wouldn’t be giving their lives to it.
How do we appropriate God’s power to redeem Kensington?
By being at His feet.
By being in Him.
By listening for His voice and giving ourselves to the specific things He wants us to do.
By releasing ourselves from the bondage of having to be the saviors of Kensington.
By loving God and loving others.
Last night the mission trip participants that are in Kensington this week went down to a ministry we partner with to do a ministry called Coffee House.
It’s on Kensington Avenue and it’s an opportunity to minister to homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, etc.
The group had cookies and lemonade and played some music.
Mostly though, they talked with the people who stopped by and developed relationships with them.
I had a chance to talk to some of them myself and overheard a couple of other conversations.
One young man on our staff was speaking to one of the men that stopped by.
The man was sharing about his problem with terrible outbursts of rage and his desire to be free from that.
I was eavesdropping and got to hear our staff member speak the truth in love to this man.
Nothing earth-shattering happened.
No radical change, just truth and Kingdom principles being placed against the lies that rule Kensington.
Hope.
