Part 4: And who, now, will lead them?

Part 2: A call to serve, and to lead

Part 3: A crisis year, a Christmas comeback

My friends at Ma Siss’s Place and Quincy Street Missional Church were featured on the front page of the Boston Globe this morning.

This first in four part series will continue the next three days (I will post a link each day) and features many pictures and some other multimedia.

“From a Dorchester Chop Shop, to a Place to Pray”

A few months before coming to the Urban Prayer Breakfast, Momma had been on her deathbed.  She made a request from God that she not die with the anger she had in her heart.  You see, years ago, Momma’s husband had become a homeless adict.  God answered her request.  He gave her a reprive from death and sent her to lovingly cook breakfast for over hundred people every morning.  She described how he’d sent her to look into the eyes of dozens of homeless men each morning, see her husband, and choose to love and serve them anyway.  It was a daily discipline that wicked away the anger that had consumed her heart.  I love and miss Momma Charlotte so much.  Her cancer came back and she disappeared, literally without a trace.  Part of me thinks she is literally an angel.

Brother Maclean came to be chef after Momma’s departure.  Actually, he’d been the chef before Momma, but had been sick with cancer and had had a heart attack and had to spend some time recovering.  I am his adopted son and I love him so dearly.  He has taught me so much.  God wakes him up early every morning, and I mean early, usually around 4AM.  He fills the strength move out through his 76-year-old body, strength he needs each day to do the work Father has given him.

During the time Momma was there, so was Ray.  For months I just thought Ray was another volunteer.  One day I found out that he was homeless.  Ray was an incredible joy to work with in the kitchen, constantly cracking jokes and truly loving on everyone there.  After several months of workin alongside Ray, he found out he had colon cancer.  They successfully removed it, but within a month an infection had setup and he died.

One day I was driving away from the Breakfast when I saw Momma Smith, a woman in her late 80s who lived in the neighborhood and would often play the piano for us after she ate, pushing her cart along the sidewalk as was her custom.  I asked her where she was going and if I could give her a ride.  She said in a barely comprehensible voice that she was only going a few more feet to the bus stop where she was going to study the scriptures until it was time for the noon bible study at a nearby church building.  She then began to speak of a specific passage of scripture and how it applied to me that day.  From then on, I would seek to sneak a moment talking with Momma.  Only able to understand every few words, I would labor to understand what she had to teach me that day.  A few months ago, quite to her dismay, Momma went to an assisted living facility.

I haven’t seen Sister Lyles for a few months, but she is a woman who seeks after God with incredible, quiet, humility.  She’s an older woman who always wore a big red fleece sweetshirt, that is except for the couple of months she wore sack-cloth near the time I first came to the breakfast–I assume she was mourning, but I regret never asking her why.  Woman are served first at the Urban Prayer Breakfast, however Sister Lyles would often go at the very last, after all the men.  Like the widow, every morning she would bring her offering–a few coins, sometimes a dollar bill–but it constituted much, if not all of what she had.  What a testimony! 

One time I was at Union Station for a meeting and I saw Sister Lyles outside.  I stopped and we spoke for a little while.  At one point during the conversation God told me to give her the money in my wallet.  I grabbed the 20 dollar bill and gave it to her.  “Oh no.” She responded.  “I can’t take that… that much money is dangerous.”  Jesus had a lot to say about money and it was pretty much never good.  Money is dangerous.  So often I go through life with little thought to the 20 dollars I spend here and there.  What an important reminder from Sister Lyles!

My time at the Urban Prayer Breakfast has been an incredible blessing and I am so thankful God put me there.  What a blessing!

Download | Link

Artist: Speaking of Faith

Duration: Appx 58 min

Created: Thu, 10 May 2007

Category: Speech

Subject: Shane Claiborne

Interviewer: Krista Tippett

NPR’s show Speaking of Faith this week explores New Monasticism in an interview with Shane Claiborne.

Theirs Is the Kingdom: Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Robert D. Lupton

Year: 1989

Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco

ISBN: 0060653078

Robert Lupton artfully relates a variety of stories from his experiences in urban ministry. The short chapters make this book perfect for devotions.

Kingdom Works: True Stories About God and His People in Inner City America

Rating: 4 out of 5

Author: Bart Campolo

Year: 2001

Publisher: Vine Books

ISBN: 1569551952

Kingdom Works provides a wonderful group of devotions on urban ministry by one of mission year’s founders, Bart Campolo.

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Shane Claiborne

Year: 2006

Publisher: Zondervan

ISBN: 0310266300

As I have traveled the country talking with fellow 20-somethings, it has been clear that God is speaking to us in a united voice, however it has been difficult to find the words that correspond with this calling. Shane Claiborne artfully articulates what so many in our generation are hearing. A theologian who truly lives out the Call, he challenges the Church with exceptional love and truth.

The only negative is that in chapter 11, I felt he crossed the line from solidarity with the poor and oppressed to political action. At any rate, it’s a difficult path to navigate and Claiborne does it exceptionally (both in his writing and life)!

I have given away over 150 copies. A must read!

Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Mike Yankoski

Year: 2005

Publisher: Multnomah

ISBN: 1590524020

This is a great chronicle of a student who felt called to spend 5 months on the street as a homeless man. Wow!

Remember Me, Rescue Me

Author: Matt Roper

Year: 2004

Publisher: Gabriel Resources

ISBN: 1850784795

Street Girls: Hope on the Streets of Brazil

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Matt Roper

Year: 2004

Publisher: Authentic Media

ISBN: 1850785961