Through the Lens - 86:12 : 06/25/13

Hello everyone! Not surprisingly, our first day of sites was full of incredible stories of how the Lord works through us! Candace and I were able to catch up with a few of our family groups and I had the pleasure of getting to hear stories from the day. Here were the ones I got to listen to!

The McCord/Sims (McSims, if you will) family group got to do what's called the Hunger Van--which is a van that pulls up into an area where there is a large homeless population and hands out lunches. About two years ago, funding for soup kitchens began to be decreased, so a local food bank set up a lunch van. I was able to hear Hollis Roger's account of the day. After his family group made the lunches and arrived at the site, some of the students walked around and talked to some of the people eating. Hollis had a really great conversation with a guy and as he was leaving, he realized he didn't even ask the man's name. God has a funny sense of humor, because the man's name was also Hollis. I love how the Lord can give encouragement through something as simple as sharing a name.

Two family groups, the Blankenship/Szalkowski (Blankowski) and Gosser/Walker (Wosser?!), went to the Armed Forces Retirement Home for the day and did everything from bowling to gardening! One of the men there talked to some of our leaders and I think his quote portrays how 86:12 is striving to care for God's children. Bob, a retired US Air Force serviceman, said "Your group made my day. Sometimes we get in such a rut for our routine that we think our head will explode, but these girls really made it a fun day. They made my day. Thank you for thinking about us."

The Hazelrigg/Rutledge (Hazelrut) group went to Central Union Mission, passing out meals to the homeless. Some of the students' leaders made the observation during a prayer that they [the leaders] were mainly there for supervision because the students did it all. This became very clear when the 86:12ers circled up and prayed with the homeless--even a passing traffic policemen stopped to pray with them. The prayer was a mixture of DC homeless, Dallas students, and one local policeman. The officer said later that he was glad he came to work that day and asked if our group would be coming back. Joyfully, our students could reassure him that he would not see the last of 86:12 that day. How cool is it that God trusts us with his work so much that we can proclaim his name to local people with so much authority?

The last group I was able to catch up with was the Lookabaugh/Rutledge group (Lookarut). They went to Wider Circle, which is basically DC's version of an all-year Christmas Store (for all you VRBC people). They give out furniture to families who can't afford to furnish their homes. I got two cool stories from this group. The first was that a group of boys had JUST finished making a bed when an elderly woman came in, saw the newly finished bed, and laid on it. She said that our students had "no idea how much her body ached, but that you won't know how much this will bless me". The second was one of our younger girls, Alli Feille, had a sweet conversation with an 8-year-old girl named Ashtrid. Ashtrid confessed to having a rough home life, but also said that she talks to God a lot about her worries. Alli said it was encouraging to see how sweet the faith of a child was, despite her circumstances.

When the group reconvened for meeting tonight, they were able to kick back and watching some of their friends tell embarrassing stories about each other in the infamous Sibling Rivalry--the Slovers, Parsleys, Armes, and Walkers. The Slover siblings came out victorious this year.

It was a fantastic Monday, which isn't often said. The overarching theme that I've begun to see is how the Lord is revealing why we're in Washington DC to begin with and how it is a city hungry for a Savior. I know that our group of 240 isn't going to rescue the city, but we represent a God who can. And our goal is to serve the Lord by serving his children. As it is written in Matthew 25, Jesus says "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Note From Photographer: These pictures below were from the Blankenship/Szalkowski Group