The day of Jubilee

Last week, almost quite randomly, the Hope Center saw about 60 people blessed simply and practically.  Let me set this up for you.

Each week we have about 60 people come in to get groceries for about 100 people (for mothers, themselves, and family members mostly).  We usually have a bag of rice, beans or spaghetti then about 4-5 other cans of “sides.”   Lately we’ve received a lot of random donations that don’t fit into our normal commodity hand outs.  We’ve received everything from canes and crutches to fabric softener and place mats.  We were planning on having a huge Block Party with a Health Fair to celebrate our 1 year anniversary in St. Martinville so we needed to clear out some room.  At about 4 pm we decided to put these random items on various tables.  Food was on a few tables, shampoos and hygiene products on another and so forth.  We had about 10 tables FILLED when we started.  It was like setting up for a yard sale, except we were holding it at 5 pm instead of 5 am, and everything was free instead of mostly free.

At 5pm, as usual, we start the food pantry.  People walk into our foyer, sign in, then go through the small door to the back room to receive prayer and food.  The looks on their faces when they saw the vault of treasure was priceless.  Almost everyone said “Who dat fer?”  With excitement we exclaimed “For YOU!”  Their eyes lit up.  

The first person to come through, “Foot” they call him, because he has a regular foot and a club foot, always always always asks for things beyond what we can give.   “I can have the sofa? That Picture? That 1 gallon jar of Jalapenos?”  He was one I was kind of worried about.  We wanted everyone to be able to have an equal shot at some of the goods and Foot is definitely one to take as much as he wants for his times of need later in the year.  However, he came up to me afterwards, with his bag of food and his bag of goods and said “Pastor Tim, I only got one of everything.  See ya gotta leave for the others who need it.”

This may not seem like a giant revelation or a major win in most people’s books, but that is CHANGE.  The community is changing, and Christ is doing it.  On Saturday we had our block party.  We had free red beans and rice (soo good), fun jumps and jousts, and free pregnancy and HIV tests.  The first person to show up, was Foot…and he brought his friends.  It’s touching, and really almost brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.  The joy that comes from seeing a seed start to grow is minuscule in real life compared to seeing the fallow ground begin to finally and with justice have seed.

In Proverbs 13:23 says “The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.”   Fallow ground is ground that is plowed and worked but there is no seed sown.  It is an injustice, scripture tells us, that there is no seed for the poor.

I also have seen a difference in scripture between the poor and those who have poverty come upon them.  The poor seem to be the ones that are a victim of injustice and circumstances, where as those who are in poverty are victims of their own consequences.

Regardless, Thursday was a day where debts were alleviated and equality was grasped, maybe if only for a brief moment, in a time of jubilee.

 

                          Foot and Me